Download JM NOTES 2 - Christian Messages

NOTES ON THE EPISTLE
TO THE PHILIPPIANS
Phil1v1
Paul does not here describe himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus,
as in 2 Corinthians 1.1, where he links Timothy with himself in
addressing the Corinthians.
In both epistles to the Corinthians he
has to defend his claim to being an apostle (1 Corinthians 9.1,2; 2
Corinthians 11.1-33).
Here in Philippians he describes himself and
Timothy as bondservants or slaves, bought slaves (1 Corinthians 6.
20).
"To all the saints," saints are "holy ones," such as are
"sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints" (1 Corinthians 1.2),
that is, saints by effectual calling, they having responded to the
call in the gospel.
"God chose you from the beginning unto
salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
whereunto He called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2.13,14).
Though
all believers in Christ are saints, not all, alas, are saintly in
their behaviour.
Bishops: a bishop (Episkopos) means an overseer or guardian, "a
superintendent in the apostolic age and equal to Presbuteros (an
elder) in the New Testament."
It conveys the thought of one who
watches over others.
Deacons: a deacon (Diakonos) is a servant or waiting man.
The
bishop or overseer is one who is responsible to rule over and care
for God's saints and His work; the deacon or minister is one whose
business is to be engaged in the Lord's work in the ministry of His
word and to attend faithfully thereon, and thereby to gain "a good
standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus"
(1 Timothy 3.13).
Overseers and deacons are saints, but not all
saints are deacons, and not all deacons are overseers.
See 1
Timothy 3.1-13; Titus 1.5-9.
Phil1v2
Paul's salutation to the Romans and the Corinthians is similar to
this here.
Peace was the salutation of the Hebrews of the Old
Testament and grace is the salutation of the New.
Phil1v3,4
To Paul the memory of God's work in the saints in Philippi was ever
sweet.
Deep appreciation of God's grace to them filled his heart
with thanksgiving as he made his supplication on their behalf "making my supplication with joy," he said.
It may not be that we
can say this about all for whom we pray, that we make our
supplication with joy.
Phil1v5
Paul writes of "all my remembrance of you," as he thinks of the
course they had followed, which no other church had, for only they
ministered to his needs in Thessalonica; when he departed from
Macedonia, they ministered to him (Philippians 4.15,16).
He could
not forget these tokens of their love and fellowship.
How unlike
they were to the gifted and selfish Corinthians!
(2 Corinthians 11.
7-10; 1 Corinthians 1.4-7).
Sad it is when gift and greed meet in
the same person; the latter destroys the lustre of the former.
Phil1v6
The good work in the Philippians started with Lydia and the jailor
from the time that God's grace reached their hearts.
Both took
Paul into their houses and cared for him.
Lydia said: "If ye have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide
there."
And the jailor washed Paul's stripes and brought him up to
his house and set meat before him.
It is poor Christianity that
says to the needy, "Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet
ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it
profit?" (James 2.16).
The actions of the Philippians from the
first were far otherwise than this.
Many years had passed from
those early days and they were still maintaining the same good works
toward the apostle, and Paul was confident that this would
continue.
Paul wrote in such wise as believing that the Lord's
coming would take place while he and the saints were yet alive, but
we know that they have been at rest for long centuries and the Lord
has not come yet, but we hope for His coming while we are alive.
"The sky, not the grave, is our goal."
Phil1v7
Paul had the saints in his heart as a fond parent, and it was right
for him to wish that God's good work in them would be perfected
until the Lord's coming.
Paul joins bonds with the defence and
confirmation of the gospel in his account of his many sufferings for
Christ's and the gospel's sake; in 2 Corinthians 11.16-33, he
speaks of "in prisons more abundantly."
Such was the cost to the
gospel preachers in the days of the apostles, and of this the Lord
forewarned them.
In the present we live in a time of freedom
from violent persecution, bought for us by the blood of martyrs of
former days, but days of violent persecution will come again.
That
splendid declaration of the apostle Paul makes us all feel very
small: "The Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But I hold not my life of any
account, as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course,
and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify
the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20.23,24).
The Philippians
were partakers of grace which ever has supported the suffering
witnesses of Christ.
Phil1v8
The tender mercies or bowels of Christ Jesus tell of the most
intense tenderness, such as a mother's love for her babe; it
reveals a yearning and longing that cannot be measured.
Only God
could see down into the inner, secret parts of Paul's being, and bear
witness to the reality of what he says.
Phil1v9,10
The word here for love (Agape), we are told, "expresses a more
reasoning attachment (than Philein, to love), of choice and
selection ... from a seeing in the object upon whom it is bestowed
that which is worthy of regard" (Trench).
Here love is to abound
"in knowledge and all discernment," not simply to love (Philein)
instinctively, with a love arising from feelings or natural
affection.
The consequence of love (Agape) working in knowledge
and discernment is that the saint may prove the things that differ
(see Romans 2.18), so that points of difference in divine things may
be proved and approved.
In the study of the word of God there is
too much lumping of things together on the part of the ignorant,
with the result that there is failure to see the excellence there is
in the things wherein God has made a difference.
Hence so many
wander about in ways displeasing to the Lord and do so, ignorant of
the will of God.
Phil1v10,11
Here we have the result of love abounding in knowledge and
discernment, that we may be sincere, which means, in the Greek, to
be examined in the sun's light and found to be genuine, unmixed and
pure; and void of offence, not stumbling or turning aside from the
path of obedience and virtue unto the day of Christ; that is, the
day of His coming for the saints of this dispensation, when they
will appear before the judgement-seat of Christ to receive the
things done through the body, whether they be good or bad (2
Corinthians 5.9,10).
The day of Christ should be distinguished
from the day of the Lord, which commences with the Lord's return to
earth in judgement, for the punishment of the wicked and the
deliverance of His suffering people.
It is more than a thousand
years in extent.
Note the words of 2 Peter 3.10: "The day of the
Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise," and so forth.
This is at the time of the
judgement of the Great White Throne.
See Revelation 20.11,12.
How pleasant it
with the fruits
fruit is to the
being the fruit
is to contemplate enlightened saints being filled
(Greek, fruit, R.V.M.) of righteousness!
Such
glory of God and to His praise through Jesus Christ,
of His Spirit (Galatians 5.22,23), and the fruit of
the light (Ephesians 5.9).
The righteousness we have in Christ
through faith is not the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19.
8).
Phil1v12,13
The Greek word for "progress" (Prokope, Pro = before, kopto = to
strike or cut) is thought to be borrowed from the practice of armies
which cut away obstacles which impeded their progress.
In the
apostle's case what seemed to be barriers to the spread of the
gospel were turned by God as means of spreading it, for each soldier
of the Imperial guard to whom Paul was bound from day to day learned
that he was a prisoner in the Lord (Ephesians 4.1) and from him also
of the glorious message of the gospel.
He was one who was chosen
to bear the name of Christ "before the Gentiles, and kings, and the
children of Israel" (Acts 9.15), to publish the statute, "Thou art
My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," a statute which is the very
core of the gospel.
How many hardened warriors of Rome heard the
divine message of love and mercy from Paul and believed it, the day
of Christ will reveal.
That there were some we cannot doubt, for
Paul speaks of the progress of the gospel.
Phil1v14
"Brethren" defines those who are born of God.
"In the Lord" shows
their position as united together in assembly life, as being subject
to Christ as Lord.
A fearless leader engenders the same courageous
spirit in those that follow.
Paul was fearless and tireless.
He
had had visions of the Lord that dwarfed all men and earthly things
which opposed him in his course in the fulfilment of the ministry
which he had received of the Lord: even his own life was of small
account to him in this great work.
No wonder men looking on this
man with a poor afflicted body and with many weaknesses, yet fired
with a zeal that burned with increasing vehemence, caught somewhat
of the same boldness and determination to speak the word of God!
This is the powerful weapon put into men's hands, that the Holy
Spirit uses in the carrying on of the work of God, against which the
powers of darkness cannot stand.
Phil1v15,16,17
Motive and effect we do well to keep apart; they are often
confused.
This portion clearly shows that the gospel may be
preached in an envious (jealous of the good fortune of another),
factious (faction is the demon of strife) spirit, and some preachers
may even be actuated by a spirit of covetousness and greed.
Yet,
despite this, souls may be saved, for God is sovereign and may bless
His word though the preacher may not be acting in fellowship with
Him.
Jonah's message, both in the ship and in Nineveh, was most
signally blessed to the turning of the mariners to Jehovah and the
Ninevites to repentance, yet he was both a disobedient prophet and
one who was angry with the LORD Himself when He showed mercy to the
men of Nineveh, and said that he did well to be angry even unto
death.
Paul had great difficulty with the Judaizers of his time,
in Antioch and Jerusalem, in the Churches of Galatia, and no doubt
in Rome also.
Such were active in preaching Christ in a party
spirit, their object being to stir up affliction for Paul the
prisoner, the defender of the fundamental principles of the gospel,
which he set out so clearly that there was no room left for legal
works or the flesh to glory.
On the other hand, there were those
in the church of God in Rome who preached out of good will; all
honour to them!
Phil1v18
Paul's view is that of the Lord as to those who use His name and
professedly do His work.
John said, "Master, we saw one casting
out devils (demons) in Thy name; and we forbade him, because he
followeth not with us.
But Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not:
for he that is not against you is for you" (Luke 9.49,50).
The name
of Jesus is all-powerful, though those who may speak it may know
little of its power, and those that preach Christ may not be walking
with Him, yet the gospel will do its work in the hearts of those who
believe.
The Lord issues no interdict against using His blessed
name.
This must not be confused with that other statement of the
Lord: "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth
not with Me scattereth."
The Lord only gathers disciples together
according to the principles of His word (Acts 2.41,42).
Alas,
there are many who set aside these divine principles and gather
according to the doctrines of men, either ancient or modern, and
such are scatterers of the Lord's sheep.
Phil1v19,20
"My salvation" cannot mean Paul's assured deliverance from prison,
though some have thought so, but rather that salvation indicated in
the words, "that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with
all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my
body, whether by life or by death."
Paul wished no such calamity
to befall him as befell John the Baptist, who from his prison sent
his disciples to the Lord with the words, "Art Thou He that cometh,
or look we for another?" (Matthew 11.3).
Whether he was in
"Doubting Castle," or whether some other motive caused him to act as
he did, it may be impossible to say, but who can doubt that he
needed to be saved from such a state that caused him to act as he
did?
The gloom of discouragement or doubt is as a creeping
paralysis from which we all need to be saved.
What buoyancy is in
the apostle's spirit, when he contemplates Christ being magnified in
him, whether by life or death!
The preaching and praying of saints
on the manward side, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ on
the Godward, would effect this glorious result in the apostle's life
and testimony right to the end.
Phil1v21
We have here an intriguing statement, yet it is but the summing up
of the previous verses.
It is what he puts in other words in
different places, as for instance, "God, who separated me, even from
my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son
in me, that I might preach Him" (Galatians 1.15,16).
It was not to
reveal His Son to Paul, but to reveal His Son in him. "I live;
and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2.20).
"Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus may be manifested in our body" (2 Corinthians 4.10).
The objective in Paul's life was to live Christ; the old Saul of
Tarsus was dead, and Christ was living over again on earth in the
man Paul the apostle.
What a conception!
What an expectation and
hope.
Christ magnified in the body of a man!
Of the greatest of
worldly men whose portion is in this life, it can be written, "To die
is loss", but with Paul and all such-like men, "To die is gain."
The reason is, their portion is not in this life, but in the life to
come.
Their treasure is in heaven, where thieves do not break
through and steal.
What gain it will be!
There is our
citizenship, our country and our home, our friends, our wealth, and,
above all else, the Lamb, our Saviour and our Lord.
Phil1v22,23
Paul has just placed before his readers two propositions - to live,
and to die.
What is meant here by "this is the fruit of my work,"
or "this is to me the fruit of work"?
"This" points us back to
what he has been saying with reference to the purpose of his life,
that for him to live was Christ, and that Christ should be magnified
in his body.
Between living such a life in the flesh, and
departing to be with Christ put him in a strait.
Which should he
choose?
Who can answer such a question?
No one, unless he is
assured, as Paul was, not a great while later than this, when he
wrote, "For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure
is come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4.6,7), that his time has come to
depart and to be with Christ.
We all want to live until we have
borne such fruit in our lives to God as it is His will we should,
and then to be called home is the best for us.
Those who live
Christ live fruitful and victorious lives.
Phil1v24,25
The need of the saints ever pressed itself upon Paul, and his will
was to abide with them, and he seemed confident that this was the
Lord's will for him at that time also.
It is, I think, better to
render "your progress and joy of faith," of the A.V., than "in the
faith," of the R.V.
Though the definite article is before faith
here, it is the subjective faith of the Philippians, rather than
objective faith, i.e. the faith.
The definite article is
frequently in the Greek before faith where it is subjective faith.
See Romans 10.17; 2 Corinthians 1.24; 4.13, etc.
Phil1v26
We have here the unique expression concerning the boasting of the
Philippians - "Christ Jesus in me" (Paul).
In Christ Jesus denotes
Him in whom their boasting ever was, and the presence of the apostle
with them again a further cause for glorying.
Phil1v27
"Manner of life" literally means "to behave as citizens"; and
remembering that our citizenship is in heaven (chapter 3.20), we see
how fitting a worthy manner of life is for such citizens, so that by
life as well as by lip the gospel may be commended.
How necessary
also is divine unity to the progress of the gospel!
The Lord
prayed that those whom He was leaving as His witnesses on earth
might be one (John 17.21,22).
Paul here entreats the Philippians
"to stand fast in one spirit, with one soul."
Division blights
divine testimony.
How successful the enemy has been in causing
this!
The striving (striving together) is not for, but with (R.V.M.
) the faith of the gospel.
The gospel is the weapon which the
combatants use in the combat against the powers of darkness.
Striving (Sunathleo) comes from the Greek word for athlete, so the
church in Philippi was a group of heaven's athletes engaged in a
mighty contest of rescuing souls from the power of darkness.
Phil1v28
Christians are not to be scared or terrified by their opponents.
The athlete who is afraid of his opponent enters the stadium in the
spirit of a beaten man.
He that fears God need fear the face of no
man.
"Who art thou, that thou art afraid of man that shall die,
and of the son of man which shall be made as grass?" (Isaiah 51.
12).
The opposition of the adversaries is, Paul says, a
demonstration or omen of their destruction and of our salvation in
due time from them.
God will in due time deal with opposers and
save the faithful witnesses.
Phil1v29,30
"To believe in Him" here, presents faith in the same sense as in 1
John 5.4,5; "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even
our faith, and who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
It is not here the
initial act of faith which brings salvation to the believing sinner,
but the faith which is continuous, the victorious faith of the
believer in an antagonistic world, which is granted to him on the
behalf of Christ, both to believe on Him and to suffer in His
behalf.
Those who are of this faith will be sufferers, be their
sufferings great or small.
The same conflict which was in the
Lord, and also in Paul, will be in them.
Conflict is ever known by
the athlete, the violent struggle which they had seen in Paul in
past days, and which still continued in him in the then present time
as a prisoner of Rome.
Phil2v1
Here the apostle raises powerful arguments, based on Christian
experience, in reference to what he is about to put before them as
to the need of being of one mind and having the same love.
There
could be no doubt that the Philippians had known comfort in Christ,
for He is a Comforter, as is also the Holy Spirit.
Had they not
known the consolation (or encouragement) of love? for God's love
had been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, as in the
case of the Romans (Romans 5.5), that blessed restfulness that only
love can minister to a restless and storm-tossed soul.
They could
not have missed having known that fellowship with the Father and the
Son, that the indwelling Holy Spirit makes possible for those to
know in whom He dwells (1 John 1.1-7; 2 Corinthians 13.14); this
fellowship is to be experienced through walking in the light.
And
of tender mercies and compassions, who should know more of these
than those who know the yearning love of the Father, Son and Spirit
for the children of God?
The Philippians had known all these.
"If" here is not the "if" of doubt, but the "if" which forms the
premise of an argument.
Phil2v2
What can be more disastrous to an army facing an enemy than
dis-unity?
Dis-unity amongst saints is a tragedy, and we are in
this day of sectarianism surrounded by it.
The apostle has just
been viewing the saints as striving together with the faith of the
gospel, but if through dis-unity their team-work is destroyed, how
helpless they will become!
Instead of striving together against
the common enemy they would be striving against one another.
Paul's joy over them was in their being of the same mind and having
the same love.
It is said of the multitude of the disciples in
Jerusalem in the early days, that they were of one heart and soul
(Acts 4.32).
What progress was made in those early days as the
result of this unity!
"Of one mind" means "joined in soul."
Phil2v3,4
Some words have both a good and a bad meaning according to the
context in which they are found, but faction is ever a bad word.
It was used in the past of such as canvassed for public office,
intriguing, and doing anything for gain or ambition, courting
applause.
It has been called the demon of strife.
Vainglory is
simply empty pride.
In contrast to striving for applause or empty
glory, saints should be characterised by lowliness of mind,
humility, modesty, each esteeming the other better, a more excellent
man, than himself.
How foolish is the practice of peering into and
preening oneself before, the mirror of self-admiration!
The women
who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting of old gave their
copper mirrors to provide the Laver for the cleansing of the priests
in the service of God.
A worthy example!
Saints are not to be
looking, viewing intently, their own things, matters, interests,
qualities, or advantages, or whatever would engender pride of heart,
but rather the things or excellencies of others.
We have to be
exceedingly careful in the consideration of our own things that we
do not fall a prey to self-gratifictaion as to what we are or have.
Phil2v5,6
Here we have the humility of Christ Jesus set as a pattern of mind
for those who would follow Him.
Men by nature are proud, some
more than others, but by the contemplation of Christ His lowly mind
is to become ours.
The mind of Christ is, that He who is, and was,
and ever will be, in the form (Morphe) of God took the form of a
servant.
He was originally (R.V.M.) in the form of God, and "none
can be in the form of God who is not God."
"Morphe (form) ...
signifies the form as it is the utterance of the inner life," and
"mode of existence."
Being truly and fully God, He did not grasp,
as a prize in rapine or robbery, at being on equality with God, for
He was equal in all the attributes and prerogatives of Deity, of
glory, honour, majesty, and so forth, which are peculiar to, and
exclusively those of, Deity.
Phil2v7,8
He being God, it was impossible for Him to grasp anything as a prize
and so enrich Himself, but He could empty Himself, He could become
poor; "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor" (2
Corinthians 8.9).
He could not empty Himself of the form of God,
but He "emptied, stripped Himself of the insignia of majesty," as is
implied in John 17.5: "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with
Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world
was."
This casts light on the self-emptying of the Lord.
He
could not divest Himself of that glory which is inherent in Divine
Being, the glory of the only begotten Son (John 1.14), which the
apostles beheld, veiled as it was by the veil of His flesh, and so
tempered to their sight; but of that glory which is associated with
Deity on the throne of heaven He emptied Himself in His
self-humiliation and taking the form (Morpho) of a servant
(bondservant).
The two actions coincide, the self-emptying, and
the taking of the form of a bondservant.
As with the form of God,
so with the form of a bondservant, all the characteristic attributes
of bondservice are implied, such as subjection and obedience and all
that goes with bondservice.
In this taking the form of a
bondservant is implied the Lord's humanity.
He who is Lord of all
became Jehovah's Servant to minister to others and to die for
them.
See Matthew 20.28, and note the context.
"The likeness of
men" strengthens the former statement, "the form of a servant," for
man was made to be God's bondservant, which the apostle gladly
acknowledges in chapter 1.1 when he writes of himself and Timothy
being bond-servants of Christ Jesus.
Sinners are bondservants
broken loose from their Divine Master and Maker, and this rebellion
will become more manifest yet, as Psalm 2.3 clearly shows.
Christ
came in the likeness (Homoiomati) of men, truly man, but with a
difference, for He was not man utterly; He was God, the Word, who
had become flesh (John 1.14), and He was only in the likeness
(Homoiomati) of sinful flesh (Romans 8.3).
He was found in fashion
(Schemati) as a man.
This is how men found Him; in His outward
appearance there was no apparent difference between Him and other
men.
The Jewish people condemned Him, because He being Man made
Himself God (John 10.33).
Pilate and the Lord's accusers took Him
for a man merely (Isaiah 53.2,3).
The words form (Morphe),
likeness (Homoioma), fashion (Schema), are worthy of careful
study.
There is a grading of thought from Morphe, the form as
expressive of the inner life, to Schema, the outward, superficial
appearance.
He who humbled Himself from the throne of God to the
stable in Bethlehem to be Man on earth, humbled Himself still
further, becoming obedient, as Jehovah's Servant, to death, the
death of the cross, the death of a slave or a common criminal.
Mystery of mysteries!
Phil2v9,10,11
The former verses describe the Lord's descent from the throne to the
cross, these show the ascent from the cross to the throne.
Christ
emptied and humbled Himself, but God highly exalted Him, giving Him
a name that is above every name.
There are differences of opinion
as to what this name is, as to whether it is the name "Jesus" or a
new name as yet unknown to us.
It should, I think, be noted that
this name which has been given to Him is given in connexion with His
exaltation, whereas the name Jesus was given when He humbled Himself
and became the Babe of Bethlehem.
It seems to me that this is the
name referred to in Revelation 3.12, "Mine own new name," which He
promised to write upon the overcomer of the church in Philadelphia.
It seems to be connected with the thought of overcoming, for it was
after the Lord had overcome all that was opposed to Him and had
triumphed through the cross, that this name was given to Him,
befitting the Lord as Victor in resurrection; thus the name of the
Great Overcomer will be written on all overcomers.
But on the
other hand men in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, will be
compelled to bow in the name of Jesus, the name that so many have
despised, and the name of the rejected One, and to acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord, and that to the glory of God the Father, the
Father of His co-equal Son.
Phil2v12,13
The Philippians were dear to Paul.
He called them "my beloved."
They had been obedient to God both when the apostle was present with
them and when he was absent.
In the light of all he has just
written as to the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord, he calls
on them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
This is not salvation from sin's penalty (which was a past
experience with them) but from sin's power.
We all need
deliverance from "the power of cancelled sin."
We need to know
deliverance from the power of sins which have been forgiven that
they may not still enslave us after we are saved.
The drunkard,
after he has been forgiven, needs to be saved from the sin of
drunkenness, the gambler from gambling, the railer from railing, and
so on.
The old roots of sin stick fast in the flesh and are a
trouble to us like bad teeth.
Deliverance does not arise from
ourselves.
We are commended to work out our own salvation with
fear and trembling, but whence comes the power?
The answer is, It
is God that worketh in us first to will, to make us willing to be
saved from all evils, and then to work for His good pleasure.
He
cannot save the saint against his will from any evil practice, even
as He cannot save a sinner from hell against his will.
But the
power to save in each case is available if there be the will to be
saved, so that the sinner may be saved eternally and the saint have
a saved life and not a lost one.
Phil2v14,15,16
How much harm has been done by saints murmuring and disputing!
Think of Jehovah's pattern Servant: "He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed
shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench"
(Isaiah 42.2,3).
He was holy, guileless (harmless), undefiled
(Hebrews 7.26).
We should count it an honour to be engaged in the
lowliest part of the Lord's service, and carry it out with a sweet
unmurmuring attitude of mind.
It is to be coveted to be blameless
and unblemished children of God living in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation.
The world has not changed its character,
nor can it, since Paul's time; and the present generation is
perhaps more perverse than the past.
The children of God are to be
lights or luminaries (as the lights of heaven that shine in the
darkness) in the world.
The world would be without light save for
them.
"Ye are the light of the world," said the Lord to His
disciples (Matthew 5.14).
The work of those who have been
illuminated is to hold forth the word of life.
If the Philippians
so continued, then Paul would have whereof to glory in the day of
Christ; but if they failed in their testimony, in so far as that is
concerned, Paul would have run and laboured in vain.
Phil2v17,18
Offered here is "poured out" as a drink offering (2 Timothy 4.6),
which means to give his life.
This pouring out should not be
confused with the Lord's emptying of Himself (verse 7).
The
emptying coincided with His incarnation, not with His death on the
cross.
But Paul's pouring out of himself was in his life being
spent in the service of others, and he reached that point in 2
Timothy 4.6. If Paul poured out his life upon the sacrifice of the
faith of the saints and on their priestly service in their witness
for Christ, then he rejoiced and congratulated them, and in the same
manner they were to rejoice and congratulate him.
Phil2v19,20,21
Paul's hoping and acting in the Lord shows how truly his actions and
thoughts were governed by the Lord's will.
"If the Lord will"
should be a governing factor in the lives of all believers (James 4.
15).
Through the visit of Timothy to Philippi Paul expected to
learn of their spiritual state and might be comforted by his
report.
He said that He had no man like Timothy who would
genuinely care for them.
Even in Paul's day there was not a
surfeit of spiritual men of worth. We need not wonder that this is
so in our time.
Many then, as now, sought their own things and not
the things of Jesus Christ.
Phil2v22,23,24
The proof of Timothy was in his being a tried and consequently
approved man.
He was Paul's child in faith (1 Timothy 1.2), and as
a child to a father, he served as a bondservant with his spiritual
father in the gospel.
This tried and trusted man was soon to be
sent to Philippi, as soon as Paul saw how it would go with
himself.
He seemed confident in the Lord that he would be
liberated and would himself visit them.
It is generally held that
he was set at liberty, and visited Ephesus (1 Timothy 1.3; 2 Timothy
1.15-18), Macedonia, and Miletus (2 Timothy 4.20).
He hoped to
visit not only Philippi (Philippians 1.25), but also Colossae
(Philemon 22).
Then finally he hoped to winter at Nicopolis (Titus
3.12), where, it has been suggested, but without scriptural
evidence, that he was arrested, and sent to Rome for his second term
of imprisonment in Rome, which was his last.
There Nero, that
bestial man, killed one of the noblest characters that ever lived.
Phil2v25,26,27
What a number of glorious titles this man has, far greater than the
titles of nobility or royalty - my brother, fellow-worker,
fellow-soldier, your apostle and minister to my need!
Crowns,
coronets, orders, medals and ribbons mark the world's great ones,
but these honours are nothing compared with the honours of
Epaphroditus.
The diadems of the Caesars are lost in the rubble of
Rome, but these men who lived within its walls, and, in Paul's and
Timothy's cases, its prisons, shall wear the crowns and unfading
laurel of heaven.
Paul counted it necessary to send Epaphroditus
to Philippi, whence he had come bearing the gift of the Philippian
saints to Paul.
In this work of mercy he had almost lost his life,
whether on the way or at Rome we know not, but he had been at
death's door.
But God had mercy both on him, and on Paul that he
might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
Epaphroditus was glad to
return, for Paul says that "he longed after you all, and was sore
troubled, because ye heard that he was sick."
This is one of those
affectionate touches that show the anxiety of love.
Phil2v28,29,30
Paul sent Epaphroditus the more diligently because of his longing
for the Philippian saints, for they had heard that he was sick.
This shows how news travelled throughout the Roman world from
assembly to assembly.
Paul said that they were to receive him in
the Lord with joy, and honour him for what he had done.
Epaphroditus left Paul, carrying, it is believed, this wondrous
epistle back with him, a much greater gift than Paul had received,
necessary as were the material comforts which the Philippians had
sent to him.
Phil3v1
Finally, in conclusion, rejoice, be joyful, in the Lord.
Rejoice
is also used in salutation - Farewell. The great spirit of the
apostle rises above his sorrow alluded to in the former chapter, and
he strikes a joyful note, for well he knew the meaning of what he
wrote to the Corinthians at an earlier time, "Our light affliction,
which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an
eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4.17).
It was not irksome
for him to write, and it was safe for the Philippians to get such an
epistle with such truths.
Phil3v2,3
Paul calls the Judaizers dogs.
They were the evil workers from
whom Paul suffered so much.
They were also the concision or the
cutters.
Circumcision was with them a mere rite which bore no
relation to their inward state; it was as the gashings and the
mutilations of the heathen.
The saints were the circumcision, for
they had been "circumcised with a circumcision not m{de with hands,
in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of
Christ" (Colossians 2.11).
Paul wrote of this in other words to
the Romans; "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (Romans 8.9).
Hence Paul
wrote as above, "We ... worship (Latreuo, religiously serve) by the
Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in
the flesh."
Here the believer in Christ parts company with the
mere religionist, whether Jew, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian,
Presbyterian, or any other, all who depend on mere ceremonials, and
promote the doctrine of perfecting the flesh.
The fundamental
doctrine of the faith is, "Ye must be born again," "born of the
Spirit."
"The flesh profiteth nothing."
Phil3v4,5,6
Here is a veritable galaxy of qualifications which would dazzle any
who were seeking perfection in the flesh.
Dare any one rest in
confidence as to eternal peace upon any one or all of these things
which were so much admired in Jewish society?
Circumcision in
Paul's case had been attended to scrupulously; his pedigree was
correct, he being of Israel and Benjamin; his parents were both
Hebrews, who adhered to the Hebrew language and customs, and in
strict upbringing and profession he was a Pharisee, "a son of
Pharisees" (Acts 23.6).
His zeal could never be called in
question, for he persecuted the church of God in Jerusalem and laid
it waste (Acts 8.3), and as touching the law's righteousness men
(not God) found him blameless.
Truly he was a pattern of a man in
the flesh, which availed much in time, but nothing in eternity.
Phil3v7,8
Paul was not only born again; he was soundly converted.
He
stepped out boldly upon the doctrine of Christ - "It is the Spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."
When the Lord
spoke those words, "many of His disciples went back, and walked no
more with Him" (John 6.63,66).
Many still cling to the flesh and
seek the wordly gains the flesh brings, but Paul sought a truer
gain.
He suffered the loss, the confiscation, of all things, and
in his old age he still viewed those things as loss, as he did in
the early days of his first love, when he regarded them as dung, or
offal to be cast to the dogs.
Christ was Paul's gain or
enrichment, and in order to advance in that knowledge which eclipses
all other forms of knowledge, the knowledge of Christ Jesus his
Lord, he regarded all else as worthless.
No one who reads Paul's
writings can fail to see the richness of his mind in the knowledge
of Christ, and many, many have been enriched by him.
Phil3v9
What were his earliest thoughts about the righteousness of God were
still his thoughts after long years of persecution and privation,
that his righteousness should not be a legal righteousness of his
own, but that which is through faith in Christ, even that
righteousness of God which rests upon faith and not upon works of
law.
God's righteousness in Christ was his soul's resting place
and his hope for glory.
Phil3v10,11
The true knowledge of Christ is not theoretical or merely
historical, it is experimental and practical; it affects the whole
life and conduct of the person who has it and seeks it.
With some
the knowledge of Jesus Christ is no better than the knowledge of
Julius Caesar so far as yielding any real fruit in their lives is
concerned.
Christ is an historical Person truly, but He is much
more; and besides, He is alive and Caesar is dead and gone to
dust.
The words that the Lord spoke are spirit and are life (John
6.63), such are not the words of men.
Besides, He, the eternal Son
of the Father, has sent forth the Holy Spirit into the hearts of His
own to comfort and quicken them and to revive their hopes.
With
Paul the knowledge of Christ was intensely practical.
In these
verses there is a cycle - resurrection, sufferings, death,
resurrection.
It is a spiral; it means that the person ascends
each cycle.
This ascending is by sharing His sufferings, by being
conformed unto His death, and by attaining unto the out-resurrection
out from among dead ones.
This is to be the present experience of
those that follow the Lord.
They are to take up their cross daily
(Luke 9.23), and die daily (1 Corinthians 15.31), if they would know
that power which raised Him from the dead, and will raise them from
among the dead among whom they live.
This power is the exceeding
greatness of His (God's) power, which He wrought in Christ, when He
raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1.19,20).
It is one thing to
know about Christ's resurrection, but it is quite another for that
to be working in us who believe.
This power makes real living for
Christ possible.
Phil3v12
What he strove after in the practical knowledge of Christ in his day
by day experience, he had not yet obtained.
He was not yet made
perfect (though he was in another sense perfect in Christ), but he
pressed on towards it, for in the knowledge of Christ he would learn
the purpose that Christ had in apprehending him.
He knew much
already, He knew that he was a called apostle of Christ Jesus, and
he knew what the Lord had wrought in and through him towards the
Gentiles, as well as his own people, but he had not apprehended all
that it was the Lord's purpose to accomplish through him.
The
painting of Paul's life was not yet complete.
"I press on", he
said; that is, he pursued for the purpose of catching or obtaining
what was still in front of him.
Phil3v13,14
Not apprehending all God's purpose in him, he sought to forget and
to neglect the things that were behind him; these things cannot be
lived over again and improved.
He stretched forward, as a runner
in a race to the course that lies in front, toward the goal, the
mark at the end of the racecourse on which the eye is fixed, to the
prize (as the crown, wreath or chaplet which was bestowed on the
victor in the public games).
The race is towards the place whence
the call came.
The calling is heavenly (Hebrews 3.1); it is an
upward calling, hence the course is ever ascending.
Phil3v15,16
"Perfect" here should not be confused with "made perfect" (verse
12); the latter may lie in the future while we are on earth, but
the former word signifies mature full-grown persons, and such
persons of full growth are to press on towards that perfect state (1
Corinthians 13.10) which lies ahead.
But if there be differences
of mind arising from the standard of spiritual growth, even that
will God reveal.
Such differences will inevitably arise, for some
make marked progress, while others are slow, and some make little or
no advance in spiritual things.
There is a danger, in seeking to
preserve unity, of making the standard of the backward believer that
for all the rest.
The standard by which we shall all be measured
in due time, and by which we are to walk now, is that whereunto we
have attained.
Walk (Stoichein) means to walk in order.
Phil3v17
The Philippians were together to imitate Paul and so bear his
resemblance.
All such as followed this course of Paul-like, and
consequently Christ-like, behaviour were to be marked as persons
worthy of being ensamples or patterns of conduct for others to
follow.
These good-living people were to be marked, considered and
followed, but those of Romans 16.17 were to be marked and avoided,
because they caused divisions contrary to the doctrine.
Phil3v18,19
The persons here indicated were believers who followed a life of
self-pleasing and indulgence.
They were not enemies of God in the
sense of Romans 5.10, but they were enemies of the cross.
They
knew little or nothing of the truth of Paul's words, "I have been
crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ
liveth in me" (Galatians 2.20).
Their end was perdition, the
complete loss of their life for God (Matthew 16.25; Hebrews 10.
39).
Their God was a belly-god; they were devoted to uncurbed
appetites.
Their glory was nought but shame, and the whole bent of
their minds was down and not up, earthly and not heavenly.
Over the
conduct of these Paul wept bitter tears of sorrow, because of his
love for his Lord and for them.
Phil3v20,21
It is a distortion for a believer to have his mind set on earthly
things, seeing that his citizenship is in heaven.
There is his
commonwealth and his politics.
He has not bought this
citizenship, as the Roman captain bought Roman citizenship (Acts 22.
28), for he has been born from above.
Hence Paul says that we are
to "behave as citizens worthily" (Philippians 1.27, R.V.M.).
We
wait for the Lord, the Saviour from heaven, who is coming to deal
with the bodies of the saints, called properly in the R.V. "the body
of our humiliation," and not "our vile body," as in the A.V.
These
bodies will be fashioned anew, their outward appearance will be
changed, and they will be conformed to the body of His glory.
Thus
the bodies of the saints will express the inner life, the eternal
life which they already have in Christ; Christ is already their
life (Colossians 3.4).
This conformation like unto the Lord's
resurrection body will remain unchanged and unalterable.
The power
which will effect this change is said to be "according to the working
whereby He is able to subject all things unto Himself."
The same
power which will put down instantly and irrevocably the antichrist
and his minions, and bring into being a state of ordered government
on earth and throughout the universe, is the same as that which will
cast out sin and mortality from the bodies of saints for ever.
Never again will there be an emotion or thought in these bodies
which is out of alignment with His holy will.
Blessed thought!
Phil4v1
"Wherefore," as those who are citizens of heaven, who are beloved
and longed for (this last description is not found elsewhere), his
joy and crown (see 1 Thessalonians 2.19), he exhorts them to "so
stand fast in the Lord."
"In the Lord" indicates subjection to the
Lord's will.
Phil4v2,3
Some have thought that Euodia and Syntyche were men.
Though there
is no word for women in the Greek, yet the fact that "these"
(Autais) is feminine, should determine the matter that they were
women.
They may have been two of the women that gathered with
Lydia at the place of prayer (Acts 16.13,14).
In any case they had
been of those who laboured with the apostle in the gospel in past
days.
Now a difference had come in between them, and this state of
dis-unity was having a harmful effect on the church in Philippi.
Help is to be given to the women by one who is called a true
yokefellow, who proably is Epaphroditus who will shortly be bearing
this epistle to Philippi.
Clement cannot be identified, but the
thing that really matters is, that he and the rest of those that
laboured in the gospel have their names in the book of life.
This
is the same book as is referred to in Revelation 3.5.
Phil4v4,5
Here Paul repeats his words of chapter 3.1, "Rejoice in the Lord,"
and adds "alway."
The believer has nothing to rejoice in himself,
or in the world, but however turbulent be the lives of saints on
earth, they can by faith look up to and rejoice in the Lord.
Forbearance is gentleness, mildness of disposition.
This gentle,
Christ-like spirit is to be made known to all.
Can the believer
afford to maintain this mildness of temper always?
Yes, for the
Lord is at hand to be his Helper.
This is not the coming of the
Lord that is at hand, as in James 5.8.
The Lord is the Helper of
His saints (Hebrews 13.5,6).
The power of the Lord is made perfect
in weakness (2 Corinthians 12.9).
Paul entreated the Corinthians
"by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10.1).
Phil4v6,7
To be anxious is to be cumbered with care.
Note how the elders are
to cast all their anxiety upon God, for He cares for them, while
they seek to care for others (1 Peter 5.7).
Saints are to bring
their cares to God, in supplication, and prayer with thanksgiving,
"nothing doubting" (James 1.6).
The peace of God like a garrison
will enter to guard their hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.
This experience passes all understanding.
"Oh what peace we often forfeit,
Oh what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!"
Peace is concord, harmony, unity, the opposite of anxiety, which
conveys the thought of a divided mind.
Phil4v8,9
The mind is the most difficult part of ourselves to be happily and
usefully engaged.
But here are things for useful and profitable
employment.
Things true, conformable to truth; honourable, grave
and dignified; just, nothing superfluous or deficient, in just
proportion; pure, chaste, modest, blameless; lovely, amiable,
grateful; good report, commendable, laudable; virtue, goodness,
good quality of any sort, excellence; praise, honour paid,
commendation.
Think on these things, and let us remember that our
thoughts find expression in our acts and ways; they build our
characters.
Excellent thoughts reveal themselves in a beautiful
character.
Paul had demonstrated these things in his conduct
amongst the Philippians in past days; he says, "The things which ye
both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do:
and" says he, "The God of peace (of concord and harmony) shall be
with you."
Phil4v10,11,12,13
The apostle rejoices greatly in the Lord at the revival of the
thought of the Philippians for him, and he gives them credit for the
lack of opportunity to express it.
He does not speak of their gift
as though want caused him to write as he did, for in his arduous
and abundant labours he had learned (as a disciple) the secret (Mueo
- from Muo, to shut the mouth - to initiate, to instruct in secret
rites and mysteries; used only here in the N.T.) of contentment in
all his varied circumstances whatever they were, whether he was
brought low in times of privation or abounded in times of plenty.
It is not an easy secret to learn, both to be filled and to be
hungry, to abound and to be in want.
Contentment is a mind
contented with its lot, "independence of external circumstances."
Paul added that he could do all things in Him that strengthened him,
an echo of what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 12.9.
Phil4v14,15,16
The well-doing of the Philippians, that they had fellowship with the
apostle in his affliction, has been to their credit all the
centuries since they sent Epaphroditus with their gift, and will
remain so for ever.
The carrying of the treasure of ravaged lands
to Rome by Rome's victorious legions was as nothing compared with
this; such deeds of rapine will be to their shame as long as their
history remains.
Not only was it now that the Philippians were
mindful of the apostle, but while he was at Thessalonica they sent
to him once or twice to meet his need, and when he left Macedonia
they continued to minister to his necessitieis.
How gratefully he
recalls their care for him!
Phil4v17
The great-souled man rose above the thought of his own comfort to
the thought of what it would mean for them in the day of reward.
It was their reward he sought, not their gift.
How different this
is from commercialized religions, which like the horseleach cry,
"Give, give," and never say, "Enough!"
Phil4v18,19,20
The needs of the apostle, never hard to supply and often met by his
own hands, were met by the gift sent to him.
He was filled by it.
He speaks of the gift in similar terms to the offering of Christ
Himself, of whom he says, "Christ ... gave Himself up for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell"
(Ephesians 5.2).
His offering was as the sweet savour of rest of
the burnt offering (Genesis 8.21; Leviticus 1.9).
So also was the
gift of the Philippians, for the death of the Lord was the
foundation of their giving.
Paul links God's unspeakable Gift with
the giving of which he writes in 2 Corinthians 9.
"My God," the
personal God of the apostle, would, in consequence of their giving
to His bondservant, supply every need of theirs, for God is no man's
debtor.
The fulfilling of their need was to be in no stinted way,
it was to be according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
What wealth and fulness are here indicated!
He closes with a
doxology to God the Father, whose is the glory for ever and ever.
Phil4v21,22
What a Christian gentleman Paul was!
"Every saint," the poor with
the rich, were worthy of salutation.
There was no passing of
saints with him as unworthy of notice.
The brethren that were with
Paul saluted the Philippians.
Then all the saints in Rome saluted
them, and, especially, they of Caesar's household, those in the
imperial household, slaves and others who had accepted Christ.
How
glorious were the triumphs of the gospel then! and how penetrating
its ray had been to reach even into Caesar's palace!
Wonderful
will be the story of divine grace, when it is all written as to
where this one and that one have been born (Psalm 87.4-6).
Phil4v23
Grace is the closing salutation of Paul in all his epistles, as he
wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3.17,18.
Grace had not been found vain in
him (1 Corinthians 15.10).
GENERAL NOTE
When Paul arrived in Europe for the extension of the Lord's work,
having been directed to Macedonia by the vision he saw at Troas, he
made for "Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the first of the
district" (Acts 16.12).
The work began in an unostentatious way.
The account by Luke shows the small beginning of a work which was to
have a not unimportant place in sacred annals of the work of the
Lord.
It is said, "On the sabbath day we went forth without the
gate by a river side, where we supposed there was a place of
prayer; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which were come
together" (Acts 16.13).
Whether it was a synagogue or some other
praying place is not told us, but here hearts were won by the story
of divine love, amongst such was that of Lydia, the purple-seller.
Such trophies of grace were yet to be augmented by Satan
over-reaching himself and sending after the preachers for many days
the young woman possessed of an evil spirit, but those trophies were
not won without grievous bodily suffering on the part of Paul and
Silas.
The story is well known to us all.
Through stripes,
imprisonment, stocks and earthquake, at last Paul and Silas sat
round the hospitable board of the jailor, who with his whole
household had become subjects of God's saving grace and had shown
proof thereof in being baptized.
Such was the beginning of what
became the church in Philippi.
Both Lydia and the jailor cared for the preachers in their homes, an
example which has happily been followed by many, but besides, the
church in Philippi in acknowledgement of the debt they owed to the
Lord and His servants sent once and again to the need of Paul and
his fellow-workers (4.15,16).
This same exercise in regard to the
apostle's need in early times was revived when Paul was a prisoner
in Rome.
Of this he wrote, "But I rejoice in the Lord greatly,
that now at length ye have revived your thought for me;
wherein ye
did indeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity" (4.10).
How
gracious are Paul's words as he speaks of the reviving of their
thought, he makes no accusation that they had been lax or
indifferent!
He quicky adds, "Ye did indeed take thought, but ye
lacked opportunity."
It was just like how a fond parent would
speak of a somewhat forgetful child.
They prepared their bounty and entrusted it to the care of
Epaphroditus, whom Paul describes as "my brother and fellow-worker
and fellow-soldier and your messenger and minister to my need" (2.
25).
The long and hazardous journey of those days resulted, either
on the journey or at Rome, in sickness which brought him nigh unto
death (2.27), and later, in verse 30, Paul adds, "Because for the
work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply
that which was lacking in your service toward me."
Thus we learn
that the supplying of the apostle's need was the work of Christ.
The reception of the gift of the Philippians was the occasion of the
writing of this letter. It is a letter of grateful acknowledgement
with which no letter of like sort could ever be compared.
It is of
course an inspired epistle and that accounts for a great part of the
difference between it and all other letters, but besides this, there
is a human side and here Paul the writer leaves indelibly the impress
of his personality.
This is true of all Scripture.
All is inspired
of God, and on all we see the character of the man who wrote.
Whilst Romans is Paul's grand treatise on the gospel, Philippians is
his treatise on the spread of the gospel.
"Let your manner of life
be worthy of the gospel of Christ: that, whether I come and see you
or be absent, I may hear of your state, that ye stand fast in one
spirit, with one soul striving for (with, R.V.M.) the faith of the
gospel" (1.27).
Earlier, in verse 7, he says, "Both in my bonds
and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all
partakers with me of grace."
In this work, alas, there were those
who preached Christ of envy and strife, but there were others who
did it of good will.
But in whatever way the gospel was preached
he said, "Whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed;
and therein I rejoice, yea and will rejoice" (verse 18).
In chapter 2 Paul shows the unity of mind which should exist in any
church in connexion with its responsibility toward men in the
preaching of the message of life and peace.
"Fulfil ye my joy,
that ye be of the same mind having the same love, being of one
accord (joined in soul), of one mind" (verse 2).
This is seen in
action in the early days in Jerusalem: "And the multitude of them
that believed were of one heart and soul; ... And with great power
gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus: and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4.32,33). If there
is that lowliness of mind, the mind which was in Christ Jesus, there
will be little difficulty in maintaining unity; but if faction and
vain glorying enter, then unity and peace will flee.
These things
cannot dwell together.
So that saints might have the correct spirit of lowliness of mind
before them, he draws that beautiful and entrancing picture of the
Lord, of what He was, of His self-emptying, of what He became, and
of how He went down, down, down to death, that of the cross.
Can
pride exist here?
Can men preach Christ in pride and
self-conceit?
They may, but surely it is preaching Chirst with
their backs to the Crucified and sporting themselves before men.
Surely we should preach Christ looking upon Him, and if the preacher
keeps looking at this great sight others may be disposed to look
also; otherise they may just look on a preacher with his back to
Calvary.
There is one thing that towers above all others in importance in
connexion with the preaching of the gospel, and that is, to know
Christ who is the Subject of the gospel.
Paul says that the gospel
is concerning Him, who is of the seed of David, and is declared to
be the Son of God with power.
God and man - one Christ.
It is of
the insatiable desire to know Him that Paul speaks in chapter 3.
Paul had many natural advantages of birth, religious training, zeal
and ability, things connected with the flesh; and on mere worldly
attainments he would, no doubt, have risen high in his own nation,
and being besides a Roman citizen by birth, he might have attained
to considerable prominence in the empire.
But God had other work
for him with an infinitely greater recompense at the end.
Carnal advantages Paul cast aside as offal, for these were of no
value to him as a herald of the crucified Saviour.
There was one
thing only which would make him a sufficient minister of the New
Covenant, and that was to know Christ Jesus his Lord.
No sacrifice
was too great and no suffering too painful for him to attain to this
goal.
He said, "Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
suffered the loss of all things ... that I may gain Christ" (3.8).
Those who would preach Christ must make their choice.
Are they
willing to lose worldly advantages and preferments to gain Christ,
so that Christ may so enrich their minds and their thoughts, that as
the message of life flows from their lips a crucified and living
Saviour may be painted by words glowing with the glory and grace of
this Saviour of men.
Is it not the case that the words of Balaam
are true of some gospel preachers and gospel addresses;
"I see Him, but not now:
I behold Him, but not nigh"?
Many words are spoken, but Christ is lacking.
Let us get back
again to "the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ" (2
Corinthians 11.3).
Let us learn Christ (Ephesians 4.20); let us
gain Christ, and then we shall speak from a present and personal
knowledge, and let us then note the difference that it will make in
ourselves and others.
Here in this epistle is the strife of women, alas, of Euodia and
Syntyche (4.2,3).
But we have also in contrast the devotedness and
self-sacrifice of Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus and others.
NOTES
ON
THE
EPISTLE TO
THE
COLOSSIANS
Col1v1
Paul only of all the apostles writes of himself as an apostle of
Christ Jesus - of Christ who is Jesus, He who has been raised from
the dead.
His apostleship was "through the will of God," not
through any personal merit on his part.
Timothy is described as
"the" brother.
He is similarly referred to in 2 Corinthians 1.1
and Philemon 1.
Col1v2
There are not two classes in view here.
The saints or holy ones
addressed here were also faithful brethren in Christ.
They were
not simply believers, they were faithful and stedfast.
He refers
to their stedfastness in chapter 2.5: "For though I am absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the Spirit, joying and beholding your
order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ."
He greets them with his usual salutation of grace and peace, but in
this salutation He speaks of the Father only.
In all other
salutations Jesus Christ is associated with the Father.
Col1v3
Here Paul and Timothy are seen mingling their prayers with their
thanksgiving for the Colossian saints, and how continuous was the
flow of their prayers - "praying always for you"!
In Ephesians 1.
15,16, we have a somewhat similar statement - "I ... cease not to
give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers."
What a
beautiful pattern to copy!
Col1v4
Whether the apostle had any personal acquaintance with the Colossian
church seems questionable, though the results of his labours in
Ephesus durng his two years' work in that city extended far and
wide, inasmuch as we read that "all they which dwelt in Asia heard
the word of the Lord" (Acts 19.10).
Having heard of their faith in
Christ, and of their love to all saints, it not only caused him to
pray for them always, but it caused him to write this delightful
epistle to them.
Faith without love would be as a husk without a
kernel, but how complementary they are to each other is seen in the
statement - "faith working through love" (Galatians 5.6).
Their
faith found its sphere and source of life in Christ.
Faith is one
of a triad - faith, hope and love.
Faith in Christ which does not
find its counterpart in love to the saints will soon shrivel and
die, but faith which draws nourishment from Christ its source of
supply must find an outlet in love to the saints.
Col1v5
Faith, hope, and love, the essence of the Christian faith, are seen
joined together in 1 Corinthians 13.13 and 1 Thessalonians 1.3, and
are also seen here - faith in Christ, love to the saints, because of
the hope which is laid up or stored in the heavens for all who
believe.
The believer has an inheritance above, which Peter
describes as an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and unfading,
which is reserved in the heavens (1 Peter 1.4).
It is not a false
hope, but one of which the word of the truth of the gospel speaks.
Note how definite is the assertion of the veracity of the good
news: it is the word of the truth.
There is no fraud in
this message, no spurious pretensions of a hope where none exists.
This gospel is true and genuine and though saints have not seen the
glorious heavenly country, yet their hope rests on truth which is
unassailable.
Col1v6
The gospel which reached them is stated to be still present with
them.
It was no transient message with an ephemeral hope.
The
word of the gospel is both living and abiding.
When it enters it
abides in the believing heart.
It came not to the Colossians only,
it was also in all the world.
Whilst the message reaches, blesses
and dwells in the individual believer, it is a universal message, it
is neither local nor national.
It was to be proclaimed to "the
whole creation" (Mark 16.15) and to "all the nations" (Luke 24.47),
and it is constantly bearing fruit in all the world even to this
hour.
The gospel has that power as a plant whose seed is in
itself.
It is the power of God unto salvation to every believer.
It is characterized in Colossians by "bearing fruit and increasing".
In Acts 6.7 we read, "And the word of God increased; and the number
of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem."
Again it is said, "But
the word of God grew and multiplied" (Acts 12.24).
And yet again
we are told that "so mightily grew the word of the Lord and
prevailed" (Acts 19.20).
Here we see an irresistible power in
operation.
It is like the working of the leaven hid in three
measures of meal (Matthew 13.33).
In Colossae we have a miniature of a world-wide fact - "as it doth
in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in
truth".
Theirs was no passing emotion; they knew and thoroughly
appreciated the grace of God.
Col1v7
Under the instruction of Epaphras the Colossian saints had learned
the grace of God.
They had been learners or disciples under the
careful and faithful ministry of this minister of Christ, a beloved
fellow-servant of the apostle Paul.
He is said to have ministered
on the apostle's behalf, thus Paul sets his seal to the work of
Epaphras.
Col1v8
As he had been a minister of Christ on the apostle's behalf, so he
also declared to Paul in Rome the love of the saints.
Their love
is alluded to in verse 4 - their love toward all the saints - not
love to a small coterie of friends, but hope springing from the Holy
Spirit's work in the heart which was toward all the saints.
How
hateful is the love which picks its circle of friends and does not
reach to all the saints!
Love is one of the "fruits" of the Spirit
(Galatians 5.22).
Col1v9
"For this cause," because of their faith and love referred to in
verse 4, which Epaphras declared, Paul and Timothy ceased not to
pray and make request for the Colossians, and that from the day they
heard it.
Their prayer was to the end that they might be filled
with the knowledge (thorough or full knowledge) of God's will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.
"Wisdom is mental excellence
in its highest and fullest sense."
Spiritual understanding or
intelligence is that by which we understand the bearings of things.
This is not natural intelligence and is the opposite of what we read
in chapter 2.8 - "Philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
This spiritual acumen is the result of the operation of the Holy
Spirit in the mind, for "we received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that
are freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2.12).
Col1v10
The knowledge of the will of God is intensely practical; it is in
order that we may walk in such a way as to please the Lord, which
means that the whole course of the believer's life should be
regulated by the word of God.
If we are to please God we must know
His will.
To walk in a manner pleasing to God will lead to ever-increasing
fruitfulness.
"By the knowledge of God" (R.V.marg.) seems to be
the better rendering here; it shows the cause of the increase
referred to.
It is like the streams of water which nourish the
tree of Psalm 1, which is a picture of the man who meditates in the
law of Jehovah day and night, from which he derives the knowledge of
his God.
Col1v11
The might of God's glory is the source of the power by which the
believer is strengthened or made powerful.
The word for "might"
here is almost exclusively used of God in the New Testament, the one
exception being Hebrews 2.14, "the power (might) of death."
The manifestation of Divine Glory to men is the source of their
greatest power.
The God of Glory appeared to Abraham in
Mesopotamia.
Moses saw the Divine Glory in Mount Sinai.
The
three apostles saw the glory of the Lord in the Mount of
Transfiguration: and Paul saw the Lord's glory on the Damascus
road.
Isaiah too saw His glory and spoke of Him.
What power this
engendered within these men!
Earthly glory seemed to them from
henceforth as a faded flower.
These were each strengthened thereby
"unto all patience and longsuffering with joy."
"The sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed to us-ward" (Romans 8.18).
Those who have seen
the glory of His grace (John 1.14) wait for glory of His appearance
(Titus 2.13).
It is wondrously true that the might of His glory
makes saints and martyrs strong to endure and suffer - and that with
joy; to be joyous sufferers, not murmurers or complainers.
Endurance "is the temper which does not easily succumb," and
longsuffering "is the self restraint which does not hastily
retaliate a wrong."
Col1v12
There may be some measure of diversity of view whether this means
Paul and Timothy gave thanks (this view goes back to verse 9,
"we ... do not cease to pray ... for you") or whether the subject is
"you", the Colossian saints, who were to be strengthened unto
patience and longsuffering.
The latter view seems to be more in
keeping with the context.
There is great cause for thanksgiving
when we contemplate the Father's work in making us meet, competent
or capable (not worthy) for the share of the inheritance of the
saints in the light.
There is an analogy between what is stated
here and the sharing by the tribes of Israel of their inheritance in
the promised land; that was a shadow of the greater and better
thing.
"In light" shows where the inheritance of saints is.
Col1v13
In contrast to
"in light" of the previous verse we have here
reference to the power of darkness in which we were bound and
enslaved, but God rescued us from that thraldom.
The power or
authority of darkness was great, but the power of our Deliverer is
greater.
Divine deliverance in the case of Israel from Egypt's
slavery and darkness is a picture of this greater deliverance which
is known by all believers.
The word for "power" in this verse means authority or delegated
power, and delegated power when unlawfully exercised is turned to
tyranny; such is the arbitrary tyranny under which all slaves of
sin are.
When God delivered us from the tyranny of darkness He translated us
into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The transportation of
Israel from Egypt to Canaan is a figure of the transportation of all
who accept Christ, from darkness, from the organized lawless tyranny
of darkness, to that happy sphere - the kingdom of the Son of
His love.
Every believer is translated into this kingdom at the
time of regeneration.
This is not the kingdom of God.
To enter
and maintain one's position in the kingdom of God requires
subjection to the Lord's authority as revealed in the Faith once for
all delivered to the saints, but translation into the kingdom of the
Son of God's love is an act done once for all.
We are in this
kingdom by an act of sovereign grace on the Father's part.
The Son
of His love is God's only begotten Son.
As God is love, love must
also be the essence of the Son, and therefore He is the only One who
can perfectly reveal God and represent Him who is love, for upon Him
rests the Father's love.
Col1v14
"In whom" - the Beloved of Ephesians 1.6,7 - the Son of His love,
"we have our redemption".
We do not hope to obtain redemption, but
we are redeemed, having been delivered by the Father from the
power of darkness.
The Father's deliverance is through the Son's
redemptive work.
The Israelites were redeemed by divine power, but
they were also redeemed by the blood of the paschal lamb.
So here
God delivered us by His overwhelming power from the power of
darkness, but this was effected by the price paid for our redemption
by our great Redeemer, the One in whom we have redemption.
Redemption is all one with the forgiveness of sins.
Forgiveness
means the sending away of sins, not the passsing over of sins as in
the dispensation of law (Romans 3.25, the R.V. rendering is much
more correct than the A.V. in this verse).
The believer's sins have
been sent away never to return - removed from him as far as the east
is from the west (Psalm 103.12), so that he stands clear of sin's
guilt and bondage.
God in His covenant mercy remembers his sins no
more (Hebrews 10.17).
Of old by redemption God brought His people
out of Egypt, and through the blood of atonement, by which sins were
forgiven, the high priest entered the sanctuary into the Holy of
Holies, so now believers are redeemed from sin's penalty and made
nigh to God through the work of the Son of God's Love.
Col1v15
Here the Son is seen firstly in relation to God as the perfect Image
and visible manifestation of the invisible God; and, secondly, in
relation to all created things, as the Firstborn of all creation,
though He Himself is nowhere in Scripture ever spoken of as having
been created.
Image = Eikon "implies an archetype of which it is a
copy".
He who is the Image of the invisible God is Himself truly
God, as John 1.1 says, "The Word was God," and also Hebrews 1.8 "Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever," and again verse 10 says,
"Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth.
"
Other passages show clearly the Deity of the Son.
He is the
eternal Logos, the true expression of the mind of Deity; for "no
man (one) hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which
is in in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1.
18).
It takes a Divine Being to reveal Deity, hence the necessity
of the incarnation of the Logos.
"The Firstborn of all creation" does not mean that He is an
essential and integral part of creation, for the following verse
says that "in Him were all things created," and verse 17 says, "He
is before all things."
He forms no part of the created things.
In Revelation 3.14 the Lord says that He is the "Beginning of the
creation of God", that is, that "in Him the whole creation of God is
begun and conditioned: He is the source and fountain head".
He
Himself had no beginning.
"Eternal Being" is as true of the Son as
of the Father.
The Father says in Revelation 21.6, "I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end," and the Son says in
Revelation 22.13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the
last, the beginning and the end."
Had God a beginning or will He
have an end?
Never! and what is true of God the Father is true
also of God the Son.
The name "Firstborn" can have nothing to do with the Lord's human
birth, nor has it anything to do with Him as the Son of the Father,
for in that sense He is not the first, but the only begotten Son.
His being the only begotten Son admits no relationship to any
creature, it shows that relationshp in which He stands to the
Father.
"Firstborn" here does not mean first or eldest born, one
who enjoys the priority of birth, but it is used here in the sense
in which it is used in Psalm 89.27, where David is spoken of by God "I also will make him My firstborn
The highest of the kings of the earth."
David was not related to any of those kings, save in the sense that
as God's first king he was put to the place of priority and
precedence above all kings.
So Christ as Firstborn is one who
occupies the postiion of dignity and precedence, of priority to all
creation, as is indicated in the words, "He is before all things ...
the Beginning ... that in all things He might have the preeminence"
(Colossians 1.17,18).
Christ is "Firstborn among many brethren"
(Romans 8.29), but He was in being throughout all ages.
He is also
"the Firstborn of the dead" (Revelation 1.5), and here in Colossians
"of all creation".
None of these titles describes His origin, but
show Him in certain relationships as one who must in all things have
the pre-eminence.
Col1v16
Here we have the reason for the appellation "the Firstborn of all
creation", because in Him were all things created, not because He
was created before all things.
The latter view of the Firstborn is
that taken by some to their own destruction.
The Son's priority to
all things is here clearly stated, for "in (not "by" - A.V.) Him
were all things created"; consequently it follows that "in Him all
things consist" ("hold together", R.V.Marg.).
He is "pre-existent
and all including," for "in Him was life" (John 1.4).
The fact of
creation is plainly stated here by the aorist tense.
All things in heaven were created in the Firstborn, as well as all
things upon earth, both visible and invisible; the things visible
being vastly greater in extent than the visible things of the
creation, which declare to man God's everlasting power and divinity
(Romans 1.20).
The whole system of divine government instituted
amongst created intelligences has its beginning and source in the
Firstborn, who is here seen pre-eminent over all, whether they be
thrones, lordships, governments, or authorities; all were created
through or by Him and unto or for Him.
The act of creation was His
act; it was by His means that all being has its being, and it is
unto Him as the end, as giving the reason for its existence.
What
a sweep of mental vision there is in these three prepositions which
are used in this verse, which describe the creation of all things in
the Firstborn - in Him, through Him, unto Him!
He is the Beginning
and the End; the whole cycle of creation is complete in Himself.
The highest of created intelligences with the lowest owe their
existence to the divine fiat of the Son of God's love, who also
upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1.3).
These
are the stupendous facts revealed to us here, and what is more
amazing is the fact that this is He who was laid in a manger, yea
also, who was nailed to the cross, who died for the sins of the
creature.
Col1v17
Note that it does not say that "He was before all things," but that
"He is before all things".
This describes the absolute existence
of the eternal "I AM", who said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I
am" (John 8.58).
It is not that His being simply ante-dates all
things, that He was before them, but He is as the eternal One before
all, with an eternity of being that admits of no comparison between
the created and the Increate.
Here, too, in this verse we learn the reason for the continuance of
all things in their present state.
"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."
All
things hold together in Him, and this was as true of Him when He was
the Child Jesus as now upon the throne of heaven.
Without beginning or decline,
Object of faith, and not of sense;
Eternal ages saw Him shine,
He shines eternal ages hence.
As much, when in the manger laid,
Almighty ruler of the sky,
As when the six days' work He made
Filled all the wondering stars with joy.
Col1v18
As the entire universe subsists or holds together in Him, and as He
is the Head of all principality and authority (chapter 2.10), so is
He the Head of the Church which is His Body.
This Church is
comprised of all His members, all the redeemed of this dispensation
of grace who are baptized in one Spirit into one Body (1 Corinthians
12.12,13).
As Head He is the Centre of its unity, and the Source
of its life.
He is its Creator, Builder and Preserver, the Centre
of its love and sympathy, and its Nourisher and Cherisher.
In due
time He will present it to Himself in all the sweet loveliness with
which He has adorned her, for she will be without spot or wrinkle.
Then will she stand complete as a wife to her Heavenly Bridegroom.
"Who is the Beginning" (present tense), not who was the Beginning.
This is He who says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega ... the Beginning
and the End" (Revelation 22.13.
As Head He is the Beginning of the
Church, but this statement, I judge, is not limited to the Church,
but reveals Him as the One who has absolute priority in a sense
which is beyond human imagination.
He is the Head of all, whether
it be the beginning of Genesis 1.1 and John 1.1, the beginning of
human creation (Mark 10.6), the beginning of the Gospel (Mark 1.1),
or the beginning of the Church, the Body (Acts 2.11-15), or if there
be any other beginning in time or times eternal, He is the
Beginning, and there can be no beginning without Him.
"The Firstborn from the dead," that is, He is the first to rise of
that company of which He is the first-fruits - they that are
Christ's, the vast number of the redeemed who shall rise and leave
other dead persons in their graves.
He is also "the Firstborn of
the dead" (Revelation 1.5), of all the dead, both just and unjust.
He is Head, Beginning, Firstborn, "that in all things He might have
the preeminence."
"In all things," how inclusive! and who can
doubt it in the face of the testimony of John who heard ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying, "Worthy is
the Lamb that hath been slain," and also every created thing
ascribing to God and to the Lamb, the blessing, the honour, the
glory, the dominion, for ever and ever (Revelation 5.12,13)?
Col1v19
Who could contain such a content, such a complement, such a
plenitude, as the whole fulness of God, but one who is God? and it
was God's good pleasure that in the Son of His love such divine
fulness should dwell or "have its permanent abode".
Preeminence,
fulness and reconciliation are here seen inter-related.
A picture
of this is seen in Joseph in Egypt in his position and wise
administration in that land.
He was raised by Pharaoh to a
position of absolute preeminence over his whole land and kingdom.
In him as governor the entire fulness of the storehouses full of
golden grain reposed.
"Go to Joseph" was Pharaoh's word to all his
people, and of his fulness they received bushel upon bushel.
It
was by means of his corn, which proved to be salvation for all, that
the whole land and people of Egypt were put on a different footing
relative to Pharaoh, his rule and portion.
"Thou hast saved our
lives," said they, "let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and
we will be Pharaoh's servants" (Genesis 47.25).
This is a shadow
of the immensely greater fact.
All the fulness of the Godhead
dwells in Christ, and through His crosswork there will be a
restitution of things.
Col1v20
"Through Him" is through Christ, and "unto Himself" means unto
God.
The way in which reconciliation is accomplished is by the
peace He made through the blood of His cross.
A stupendous change
is contemplated here.
"Things" in the New Testament frequently
means "persons" (1 Corinthians 1.28), but whether "all things"
relates to intelligent beings is somewhat difficult to say.
There
is in view some radical change in things in heaven and earth in
consequence of the work of the cross.
There is no reconciliation
"of things under the earth", in hell.
We may be perfectly certain
that, whatever the "all things" include, and whatever restitution
may result from the peace Christ has made, "all things" do
not include "the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25.41), nor the
wicked dead who shall be commanded to depart into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels - eternal punishment - nor
those whose part will be in the lake of fire (Matthew 25.46; 2
Thessalonians 1.9; Revelation 14.10; 20.10,15; 21.8).
Universal
restitution of all created things to a state of reconciliation and
salvation is nowhere taught in the Scriptures.
Col1v21
The Colossians before they heard the word of the truth of the gospel
from Epaphras were estranged - strangers to grace and to God, an
alien folk, and not only aliens, but enemy aliens; they were
enemies in their mind and such a habit of mind found expression in
their evil works. But they had been reconciled; they were no
longer enemies and strangers, they were friends, fellow citizens
with the saints.
What blessed concord follows reconciliation
through the blood of His cross!
Peace whispers its message from
Calvary - Peace! for Christ has died, and, overawed, perchance, the
listener rises to gaze upon the strange spectacle of the Man of
Calvary, and perhaps to sing as the pious Newton did long ago I saw One hanging on a tree
In agonies and blood,
Who cast His holy eyes on me
As near His cross I stood.
Col1v22
"In the body of His flesh through death": this is the base of true
reconciliation.
To be reconciled describes the renewed condition
of the believer toward God produced by the death of Christ.
God
did not need to be reconciled to man; His attitude to man was one
of love.
Man was an enemy and hater of God, hence the need of his
being reconciled.
The heart of man was too hard for anything but
the death of Christ to soften it.
The death of God's incarnate Son
turns man's stony heart to tears as did divine goodness to Israel,
the rock in Horeb to streams of water.
This reconciliation has in view a time when believers will be
presented to God.
The One who will present those who are
reconciled is evidently the Son, and the presentation is to God the
Father.
This is not the presentation of the Church the Body by the
Lord to Himself in His own beauty and worth, without spot or wrinkle
(Ephesians 5.27), but is the same as that of which Jude 24 speaks:
"Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set
you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding
joy."
To be holy, without blemish and unreproveable, as mentioned
in the verse under consideration, describes a condition which is
dependent upon the believer's obedience, as the following verse
shows.
Col1v23
To be without blemish and unreproveable is conditioned by "if so be
ye continue in the Faith."
Every believer by reason of divine
election and saving grace is in a state of being holy and without
blemish before Him (God) in love (Ephesians 1.4), but such in
another sense will be blemished and blameworthy if they do not
continue in the Faith.
In the coming day of Christ there will be a
double presentation, (1) the presentation of the Church by Christ to
Himself, and (2) the presentation of saints to God, which may be at
or subsequent to the judgement-seat of Christ.
"Grounded and stedfast" was how they were to continue in the Faith.
"Grounded" in the original is a verbal form of the word for
foundation.
Parkhurst says that it means "to found, settle, or
establish on a foundation, in a spiritual sense."
The Faith is the
foundation, as we have it also spoken of in Jude 20: "But ye,
beloved, building yourselves on your most holy Faith," etc.
This
grounding or building on the foundation was to be done stedfastly or
firmly.
They were not to be moved away or shifted from the hope of
the gospel.
Then Paul alludes to what he said in chapter 1.5,6 as
to the extensive promulgation of the gospel in all creation under
heaven, and he adds, "whereof I Paul was made a minister," or deacon.
Thus he concludes one of the most remarkable descriptions of our
blessed Lord to be found anywhere in the Scriptures.
He, Paul, the
once proud Pharisee, the chief of sinners, was now a lowly deacon of
the greatest of all themes - the gospel of God concerning His Son.
The Son of His love is here shown to be the Redeemer and Sin-Bearer,
the Image of God and the Firstborn of all creation, the Creator and
Upholder of all, pre-existent and preeminent, the Head of the Body,
the Beginning, and the Firstborn from the dead, the One in whom
Divine fulness permanently resides, the Reconciler and Peace
Maker.
All this with a depth and profundity rolls past our mind's
eye like a mighty river, a depth that no human mind can fathom, but
where faith finds waters abundant to swim in.
Here may the sons of deepest want
Exhaustless riches find.
Riches above what earth can grant
And lasting as the mind.
Col1v24
So highly did Paul esteem the saints, the fruit of the gospel, that
he rejoiced in his sufferings for their sake.
Though they were but
of the foolish things in this world, yet by grace they were citizens
of heaven, and the excellent of the earth.
Paul further says that
he filled up that which was lacking of the afflictions of Christ in
his flesh for His (Christ's) Body's sake.
The afflictions of
Christ must not be confused with the vicarious sufferings of
Christ.
No believer can have fellowship in such suffering; the
afflictions are the sufferings of Christ in this scene at the hands
of men when He sought to fulfil the will of God during His earthly
ministry.
Such sufferings may abound to us (2 Corinthians 1.5),
and in such sufferings we may share (Philippians 3.10).
Natural
children are not born without the pain and labour of childbirth, and
spiritual children are not begotten without travail.
Members of
Christ, once sinners ready to perish, are not brought into union
with Christ without those who are used as instruments knowing
something of the afflictions of Christ.
Alas, how very much may be
lacking of the afflictions of Christ in our flesh for His Body's
sake!
Some have travailed in birth in foreign lands (speaking
figuratively) for His Body's sake, that the elect might obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (2 Timothy 2.
10).
Paul said to Timothy, "Take thy part in suffering hardship as
a good soldier of Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2.3, R.V.Marg.), and he
himself said later in the same chapter (verse 9), "I suffer hardship
unto bonds, as a malefactor" in connexion with what he called "my
gospel".
We have each our part to play, some greater than others,
and each our part to endure of the afflictions of Christ in our
flesh, for His Body's sake, but these, also, may be sadly lacking,
and in consequence much of our work will remain undone.
Let us
take our part in suffering hardship, and fill up that which is
lacking of the afflictions of Christ.
Col1v25
Paul was a deacon of the gospel and a deacon of the Body, to preach
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what was
the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages was hid in God
who created all things (Ephesians 3.8,9).
This dispensation,
stewardship, or economy (the way in which God has disposed things in
this period from Pentecost to the Lord's coming to the air) of God
was given to Paul, as he says, to you-ward.
"You-ward" primarily
means the Colossians, but not these only; it embraces all saints of
this dispensation.
"To fulfil the word of God" has reference to the will of God
peculiar to this dispensation.
The Old Testament reveals much
relative to the human race, the patriarchs, and the nation of
Israel, both as to the past and as to the prophetic future, and the
Gentiles in relation to God's ancient people; but the word of God
would have been incomplete apart from the revelation of the mystery
of the Body of Christ.
To the apostle Paul in a very special
manner and especially toward the Gentiles was this stewardship
committed. Now the word of God is complete; the entire area of His
dealings with mankind has been covered and God will in due time
implement every promise and fulfil every prophecy.
Col1v26
This marvellous secret has now been revealed which was hid in God
the Creator from all principalities and powers during all ages, and
from all generations of men in time.
We can now look back into the
Old Testament and see in type, such as in Adam and Eve, the
foreshadowing of that which was yet to be revealed, but to the
patriarchs and the prophets, to angels and archangel, Adam and Eve
were but Adam and Eve; they saw nothing of Christ and the Church in
that pair who were the centre of divine purpose and of earthly
government relative to the cosmos which God had brought out of
chaos.
We, enlightened by the Spirit, see in Eve and certain other
brides in Scripture shadows of the mystery of Christ and the Church,
this that is now manifested to the saints.
It is a privilege to
know such a secret and a greater privilege to be partakers of the
riches of this great mystery.
Col1v27
What divine favour is shown us here that this mystery should be
revealed to us, and that we should be sharers in the wealth of its
glory, that Christ should be in us, He who is the hope of glory!
To us who are Gentiles in the flesh, once alienated from Israel's
ancient commonwealth, has come this abundance of God's grace.
Christ is in each member of His Body; His Spirit indwells and His
life possesses and flows through the entire organism, producing a
unity which is indestructible and giving a hope which the darkest
hour cannot efface.
Well might Peter write as he did when he
thought of the glory of that future day when we shall see our
eternal Lover - "whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now
ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy
unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1.8).
"Joy unspeakable"!
"Full of glory"! do we know by experience what such words mean?
Col1v28
Here the proclamation of Christ is associated with practical results
in the lives of believers, for whilst Christ will present every one
perfect in His own perfect work in that coming day, yet Paul
anticipated to present, through the effects of his ministry, every
man perfect in Christ.
He wrote to the Thessalonians and said
that they were his hope and joy and crown of glorying before our
Lord Jesus Christ at His coming (1 Thessalonians 2.19), and where
saints turned back he spoke of having laboured in vain (Galatians 4.
11; 1 Thessalonians 3.5).
Col1v29
What labour!
What profit!
God working in him supplied the power
and with him was the willingness.
Such self-sacrificing labour is
much like what he wrote of to the Philippians: "Yea, and if I am
offered ("poured out as a drink offering." R.V.Marg.) upon the
sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
all" (Philippians 2.17).
He truly spent his life for others, but
his will be a saved life for eternity.
Col2v1
In the previous chapter (1.28,29) Paul speaks of his labour and his
striving to present every man perfect in Christ, so here he would
have the Colossians know how much he strove for them and for those
at Laodicea and for as many as had not seen his face in the flesh.
We may safely infer that Paul had no personal acquaintance with the
Colossians and the Laodiceans; these with others had not seen
him.
This striving was in prayer, I judge, as we have it referred
to in chapter 1.3,9.
This should be an incentive to us to strive
in prayer for many that we have never seen and may never see on
earth. What a service we may render them in this respect, and they
also for us!
Col2v2
"That their hearts may be comforted," or rather confirmed or
encouraged, for the evil in view in this chapter is not that of
persecution and suffering, but of being drawn away from Christ by
the philosophy and vain deceit of the evil workers who sought to
make a prey of the saints.
Thus they required to be confirmed in
their faith and knit together in love (for knowledge puffeth up, but
love buildeth up - 1 Corinthians 8.1, R.V.M.) that they might
advance "unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding".
The true wealth of man is in his mind, not his pocket, and this
enrichment is definitely associated here with the saints being "knit
together in love".
This full assurance of understanding is unto a full or thorough
knowledge of the mystery of God, even Christ.
We follow the R.V.
here, though there is some difference of mind as to the original
text.
That blessed One who is God and Man - Christ - is the Divine
Treasury; and what a privilege it is, as Spirit-taught, to acquire a
thorough knowledge of Him as revealed in the Scriptures, that is, in
so far as we may with our limited capacity.
Christ is to be seen
in all the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.
Paul wrote at
this time to the Philippians, when he was such a one as Paul the
aged, expressing his intense longing in the words - "that I may know
Him".
"I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3.8,10).
Col2v3
Though these
reach; they
them.
Here
that seeketh
treasures are hidden in Christ they are not beyond our
are accessible to the believer who would search for
it is true: "Seek, and ye shall find" ... "for ... he
findeth."
Treasure is kept in secret, it is hidden.
There is a false wisdom, that which is earthly and demoniacal (James
3.14,15), but Christ is the treasure house of all true wisdom and
knowledge.
He is as a mine from which every kind of gem to adorn
the mind may be dug.
The most pithy and witty of human sayings are
as proverbs of ashes compared with the delectable words of our
Lord.
Did they come from the end of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon?
Well, a Greater than Solomon is here.
Col2v4
What is in Christ - all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge - was
stated in order that no one by false reasoning and persuasive speech
might deceive them and lead them astray.
Human reason is
frequently a menace to the acceptance by simple faith of divine
revelation.
High sounding words, on the one hand, and the
limitations of human knowledge and experience, on the other, are
liable to lead away the heart from Christ.
Col2v5
Paul, though absent in bodily presence, yet was present in the
spirit (not the Holy Spirit, but his own spirit); this means that
he had an accurate knowledge of the state of the Colossian church,
this having been communicated to him by Epaphras who was now with
him in Rome.
In his spirit he beheld, as though he were actually present with
them, their order and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ.
It has been stated that the word order (Taxis) means "orderly
array", and is a military metaphor.
Steadfastness (Stereoma) means
a "solid front, close phalanx", also a military metaphor, and shows
the order and solidity of an individual church.
Col2v6
This verse has been punctuated thus, "As therefore ye received the
Christ, Jesus the Lord."
They received by faith the Christ in whom are all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge hidden, and the Christ is Jesus the Lord, and
as they received Him by faith they are to walk in Him by faith.
It
is in the matter of walking by faith that so many fail.
The one
act of faith in the Redeemer is to be followed by a life of faith.
We cannot turn back from the results that this one act of faith has
brought us, but we can draw back from the path of faith.
"My righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him"
(Hebrews 10.38).
Col2v7
Two tenses are used here.
"Rooted" is in the perfect participle;
they were firmly rooted and remain so.
"Builded up" is in the
present participle which shows that building which goes on
continually.
As having been and remaining rooted in Christ and
being builded up in Him, they are to be stablished (present
participle) or confirmed in their faith in Him, thus they would
remain true to what they had learned from the faithful Epaphras.
And as they viewed their position and portion in Christ it was
fitting that they should abound in thanksgiving.
Col2v8
The Colossians were to look out because of a peril which was
imminent, against which they must be on their guard, lest any one
(dangerous persons of whom Paul had had experience, as to their
practice of leading saints away as their prey) should make them his
spoil. He warned the Ephesians of similar danger, of being
"children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of
error" (Ephesians 4.14).
Philosophy, held in high esteem of old in
Greece and also by many today, is seen in bad company here.
Indeed
Paul views "philosophy and vain deceit" as twin brothers.
He
thought but little of philosophy, which is the product of the human
mind and not of the mind of God.
"After the traditions of men"; here is the source of philosophy, it
is human and not divine, tradition and not revelation.
It is
antagonistic to all that is to be found in Christ, who is the
Revealer of God.
Though highly esteemed by some it is after all but
elementary, but the rudiments of the world belonging to the earthly,
carnal, material and external sphere of things, and not suited to
the spiritual man, who is to find his whole source of supply in
Christ.
Christ is the source of all spiritual life, of all true
wisdom and knowledge, and the perfect rule of faith and conduct.
Col2v9
Here we have the reason why such traditional wisdom, such vain
philosophy, was to be eschewed, because in Christ abides for ever the
fulness of the Godhead.
"The fulness" signifies "the totality of
the divine powers and attributes".
"Of the Godhead," Trench in his
"Synonyms" writes - "Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells
all the fulness of absolute Godhead; they were no mere rags of
divine glory which gilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season
and with a splendour not His own, but He was, and is, absolute and
perfect God; and the apostle uses Theotes to express the essential
and personal Godhead of the Son."
This divine fulness dwells
eternally in the Son, because He is God.
"Bodily" means in
Christ's human body.
No wonder the apostle asserts in verse 3 "In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden".
Col2v10
"In Him are ye made full."
Here we have the perfect participle
again, showing they were and still are complete in Christ and require
nothing supplementary from philosophy, circumcision and law-keeping,
or any other source, to make them more complete.
Our fulness is in
Him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead.
For of His fulness
have we all received, and grace for grace (John 1.16).
"Who is the Head of all principality and authority."
Every form of
heavenly government finds its source of life and energy in Him, for
all were created in Him (chapter 1.16).
All such are subject to
His sovereign authority.
He is Head over all things (Ephesians 2.
21,22).
Col2v11
Circumcision was the great primal rite of the people of Israel. No
one could be joined to the nation or partake of the privileges of
Israel's religious life who was not circumcised.
In this verse, in
contrast to Israel's circumcision we have the circumcision of
Christ, which is "the putting off of the body of the flesh."
"Our
old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done
away" Romans 6.6).
We were crucified, and died in God's reckoning,
at the time of our regeneration. Paul says, "I have been crucified
with Christ; yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in
me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself
up for me" Galatians 2.20).
As every believer begins his spiritual
life by being regenerated, so every believer is circumcised, the
flesh is cut away, and he is no longer in the flesh, but in the
Spirit (Romans 8.9).
Israel's circumcision is the type, but Christ
is the antitype.
Col2v12
Baptism is the grave of the believer.
He is buried with Christ
through baptism.
The old man was crucified with Christ.
The
regenerated man, not regenerated by water baptism, but by faith in
Christ, rises from the waters of baptism to walk in newness of life
(Romans 6.4,5).
Those who have been buried with Him in baptism are
raised with Him through faith in the working of God.
Baptism is
more than a dipping in water for the believer, for as God raised
Christ from the dead, he is to realize by faith that he too has been
raised by the operation of God.
Col2v13
This verse contains similar truth to that of Ephesians 2.5, where we
read, "When we were dead through our trespasses, (He) quickened us
together with Christ."
Death here is not because of Adam's sin,
but because of the personal trespasses of the sinner.
The
consequence of sin is death.
The uncircumcision of the flesh
describes that state of corruption in which the sinner is by nature,
till, having believed in Christ, he has been quickened and delivered
from that sinful state, and is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit
(Romans 8.9).
He has passed from death to life, from being in Adam
to being in Christ, from a state of sin to one of righteousness,
having had all his trespasses forgiven.
Col2v14
It is now impossible to trespass the law of ordinances because God
has blotted out the bond written (or handwriting) in ordinances or
decrees which was against and contrary to us.
This bond is
undoubtedly the Mosaic law, and through failure to keep it man
became a transgressor. The Jewish believer who had been forgiven
through the sacrificial work of Christ would inevitably have become
a transgressor had he still been under law, and the Gentiles who had
believed would have been in like condemnation had truth been on the
side of the Judaizing teachers and had they brought them under the
law of Moses, for they said, "Except ye be circumcised after the
custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved" (Acts 15.1).
Paul shows in
Galatians 5.3 that the man who received circumcision was "a debtor
to do the whole law", and also if he received circumcision Christ
would profit him nothing (verse 2).
This bond to which Israel
subscribed at Sinai has been removed; it has been nailed to the
cross. The work of Christ on the cross has discharged the bond.
There every claim that the law could make has been fully met.
He
is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth
(Romans 10.4).
We cannot now become dead through trespasses, for
we are not under law.
"Ye are not under law, but under grace"
(Romans 6.14).
"We have been discharged from the law, having died
to that wherein we were holden" (Romans 7.6).
Law cannot enact
upon a dead man.
Now being quickened with Christ we are free from
all obligation to the law, so far as our having been justified with
the justification of life is concerned.
We are discharged from the
law and the law itself has been taken out of the way.
Col2v15
This is confessedly a difficult verse to understand.
The American
revisers translate it, "Having despoiled the principalities and
powers".
This practically agrees with the rendering in the
Englishman's Greek New Testament, "having stripped the
principalities and powers".
Ancient Greek commentators viewed the passage as showing how the
Lord stripped off from Himself the powers of evil that assailed Him
with their temptations during the days of His flesh; over these He
was completely victorious.
The Latin commentators interpret the
verse as signifying the stripping or putting off of His body in the
victory of the Cross, which view is followed in the R.V. marginal
reading.
The first question that arises is whether the antecedent of this
verse is "God" or "Christ".
Verse 13 says, "You ... did He quicken
together with Him, having forgiven ... " (verse 14) " ... having
blotted out" (verse 15) " ... having put off."
The parallel
passage in Ephesians 2.4,5, shows that the act of quickening is
God's act, so that the antecedent of this verse we judge to be
God.
God nailed the handwriting of decrees to the cross, the law
which was given through angels (Hebrews 2.2; Acts 7.53), and in so
removing and doing away with the bond He has triumphed over or led
in triumph those through whom the law was given (not fallen angels,
but angels who have kept their principality - principalities and
authorities).
This same word is used in 2 Corinthians 2.14, which
shows God leading men in triumph in Christ.
The bond is removed by
the cross and the principalities and authorities are stripped or
despoiled.
God is triumphant in the triumph of the cross; why
then should there be the worshipping of angels, as in verse 18, an
error into which the Colossians were liable to fall?
The foregoing is offered as a contribution to a difficult verse and
is made suggestively.
Col2v16
In view of the fundamental change which has taken place, as is
indicated in verses 13-15, in that the law with its ordinances is
now removed through the work of Christ, no man is to be allowed to
condemn the saints in the matter of eating or drinking, or in regard
to a feast day, weekly or monthly.
None of the rites and
ceremonies of the dispensation of law is binding on disciples in
this day of grace: we are free from legal bondage to ordinances.
Col2v17
Here we have the Substance and the shadow.
The body which cast its
shadow in the Typical ordinances of the past is Christ's.
When men
reach the Substance they can disengage themselves from the shadows.
"In Him the shadows of the law
Are all fulfilled, and now withdraw."
Col2v18
The Colossians are warned against the false teacher who would
obstruct and fraudulently deprive them of the prize held out by
Christ; the purpose of the false teacher ("of his own mere will," R.
V.Marg.) was to side-track them into what must be mere
pseudo-humility and a worshipping of angels.
Angelolatry is but a
form of idolatry.
John wrote of the angel which showed him the
things of the book of Revelation; "I fell down to worship before
the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
And he saith
unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and
with thy brethren the prophets, and with them which keep the words
of this book: worship God" (Revelation 22.8,9).
Such a false teacher is said to dwell in or stand upon what he has
seen.
He is not such an one as the apostle who said, "We walk by
faith, not by sight."
The description of his carnal mind shows how
truly the humility of this verse is a false humility, for he is said
to be "vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh."
He was a proud,
carnally minded individual masquerading as a humble and enlightened
teacher of divine things.
Col2v19
Whilst every member of the body is joined to Christ, the Head of the
Body, with indissoluble ties, he is nevertheless responsible to hold
fast the Head so that he may receive the spiritual nourishment
essential to his growth and development.
Only in the sense of
communion and consequent growth can it be said, as in Galatians 5.4,
"Ye are severed from Christ."
Our communion with Christ can be
severed, but not our union with Him.
As to our union with Christ
there can be no severance or separation.
But as John 15.6 shows, a
believer may not abide in Christ, and, as a branch severed from the
vine, there is no spiritual nourishment, no growth and consequent
fruitbearing.
The believer becomes spiritually dead and unfruitful.
All the body is supplied from the Head; this is also true of the
human body.
As the human body is knit together by joints (the
contacts which separate parts make with each other), and bands (the
ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves) which bind all together, so
in a spiritual sense is the Body of Christ knit together.
By the
joints and bands spiritual food is ministered to the members which
produces the due increase: it "increaseth with the increase of God.
"
Spiritual ministry essential to growth is to be given by such as
are viewed as joints and bands, men who were given by the ascended
Christ, for the perfecting of the saints and the building up or
edifying of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4.11,12).
Col2v20,21,22
If the believer is complete or made full in Christ he has no need to
return to the rudimentary things and to put himself under
meaningless prohibitions as though Christian life is to be one of
"Don'ts" - "handle not, taste not, touch not."
He is freeborn, and
has the living word of God for his food and guidance; he is indwelt
by the Holy Spirit; his life is therefore to be vital and
aggressive in the service of Christ.
Why should he subject himself
to mere negative things, to precepts and doctrines of men, mere
human prohibitions in regard to externals and leave the things
eternal in which he is to find his true occupation?
Col2v23
Human commands enjoining abstinence and prohibition have a
reputation for wisdom and voluntary worship, worship which emanates
from the human will and not from divine revelation.
Subjecting the
body to hard treatment may appear very laudatory, but it is useless
in dealing with the corruption of human nature; it is not a true
remedy for the indulgence of the flesh.
God's way of dealing with
the flesh as to its appetites is not by abstinence, but by death.
"If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world" - this is
the true remedy.
We have died to the things wherein we were
occupied, and henceforth it is a new life in Christ that is the
vital matter.
Col3v1
If they, the Colossian saints, died with Christ, as in chapter 2.20,
to all rudimentary, mundane things, to things below, they are now to
seek the things that are above, because of the fact that they were
raised together with Christ.
In Ephesians 2.6 our being raised
with Christ has in view the coming display of divine grace - "That in
the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in
kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."
In Colossians our being
raised with Christ is to have a present effect in our lives, we are
to seek heavenly things, the things which are where Christ is seated
on the right hand of God.
Heavenly men should seek heavenly things.
Col3v2
Heavenly men should also be heavenly-minded; their thoughts should
be occupied with heavenly things, as one has put it, "You must not
only seek heaven, you must also think heaven."
It is alas only too
true that many believers are earthly-minded; they maintain the
silence of death when one speaks to them of heavenly things.
Novel
reading, the radio, and many other undesirable things occupy their
time and divert their mind from heavenly things, till their heavenly
character is lost and they become like mere worldlings.
The
believer should be careful about what occupies his mind, for his
mind will affect his manners, it hews out his character - and
character is imperishable, therefore the thoughts of his mind will
affect him both in time and eternity.
Col3v3
The believer who has died, his life is hidden out of sight.
It is
a life the world knows nothing of.
He has died to the world and
its things, and in consequence his life is not in that sphere
wherein he formerly lived and found his pleasure.
As Paul says
here, "Your life is hid with Christ in God."
It is hidden now but
the day of manifestation will come.
Col3v4
"As He (Christ) is, even so are we in this world" (1 John 4.17).
He died and passed from this world.
The world saw Him no more
after His body was laid in Joseph's new tomb.
Christ is the hidden
life of the believer, for He is alive, raised and glorified, and
when He shall be manifested then shall we also be manifested in
glory.
In a sense it has ever been true that God's saints have
been hidden ones in this world "They take crafty counsel against Thy people,
And consult together against Thy hidden ones"
(Psalm 83.3).
This manifestation in glory is "When He shall come to be glorified
in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed" (2
Thessalonians 1.10.
Col3v5
The principle of death and resurrection is to find expression in the
life of the believer in the world, consequently he must mortify or
kill his immoral members, the members of the old man, which are upon
the earth of which there are five - "fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness."
As men ever leave a
physical impress of five - five fingers, five toes, even so morally
these five forms of sin are in evidence in all humanity.
Number
"five" in Scripture frequently indicates weakness, and sin ever
brings weakness.
In these sins we see the gratification of self in
the corrupt desires of the human heart.
This is especially so in
covetousness, wherein the human soul is devoted to the native
greediness that is inherent in man, and it becomes a form of
worship, a most pernicious form of idolatry.
Indeed most forms
of idolatry which have blighted this earth are corroded through and
through with covetousness.
The greediness of priestcraft is proverbial.
horse-leach which says, "Give, Give."
It is like the
Col3v6
Whilst God punishes men even in this life for their vice, His wrath
will eventually come upon all the sons of disobedience.
Eternal
punishment will be the portion of the disobedient.
His wrath on
Sodom and Gomorrah for their uncleanness is a singular proof of
God's judgement, and those wicked cities of the plain are suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire.
Col3v7
These things being their members, they formerly lived in them, and
they regulated their habits - they walked in them.
Were they in a
worse case than we?
Nay verily!
These things have characterized
men in all time.
Col3v8
Not only were they to kill and consequently put away their immoral
members, they were to put away the whole crop of the product of
fallen nature.
Sins of an uncharitable kind are specified by Paul,
of the same number as our members which are upon the earth - anger,
wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking, all of them sins which are
plainly against the terms of the moral law, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself."
Anger "denotes a more or less settled
feeling of hatred"; wrath, "a tumultuous outburst of passion."
Malice is the "vicious nature which is bent on doing harm to others.
"
Railing (blasphemy) is "evil speaking or slandering."
Shameful
speaking is "filthy talking" or "abusive conversation" or
"foul-mouthed abuse."
How unbecoming for a Christian man to
harbour such guests!
They were his friends once, but he must put
them away if he would enjoy the Lord's friendship.
Col3v9
I remember a conversation with a believer who was greatly disturbed
about a Christian telling a lie to another, in view of what is said
in Revelation 22.15; "without are the dogs ... and every one that
loveth and maketh a lie," as to whether making a known lie and
telling it affected the eternal security of the believer in
Christ.
Those who understand clearly what it means to be in Christ
are not so disturbed, but also it is sadly true for one Christian to
tell a lie knowingly to another.
It ought not so to be, but if it
were not possible there would be no need to be exhorted against
it.
The reason given here why we ought not to lie is because we
have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new
man.
In Ephesians 4.25 we are enjoined to truthfulness because we
are members one of another.
Col3v10
Ephesians 4.22 exhorts us to put off the old man as to our former
conduct, and to put on the new (kainos) man.
Kainos means fresh,
as to quality and condition, in contrast to that which is old,
effete, jaded and languid.
But in Colossians 3.10 we have to put
on the new (neos) man, one who is new, as being young, a new man who
has just been born, in contrast to an old man, which describes our
standing in Adam.
Neos "refers solely to time"; Kainos "denotes
quality also."
Colossians 3.9,10 states a fact that at the time of
the new birth we put off the old man and put on the new, but
Ephesians 4.22-24 exhorts us to put off the old man as concerning
our manner of life and to put on the new.
The new (neos) man or
regenerate man is ever or continually being renewed unto full
or perfect knowledge according to the image of God.
The divine
impress of the image of God upon the soul becomes more and more
deepened as the believer increases in the knowledge of God.
"This
is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and
Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ" (John 17.3).
Col3v11
In regard to being a new man, in this estate there cannot be
national, religious, cultural, or social distinctions. Christ
obliterates all these differences, for "Christ is all"; and He
permeates the life of all believers, for He is "in all".
Ye all
are one man in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3.28).
Col3v12,13
Having put on the new man (verse 10), it is proper that Christians
should be arrayed in befitting garments.
The elect or chosen ones
of God are both holy and beloved.
The excellences mentioned in
this verse were seen perfectly expressed in Christ, and He being
"all, and in all", all other differences which distinguish mankind,
such as Greek, Jew, Scythian, and so forth, having been swept away,
so far as believers are concerned, such graces should be seen in all
His followers.
"A heart (or bowels) of compassion": heart here is splagchna, which
describes the inwards, the seat of sympathetic feelings.
In 2
Corinthians 7.15 the word is rendered "inward affection".
It is
used in Luke 1.78 in the words, "the tender mercy of our God", and
in Philippians 1.8 in "the tender mercies of Christ Jesus".
"Kindness," signifies utility, usefulness, beneficence.
In
Ephesians 2.7 and Titus 3.4 we have God's kindness to us in Christ
Jesus, the bestowal upon us of that which we so much needed.
This
bestowing of what was needed is eminently seen in the story of David
and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9).
How useful to Mephibosheth were the
gifts of David!
"Humility" means to be of a lowly mind, to be humble in thought,
which finds its expression in humility of conduct.
It signifies
modesty.
~he word is rendered "lowliness of mind" in Philippians 2.
3.
"Meekness" is gentleness, lenity, mildness, and is opposed to
rudeness, harshness.
The Lord is meek and lowly in heart (Matthew
11.29).
Moses was more meek than any man on earth in his day.
Paul intreated the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness of
Christ (2 Corinthians 10.1), and who would not yield on that ground?
"Longsuffering" means to be patient, clement, and is the opposite of
resentment or revenge.
The adverbial form of the word is rendered
"patiently" in Acts 26.3.
"Forbearing one another": forbearing means "to hold self back", to
support, to endure, bear with.
Solomon says -
"By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded,
And a soft tongue breaketh the bone" (Proverbs 25.15).
"Forgiving each other": this means to be gracious to, not to exact,
to forgive freely.
There will always be something to bear and
forbear, always something to forgive.
The forgiveness by
Christians of each other is to be after the pattern in which they
have each been forgiven by the Lord, with that freeness and speed
and with no harking back on what is forgiven.
"Love covereth a
multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4.8).
Col3v14
Upon all these, over and above all these excellencies "the" love
which is or should be proper to the Christian is to be put on.
This
"outer garment holds all others in their places" and is the bond of
perfectness, it completes all the rest.
Col3v15
The "peace of Christ" is what He gave to His disciples ere He left
them in the night of the betrayal, when He said, "My peace I give
unto you" (John 14.27).
This peace is to rule or arbitrate (R.V.
Marg.) in the heart; it is to be the decider or umpire when two or
more thoughts are in conflict. If peace gave its decision in the
conflict of the mind, and if this applied not merely to one but to
all, how harmonious would be the collective life of believers!
There would be one heart and one soul.
It is to peace we are
called in one Body - and there can be no schism in a body (1
Corinthians 12.25) - but it is failure to recognize we are members
of one Head and members one of another, and that Christ cannot be
divided (1 Corinthians 1.13), that has led to serious disturbances,
resulting in self-chosen paths and sectarianism with their carnal
warfare and strife and attendant grief and misery.
Let us be
thankful we have been called in one Body and seek to enjoy the
decisions of peace, peace which is given, not as the world giveth.
Col3v16
"The word of Christ": this phrase is found nowhere else in the New
Testament.
It denotes the word Christ spoke and speaks, the
inspired word.
This word is to dwell in each and all richly.
This can only be realized as there is the continual reading of,
and prayerful meditation in, the word.
There must be an appetite
for the word, and a vigorous appetite can only be ours as things
harmful to spiritual life are abandoned.
The world has many decoys
to draw away the Christian from his Bible, many ways of swallowing
up his time so that there is little leisure for meditation, and
often, alas, instead of a rich indwelling of the word there is
barrenness of soul.
This leads to poverty of thought in ministry,
and instead of the scribe bringing out of his treasure things new
and old there is much staleness.
"In all wisdom": there may be difference of mind whether to take
these words, as punctuated in A.V. and R.V., with the preceding
clause or with what follows. The believer's wisdom comes from the
word of Christ - Christ is his wisdom, and the more He knows of Him
the wiser He will become.
But the word which dwells in him richly
may in all wisdom be applied in teaching and admonition.
How
excellent is the word when applied with wisdom!
"The heart of the wise instructeth his mouth,
And addeth learning to his lips" (Proverbs 16.23).
"The tongue of the wise uttereth knowledge aright"
(Proverbs 15.2).
"Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs: These three definitions would
not have been used if one would have conveyed fully the meaning of
the apostle, but to define exactly the difference of meaning in the
three is not easy.
"Psalms."
"Psalmos, from psao, properly a touching, and then a
touching of the harp or other stringed instrument with the finger or
plectrum, was next the instrument itself and last of all the song
sung with this musical instrument ...In all probability the Psalmoi
of Ephesians 5.19, Colossians 3.26, are the inspired psalms of the
Hebrew canon" - Trench.
See the following places where the word Psalm is used in the New
Testament.
Luke 20.42; 24.44; Acts 1.20; 13.33; 1 Corinthians
14.26; Ephesians 5.19; Colossians 3.16.
"Hymns": "Augustine in more places than one states the notes of
what in his mind are essentials of a hymn - which are three: (1) It
must be sung; (2) It must be praise; (3) It must be of God" Trench.
Besides Ephesians 5.19, Colossians 3.16, the word is used in its
verbal form humneo in Matthew 26.30, Mark 14.26, Acts 16.25, Hebrews
2.12.
"Spiritual Songs":
A song (ode) may be about any subject, but here
the word "spiritual" describes the kind of ode that the apostle
signifies.
It is concerning spiritual things.
In Revelation 5.9,
14.3, 15.3, we read of "a new song", and "the song of Moses ... and
the song of the Lamb."
The Lord's work in this dispensation and our experience thereof
require fitting words of praise and exultation, as truly as did men
of a past dispensation find in the psalms and songs of David, Asaph
and others, words to express their praise to Jehovah their God.
Whatever may be said about the word "Psalm", in this dispensation
there is no singing contemplated to the accompaniment of a musical
instrument in the assemblies of God's people, for in Ephesians 5.19
the singing (adontes, from the word 0de) and making melody
(psallontes, from the word psalmos) is with the heart to the Lord,
and not with either stringed or wind instruments.
The singing in Colossians 3.26 is with grace, that grace which we
have received which has produced a spirit of thankfulness within,
unto God.
Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are to have an outward
voice to one another in teaching and admonition, and an upward voice
to God in our singing with grace to Him.
Col3v17
The entire activity of the believer in word and work is to be
governed by the name of the Lord Jesus.
What a moderating
influence this would cast on all our speaking and doing, if we
remembered that all is to be done in His name!
Many words would be
left unspoken and deeds undone if this were the guiding principle of
our lives.
As with our words and works, so with our thanksgiving, it is through
Him this is to ascend unto God the Father.
Here we have the
guiding principle as to thanksgiving, it is to the Father through the
Son.
Col3v18
In this paragraph we have certain instructions regarding social and
domestic relationshps.
Wives are to be in subjection to their
husbands.
Subjection does not signify inferiority.
This
subjection is governed by the words "as is fitting in the Lord".
In Ephesians 5.23 we are told that the husband is the head of the
wife as Christ is Head of the Church.
The headship of the male over the female is dealt with in 1
Corinthians 11, where it is not the married state that is in view,
but the relationship of males and females in assembly life.
We are
told that the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the
man.
The same point is emphasized in 1 Timothy 2.11-15, where we
are told that Adam was first formed, then Eve, but she was first in
transgression; she was beguiled, but Adam was not.
Being "in the Lord" is not the equivalent of being "in Christ".
The latter, as in Romans 16.7, 2 Corinthians 5.17, 1 Thessalonians 4.
16, etc., describes what is true of all who are born again and are
members of Christ's Body, but the former describes such as are
subject to the will of the Lord, and also that which is done in
obedience to His will. We are told that our labour is not vain in
the Lord (1 Corinthians 15.58).
We read of those who are over us
in the Lord (the elders or overseers) and who admonish us (1
Thessalonians 5.12).
We are taught in 1 Corinthians 11.11 that
neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man
in the Lord; that is, in the church of God there are ever males and
females.
God never contemplates a fellowship of males without
females, nor females without males.
Marriage is in consequence to
be in the Lord (1 Corinthians 7.39).
Where marriage is in the Lord
we may expect to see wives in subjection to their husbands, as is
fitting in the Lord, and also children obedient to their parents in
the Lord, for this is right (Ephesians 6.1).
Onesimus was a brother in the flesh and in the Lord, for he was
subject to the same Lord and in the same fellowship as Philemon, and
he was a natural brother to Philemon as well, I judge (Philemon
16).
We read of brethren in the Lord (Philippians 1.14), and also
of a brother being received in the Lord (Philippians 2.29).
Col3v19
As the relationship of wife to husband is dealt with in Ephesians 5.
22-24, so the relationship of husband to wife is dealt with at
length in verses 25-33. Husbands are to love their wives as their
own bodies, even as they love themselves, and if this is so, then
there will be no bitter, harsh treatment of the wife by her husband.
Col3v20
Children here are especially children in the church in Colossae,
children in the Fellowship, whose parents were likewise in the
Fellowship.
Children thus come under the first form of divine
government, seen in the rule of parents, and here we are told that
obedience to parents is well-pleasing in the Lord.
The commandment
being exceeding broad (Psalm 119.96), the general principle of
obedience to parents enjoined in this verse should be observed,
whether parents are in the Fellowship or not.
The time might come
however, when, for the Lord's sake, children might be required by
their parents, who may not be in the Fellowship, to do what the
higher claims of the Lord forbade; then they would be faced with a
peculiarly difficult situation, and would have to beg their parents
to excuse them from doing what they could not do.
Col3v21
Fathers must not be too exacting upon their children, to provoke and
irritate them to the extent that they become discouraged and
dispirited.
Repeated punishment or restriction may cause children
to lose heart and may beget in them a sullen, moody disposition.
The tendency of the present age is in the other other direction.
Each child differs from another in a family, and each must be
treated according to the build of its mind; the wills of some are
more easily bent than others.
It is somewhat remarkable that there
is no word to mothers in this verse.
Though in the previous verse
it says, "Children, obey your parents," this verse is a word to
fathers in particular.
Col3v22,23,24,25
The word "servants" here means slaves or bondsrvants, not hired
servants; though such servants also may well find a guiding
principle of obedience to masters in such words.
Note here the
limitation that they are masters according to the flesh, and they
must not therefore infringe what properly belongs to the realm of
spiritual things.
The Christian servant has a supreme Master, the
Lord Christ.
He is not to give mere eyeservice, to work when his
master's eye is upon him; he is to work heartily as unto the Lord
and not unto men, for the Lord's eye is always upon him.
As a
God-fearing man he ought to be the best of servants, and he has good
cause to be, for he shall receive double recompense, such reward as
his earthly master gives, though it may have been meagre in some
cases, and from the Lord he shall receive the recompense of the
inheritance, which means the inheritance.
What slaves could not
hope to obtain, an inheritance, will be the slaves' portion from the
Lord.
See what is said about Eliezer in Genesis 15.2-4.
Even for
ordinary labour well done, the bondservant shall receive the Lord's
reward, if rendered heartily as to the Lord.
Servants should
remember this, and it will save them from thinking that only work
done in the spiritual sphere will be rewarded.
The opposite will be true in regard to the slave that wronged or
defrauded his master; he shall receive again for the wrong done,
perhaps even now, but certainly hereafter.
Col4v1
As Christian servants should be the best of servants, so Christians
should make the best of masters.
They should be just and fair in
their treatment of their servants.
The laws of Rome treated slaves
as chattels, and Greece was no better.
The slave had no rights,
for him there was no justice.
But Christian practice was to be on
the basis of what was just.
A balance of equity was to be
maintained by the Christian master, as to what was due to the slave,
in regard to his faithful service to his master.
"Equal" does not
mean that the slave was to be treated as his master's equal, even
though both were in the Fellowship, but he was to be treated with
justice and fairness, and there was to be no partiality in the
treatment of the several bondservants a master might have.
The
conduct of masters to their servants would be regulated and
moderated by the fact, as they remembered it, that they had a Master
in heaven and that they were His slaves.
Col4v2
The Colossians were to persevere or remain constant in prayer.
In
long-continued prayer we were liable to sag, to become listless or
to fall into a state of spiritual inertia, but this exhortation
enforces the necessity of watchfulness.
The Lord said to the disciples in Gethsemane, "Watch and pray"
(Matthew 26.41).
David also said in Psalm 5.3, "In the morning
will I order my prayer unto Thee, and will keep watch".
The state of watchfulness in Colossians 4.2 is to be "in
thanksgiving", in a cheerful, thankful spirit, not in a morbid,
grumbling disposition, if answers to prayer seem delayed.
We have
much to thank God for each day we live.
We should be Thankful
Thankful
Thankful
God, our
for our
for our
for our
God, is
being,
food,
clothing good.
Col4v3
Prisoners usually long for a door to be opened to let them out of
their captivity, but Paul, the prisoner of Rome, is anxious that God
would open a door for the entrance of the gospel.
The gospel is
described here as the mystery of Christ.
For this great mystery he
was in bonds.
His own liberty was of small importance provided
that the word of God, which is not bound (2 Timothy 2.9), entered
and brought life and liberty to those who were dead in, and bound
by, sin.
To this end he sought the prayers of the saints.
Col4v4
There is nothing of the spirit of the prison in these words.
and imprisonment had not damped his ardour.
His spirit is as
as when he breathed the desert air of Arabia, when he received
revelation of the gospel which he was to preach to Jew and
Gentile.
He longed to make the mystery of Christ manifest.
had the secret in his bosom of which the most of mankind were
unaware, and he earnestly desired to speak as he ought.
Bonds
free
the
He
Col4v5
The Christian's behaviour is to be characterized by wisdom.
How
often a foolish act, or foolish talking, has taken the lustre off
the testimony of a believer!
The words of the New Covenant which
are written on the hearts of saints, should be seen in their
exemplary ways, by those who are outside the pale of the churches of
God.
Every opportunity should be bought up.
Seasons for service,
and for the sowing of the seed, may never return to us again when
once they have slipped away.
Col4v6
There should be a winningness about the speech of a Christian
always.
A harsh, hard mode of speaking ill becomes a follower of
Him who said, "I am meek and lowly in heart".
But this pleasant,
gracious mode of speaking is not to be merely human niceness; such
speech may be too nice to be wholesome.
The believer's speech is
to be seasoned with salt, that is, in fitting measure the salt of
the word of God is to be added to Christian conversaton.
But we
need not overdo references to the Scriptures until we have added
salt in such quantity as to make our conversation altogether
nauseous to the hearer, as Pollock, the poet, writes of the
hypocrite " ... In sermon style he bought
And sold and lied; and salutations made
In Scripture terms."
We should remember that gracious speech is to be seasoned with salt,
so that we may be able to answer each one as we ought, whether it be
master or servant, parent or child, prince or peasant, friend or
foe.
The Christian's speech should be distinctive and
characteristic of Him whose he is and whom he serves.
Col4v7,8
Tychicus and Trophimus are said, in Acts 20.4, to be of Asia.
Trophimus is called, "Trophimus the Ephesian", in Acts 21.29.
It
is possible that both belonged to Ephesus.
The name of Tychicus
occurs several times in Paul's epistles (Ephesians 6.21; Colossians
4.7; 2 Timothy 4.12; Titus 3.12) .
He was with Paul in Rome till
almost the close of the apostle's ministry, and Paul says of him at
that time, "Tychicus I sent to Ephesus".
Earlier he had been sent
to Ephesus (Ephesians 6.21), and to Colossae (Colossians 4.7).
The
two visits probably took place in the same journey.
Then Paul
hoped to send Artemas or Tychicus to relieve Titus in Crete.
Paul highly commends this servant of the Lord; he describes him as
"the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the
Lord", honourable titles all of them.
He was sent to Colossae for
the double purpose, that the saints might know Paul's estate, and
that he might comfort or encourage their hearts, for the apostle's
imprisonment must have had a saddening and discouraging effect upon
them.
Col4v9
The Colossians may have known this man as a worthless fellow, who
became at length a runaway slave.
But now, instead of being
disloyal, as he had been to his master Philemon, he is called a
faithful brother and he was also a brother beloved.
Paul describes
him as "one of you".
The black record of the past may well be
forgotten on account of his excellent conduct since grace reached
him.
He who was a disgrace now adorns the doctrine of God our
Saviour.
Onesimus would be able to corroborate the facts as Tychicus related
them concerning all that was done in Rome.
What a story they would
have to tell of Rome in those days!
Col4v10
Aristarchus belonged to Thessalonica (Acts 20.4).
He with Luke
accompanied Paul on his journey to Rome (Acts 27.2).
Now he is
described by Paul as his fellow-prisoner.
Epaphras of whom we read
in Colossians 1.7; 4.12, is also called Paul's fellow-prisoner in
Philemon 23.
Mark is undoubtedly John Mark, who withdrew from the work (Acts 13.
13) and over whom Paul and Barnabas differed so sharply that they,
who had been sent forth of the Holy Spirit together (Acts 13.2),
parted company.
Barnabas, we are told, took Mark and sailed away
to Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas, and what is worthy of more than
ordinary note is the fact that "Paul chose Silas, and went forth,
being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord" (Acts 15.
36-41).
The commendation of brethren is something not to be
lightly disregarded.
There is a great contrast between "Barnabas
took Mark ... and sailed away" and "But Paul chose Silas, and went
forth, being commended by the brethren".
Mark, we are told here in
Colossians, was the cousin of Barnabas.
How seriously family ties
may affect right judgement!
It is evident however that past
incidents were rectified, and the apostle says - "touching whom ye
received commandments; if he come unto you, receive him".
The
apostle commends the usefulness of Mark's ministry in 2 Timothy 4.
11.
He is also mentioned in Philemon 24 amongst Paul's
fellow-workers.
His early disaffection seems to have been entirely
effaced in the later part of his life.
He has the high honour of
being used to write the Gospel which bears his name.
Col4v11
Aristarchus, Mark and Justus, these only were of Paul's
fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, who were of the
circumcision.
Many of the teachers of the word who had been
converted from Judaism were antagonistic to Paul, but it is
comforting to note that Mark is amongst the few who stood faithfully
by Paul in the Lord's work in Rome.
Apart from the reference here,
we had not known that Aristarchus was of Jewish descent, for he is
called a Thessalonian elsewhere, as we have seen.
These men, Paul
said, "have been a comfort to me".
The clear cut teaching of Paul,
in which he showed the distinction between law and grace, was viewed
with suspicion by many Jewish converts in those days, but Christians
now love the man for his teaching, which was so misunderstood by
many of them.
Col4v12
Epaphras, one of the Colossians, who was with Paul in Rome, his
fellow-prisoner, as well as his fellow-servant, salutes his
fellow-Christians through Paul's epistle.
He agonized or wrestled
with God in prayer always, that the Colossians might stand fast,
without vacillation, fully convinced and perfect in all the will of
God.
They were to be perfect and fully persuaded "in everything
willed by God".
Well might we copy this godly man's example and so
wrestle in prayer for each other!
Col4v13
The original word for labour here is of rare occurrence in the New
Testament and "is usual in the toil of conflict in war, thus
answering to 'striving'" (verse 12).
The toil of Epaphras may be
compared to what is said of the Levites.
See Numbers 8.24, R.V.
Marg. - "the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward
they shall go in to war the warfare in the work".
The Levites did
not go forth to war, they went in to war in the tent of meeting.
The agonizing and toiling in prayer on the part of Epaphras was not
for the Colossians only, but he laboured in prayer for the
contiguous churches of Laodicea and Hierapolis.
Col4v14
Luke the faithful companion of Paul is here described as the beloved
physician, and only here do we learn the profession of that great
man.
As the apostle approaches the close of his life, he writes
very touchingly to Timothy, "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4.
11).
Medical attendance may have been very necessary to the aged
warrior, suffering it may be from many weaknesses.
But in contrast
to the faithfulness of Luke we have the backsliding of Demas, "for
Demas forsook me, having loved this present world (age)".
He
forsook Paul at a time of peril and need, when comforters were few;
he forsook him because his heart and inward affection had gone
wrong; he forsook him having loved this present age.
His reward
was meagre and momentary, but Luke's is for ever.
Luke and Demas
stand together in Colossians 4.14, but Luke and Demas, in 2 Timothy
4.10,11, are very far apart.
This is the story of Scripture from
the first, not of men only, but also of women, as witness the
decisions of Ruth and Orpah (Ruth 1).
How many in our own time
have forsaken the truth and the path of separation and have gone
back!
Col4v15,16
Laodicea, a name of ill fame, but it was not always so.
They had
better days than their last days (Revelation 3).
It is a sobering
question.
Which shall be our best days, our first or our last?
The Laodiceans themselves might have said that their last days were
their best, for they had become rich and were increased with goods,
and had no need.
The sun of material prosperity had shone upon
them, but it had withered their spiritual life, and they had become
as a desert without leaf or fruit.
The Colossians were to salute their Laodicean brethren (on the
apostle's behalf), and Nymphas one of those brethren - or it may
have been a sister, see R.V. Marg. - comes in for special mention.
The church which met at the house of Nymphas is also mentioned
specially, which was no doubt part of the church of God in Laodicea.
The epistle from (Ek = out of) Laodicea is thought by some to have
been the epistle to the Ephesians, whilst others have endeavoured to
identify this with another of Paul's epistles, such as, his first
letter to Timothy.
There can be no certainty about the matter, as
to which of Paul's epistles is alluded to, but it is an interesting
side light to see how epistles, though written to one church were
read in others, showing the universality of divine doctrine even in
those early days, a thing that we take for granted now.
Col4v17
Archippus is also mentioned in Philemon 2, as the apostle's
fellow-soldier.
Here the church in Colossae is taught to
admonish this servant of Christ with reference to the fulfilment of
the ministry which the Lord had given him.
This should be a proper
and powerful word to us all as well as to Archippus.
What greater
monument to failure can there be than an uncompleted tower? (Luke
14.28,29).
How useless is a half-done job!
Even if we do not do
our work as well as we ought, let us complete the task.
Col4v18
The letter was written undoubtedly by an amanuensis, but here Paul
adds his own autograph.
This epistle stands in this respect in
contrast to the letter to Philemon, written at the same time, but
which was evidently written entirely by Paul.
The words, "Remember
my bonds", not only indicate that he was a prisoner, but also why he
was bound, that it was for the sake of the mystery of Christ (verse
3).
The reason for those bonds would speak loudly to their hearts,
for he was there for Christ's sake and for theirs also.
"Grace be with you" is the token of the Pauline authorship of all
his epistles - so we are told in 2 Thessalonians 3.17,18.
Thus ends this remarkable letter of the great apostle of the
Gentiles, one of many which enrich the Book of God and the minds of
Believers.
SECTION NO. 3
Notes on
I and II THESSALONIANS
I and II TIMOTHY
TITUS
.
PHILEMON
HEBREWS
PREFACE
The Bible is a book of hidden treasures which are to be obtained
only by searching.
The full value of them is realized by study,
and pondering.
Ezra and Nehemiah understood this when they
gathered the people,
"and they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly: and they
gave the sense, so that they understood the reading"
(Nehemiah 8.8).
It has long been the practice of preachers to expound the Scriptures,
often, alas! with human fallibility.
The Holy Spirit is the true
Interpreter, Himself being a Searcher in the deep things of God (1
Corinthians 2.9-16).
No man is infallible, but we welcome these expositions of the
Epistles of the New Testament from the pen of Mr. Miller, believing
that very largely they have been the fruit of much study under the
influence of the Holy Spirit.
These writings have appeared over many years in the pages of Bible
Studies, and readers will find many helpful contributions to an
understanding of the Scriptures.
It is not Mr. Miller's wish to do
otherwise than to give his mind on the portions. We do not suppose
that in all cases we have the last words on the portions, but rather
it is his desire and ours that others may be helped to appreciate
what the Holy Spirit desires us to know.
Special reference should be made to the Notes on the Epistle to the
Hebrews, a book which is not generally understood.
The teaching on
the House of God is of fundamental importance, for things concerning
the House of God are among the things revealed by the Holy Spirit
unto "them that love Him" (1 Corinthians 2.9).
May the hearts of
readers be such as to respond to the Holy Spirit's work in these
things!
A.T. Doodson.
NOTES
OF
ON
PAUL
THE
TO
FIRST
THE
EPISTLE
THESSALONIANS
1Thes1v1
Silvanus is Silas of Acts 15.22,32,39-41, who was one of the "chief
men among the brethren," and one of the prophets, whom Paul chose as
his fellow-worker after Barnabas parted from him in Antioch, and
they went forth, being commended to the grace of the Lord.
In Acts
16.1-3 we read of Timothy's going forth to the work of the Lord:
"Him would Paul have to go forth with him."
These three men
wrought together in the Lord's work in Macedonia, where they planted
churches in Philippi and Thessalonica.
Here they are joined
together in this letter from Paul to the Thessalonians.
The manner
in which this church is addressed is somewhat unique - "in God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
This shows what the Lord prayed
for in John 17.20,21: "Neither for these only do I pray, but for
them also that believe on Me through their word; that they may all
be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they
also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send
Me."
This oneness in "Us" is seen in the church of the
Thessalonians, and the effect of this unity was felt far and wide in
their collective testimony.
Without seeking to enter into a discussion on the textual grounds as
to whether in Paul's greeting it is simply "grace and peace," or
whether "Grace and peace are from the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ," we may say that in others of Paul's epistles, from Romans
to Philemon, grace and peace are in every one from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Lord Jesus Christ though present in
the A.V. is omitted in the R.V., in Colossians 1.2).
I am disposed
therefore to accept the wording of the A.V. as correct.
1Thes1v2,3
Paul writes similarly in Romans 1.8,9; Philippians 1.3; and
Colossians 1.3,4.
In other epistles he gives thanks for the
saints.
Prayer and thanksgiving make an excellent combination.
It is well when we have many things and persons to thank God for,
and many persons and things to pray for.
The remembrance of these
three servants of God was unceasing on behalf of the Thessalonians;
of their work of faith, a work which sprang from a living faith
("Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself." - James 2.17);
their labour (Kopos, wearisome toil, such as only love can bear
without murmuring) of love; and their endurance of hope.
All
three things originated in and sprang from our Lord Jesus Christ,
not simply that their endurance of hope was in Him.
Indeed the
words are in the genitive, and should read, "of our Lord Jesus
Christ."
These holy men were acting as the Lord's remembrancers
(see Isaiah 62.6,7).
1Thes1v4,5
Election here is that of Ephesians 1.4, in that God chose believers
in Christ before the foundation of the world.
This is referred to
in 2 Thessalonians 2.13,14: "But we are bound to give thanks to God
alway for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you
from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth:
whereunto He called you through our
gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul was ready to endure all things that God's elect might be saved,
even as he wrote to Timothy, "I endure all things for the elect's
sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Timothy 2.10).
Thus it was with the
elect in Thessalonica, that to them the gospel did not come in word
only, but in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.
Some commentators associate these words with the manner in which
Paul preached the gospel.
It seems to me rather to indicate the
manner in which the gospel came to the Thessalonians.
There is
undoubtedly a relationship between how the gospel is preached and
the effect it has on the hearers, as there is between the arrow
leaving the bow and striking the target.
What Paul is saying is
like the arrow striking the target, as to the power it had on the
hearts of the hearers.
The gospel came unto them in power, etc.
Literally it "became" (Egenethe, a form of Ginomai, to become) unto
(Eis, into) them, in word, in power, in the Holy Spirit, in much
assurance.
The assurance was clearly not Paul's assurance that he
was preaching the right gospel or preaching the gospel aright, but
the assurance of those that heard it.
Paul and the others backed
their gospel preaching with their Christian living - "toward you for
your sake."
They practised what they preached.
It ill becomes
preachers to be as the Pharisees, who said and did not.
1Thes1v6,7
Ye became (the same word as in verse 5 above, a form of Ginomai),
imitators (Mimetes, from which the English word "mimic" is derived)
of us, and of the Lord, whose behaviour was seen in that of the
preachers.
They accepted the word of the preachers in much
tribulation (from men) and with much joy of the Holy Spirit (from
God).
They were a happy, suffering people.
Thus the whole church
became a pattern of behaviour to the new-born believers in the
provinces of Macedonia and Achaia; this work of the Lord was a new
work in those parts.
Thus it was that Paul and his fellows
imitated the Lord, their converts imitated them, and other believers
elsewhere found in the Thessalonian church a pattern to imitate.
Happy are young converts who find in others an excellent pattern to
follow.
1Thes1v8
A brilliant light had been lit in Thessalonica, and from this church
the light streamed out to distant parts.
Aristarchus and Secundus,
of Acts 20.4, and Gaius, of Acts 19.29, were possibly men in the
forefront of the work and used by the Spirit in the diffusion of the
word of the Lord.
So powerful was the testimony of the
Thessalonians that it reached far beyond the provinces of Macedonia
and Achaia, for in every place their faith towards God had gone
abroad.
We have here a pattern assembly in testimony; one in
which preaching and practice were in harmony.
1Thes1v9,10
Paul did not need to say anything about the Lord's work in
Thessalonica, for the report of the entrance of the Lord's workers
there had been related far and wide, of how the Thessalonians had
turned to God from their idols.
They first found the living and
true God, and then their idols were given up.
The evils of
idolatry fell from them like withered autumn leaves.
Their service
(bondservice) was from henceforth to God who is both living and
true, in contrast to the service of lifeless false idols, which are
nothing at all in the world (1 Corinthians 8.4). They served God as
they waited for Jesus His Son from heaven.
"Which delivereth
(delivered, A.V.) us from the wrath to come" (R.V.), is not to be
understood as though the Lord is continually delivering us from the
wrath to come.
The word "delivereth" in the Greek is a present
participle, which simply means that He is the delivering One from
the wrath to come.
He delivered us from coming wrath when He saved
us through grace.
1Thes2v1,2
The Thessalonians knew that the entering in of these servants of God
among them had not been in vain (see Acts 17.1-9).
The gospel had
wrought great and blessed changes among them.
Paul and Silas
before they came to Thessalonica had been shamefully treated in
Philippi.
The prison, the rods, and the stocks, had left deep
marks in their memory, which the kindly treatment of the jailor had
not effaced (Acts 16.19-40).
We can see the boldness of the Lord's
servants in Acts 17, and also the conflict that they faced in the
preaching of the gospel in Thessalonica.
The Jews incited the
rabble fellows of the city to make an assault on the house of Jason,
and they dragged him and certain brethren before the rulers of the
city.
In consequence of the general uproar, the brethren sent away
Paul and Silas to Beroea by night.
1Thes2v3,4
Paul calls the preaching of the gospel by himself and the others,
"our exhortation" (Paraklesis, either exhortation or comfort
according to the context).
The gospel may be of exhortation and
persuasion, exhorting men to be reconciled to God, and the gospel
may be taught, in which the fundamental facts of the gospel are
expounded.
The former is how the gospel should be presented to the
sinner, the latter to the believer.
Paul's gospel was not of error
(Planes, wandering), a delusion causing people to wander in their
mind.
It was not of uncleanness or impurity, such as were the
practices associated with pagan religions.
It was not of guile or
fraud.
As men whom God intrusted with the gospel, which brings
boundless blessings to men, they were not men-pleasers, but their
object was to please God who proved their hearts.
1Thes2v5,6
Flattery is a deadly bait used by crafty men to catch
souls.
It was practised in Eden's garden by the old
he said to Eve that they would become as gods if they
forbidden fruit (Genesis 3.4,5).
David spoke of the
his time:
simple
Serpent when
ate of the
unfaithful in
"They speak vanity every one with his neighbour:
With flattering lip, and with a double heart, do they speak.
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaketh great things"
(Psalm 12.2,3)
The Thessalonians knew that Paul used no flattery in his preaching
when he laid the charge of sin against them (Romans 3.9,19).
Their
preaching was no cloke to cover a covetous heart.
They were not
preachers, as some who preach according to their stipend, with one
eye on their sermon and the other on the collection bag.
Persons
not pounds were what Paul and his fellows sought. They did not seek
glory of (Ek) men, neither from (Apo) the Thessalonians nor others;
and though they might have been burdensome (for such as preach the
gospel should live of the gospel - 1 Corinthians 9.14), as apostles
of Christ, they did not exercise their right in this respect.
1Thes2v7,8
The preachers were placid, mild (or gentle) among the
Thessalonians.
Their gentle demeanour was like that of a nurse (a
suckling mother) who cherishes (Thalpo, to impart warmth, as a hen
by brooding) her own children.
Their loving desire for the
Thessalonians was such that they were well pleased or delighted to
impart the gospel of God to them, but, like a suckling mother, they
imparted their souls or lives to them, because they were very dear
to them.
Nothing could be more tender than this Christlike love.
1Thes2v9
There is little diference of meaning between labour and travail,
though the latter includes the idea of pain.
The apostle and his
co-workers wrought in manual labour in Thessalonica, as he did in
Corinth (Acts 18.3), when he wrought with Aquila at tent-making.
He says here, that they so wrought that they might not be a burden
to the Thessalonians in preaching the gospel to them.
What
suffering, self-denying, and loving servants of Christ these men
were, and what an example they have left behind!
1Thes2v10,11,12
Men could only testify to the outward actions of righteousness and
blamelessness, but God witnessed to the holiness of the hearts from
which those actions sprang.
Such was the standard of conduct
of himself and his fellows toward the Thessalonians.
The person who
lives holily before God will not fail to live righteously and
blamelessly before men.
Without holiness of heart a man's
righteousness is but the garb of the Pharisee.
As a father must be
careful of his behaviour before his children, the apostle was
careful of his behaviour before his spiritual children.
In verse
7, they acted as a mother, and here, in this verse, they acted as a
father.
Paul says that they dealt with each one of the
Thessalonians, exhorting, encouraging or consoling, and testifying;
the object in all this was that they might walk worthily of God, the
One who calls (Kalountos, present participle, the calling one) into
His own kingdom (i.e., the kingdom of God) and glory.
This is the
present kingdom of God, expressed in the churches of God, God's
little flock.
The glory is that of John 17.22,23, which was given
by the Father to the Son in connexion with His work on earth, as He
said, "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto
them; that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and
Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world
may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou
lovedst Me."
"Given" is in perfect tense in the Greek showing that
the giving in the past remains to the present; and the object of
giving this glory is that the Lord's disciples may be one in a
visible unity which has a bearing on testimony to the world.
1Thes2v13
Here thanks are given to God for the reception from (Para, from, of,
indicating source or origin) Paul and his co-workers of the word of
the message or of hearing the word of God and not of men which
wrought in the believing Thessalonians, as the living word should
ever do.
1Thes2v14,15,16
The brethren in the church of God in Thessalonica became imitators
of the churches of God in Judaea, because the same doctrine which
was taught in the churches of God in Judaea was taught in
Thessalonica.
Unity in doctrine results in unity of practice. The
churches of God in the Fellowship of God's Son (1 Corinthians 1.9)
in the time of the apostles were taught and held the same doctrine,
even as Paul wrote of "my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach
everywhere in every church" (1 Corinthians 4.17).
The result of
the same doctrine held and practised led to similarity of
suffering.
The Jews killed both the Lord and the prophets and
drave out the apostles and others.
Likewise the brethren in
Thessalonica suffered the same things of their countrymen.
Paul
adds concerning the Jews, that they pleased not God, and were
contrary to all men.
They also forbade Paul and the others to
preach the gospel to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill
up to the full the measure of their sins.
God's wrath came upon
them to the uttermost, as Paul shows in Romans 11, in their being
cast away nationally, except a remnant according to the election of
grace.
The wrath of God which appointed that they should stumble
nationally at Christ, the Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence (1
Peter 2.8), and on whom they could not believe (John 12.36-43), was
until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11.15,25).
1Thes2v17,18
"Being bereaved," here, is similar to the experience of parents who
have lost their children, but Paul speaks of bereavement for a
season, for an hour, and that in presence, not in heart.
He
greatly desired and endeavoured to see the Thessalonians time and
again, but there was always some hindrance which Satan (the
Adversary) put in the way.
Whom or what he used we are not told.
We see here the Adversary unveiled as the opposer of the Lord's work
and workers, as he is in some other parts of the Scriptures
(Zechariah 3.1,2).
1Thes2v19,20
Here the apostle contemplates the Lord's coming again, and the
presence of the Thessalonians in that coming as a sufficient reward
for the labours that these servants of God had expended.
He views
them as their hope, joy and crown of glorying.
Indeed, this will
be the chiefest of all crowns of God's servants, when they see in
the glory the fruit of their labours.
1Thes3v1,2,3
Paul could not bear the suspense of not knowing how the
Thessalonians were faring, and he decided to send Timothy, and
himself be left alone at Athens.
Timothy therefore was sent to
Thessalonica to establish and comfort the saints in their faith,
that they should not be moved, disquieted or shaken in mind, by the
tribulations which were common to both Paul and themselves.
He
said that they knew that saints were appointed to these
afflictions.
Paul in sending Timothy was acting similarly to both
Jacob and Jesse in past times, who sent Joseph and David to see how
it fared with their brethren.
All parents know the common anxiety
of love for their absent children.
This epistle is said to have
been written by Paul from Athens at the time of the arrival back of
Timothy from Thessalonica.
(See end of A.V. which says, Written
from Athens."
Certain modern commentators say, "Written from
Corinth.")
1Thes3v4,5
The affliction of which Paul had beforehand told the Thessalonians
and others came to pass, as we see in chapter 17 of Acts, and as is
alluded to in the previous chapter.
But lest they should have been
tempted by the devil to give up the Christian warfare, like the
rocky-ground hearers of Matthew 13.20,21, he sent Timothy that he
might know their faith, lest his work should be in vain, for he
feared the evil work of the tempter.
1Thes3v6,7,8
The arrival of Timothy in Athens from the Thessalonians with the
good news that their faith had stood the shock of the afflictions
which they were enduring brought great joy.
They also held the
apostle and his fellows in loving regard, for Timothy bore testimony
to their faith and love, and of how they longed to see Paul and
Silas; this longing was mutual, for Paul longed to see them.
Midst the present distress of the apostle the tidings brought by
Timothy were a great comfort.
"Now we live, if ye stand fast in
the Lord," said Paul.
If the work of the apostle had collapsed
after he left the different cities he visited, then the memory of
Paul would have perished.
But when saints stood fast in the Lord,
God's servants lived on, as they do now, embalmed in the
imperishable records of Holy Scripture.
These records will live
for ever, and further, they are the test which God applies and will
yet apply to the lives of those that have followed after, as to
whether they will walk in the light of, and in obedience to, these
divine truths therein contained.
1Thes3v9,10
"Thanks is itself a return for God's favours."
Praise is the
declaring of God's excellencies.
Here Paul asks what thanksgiving
he could render to God for all the joy he had in the
Thessalonians.
Here we see the up-surge of the tide of joy in this
great-souled man; in him surged the joy of the Lord.
In the face
of the hindrance of Satan, Paul's prayers abounded exceedingly,
beseeching that he might see again the face of these beloved
Thessalonians.
Only God could rebuke Satan for his hindrance (Jude
9); and until God did this Satan would continue to hinder the
desire of the apostle.
Paul's object in again visiting the
Thessalonians was to perfect (Katartizo, which means, sometimes, to
repair or mend, to render perfect, also to supply or make good what
is lacking; it is used in the second sense here, in verse 10) that
which was lacking or deficient in their faith; for it must be
remembered that the Thessalonians were but young believers.
1Thes3v11,12,13
Paul, following his earnest pleading that he might see the face of
the Thessalonians, leaves the matter with God, that He and the Lord
Jesus might direct his way towards them.
His desire was for an
increase of their love to each other and toward all men.
If this
is so, there will be no fear but that the behaviour of saints
towards others will be as it ought to be.
The love of Paul and his
fellows abounded towards the Thessalonians.
The object of this was
the establishing of their hearts blameless in holiness before God
the Father at the coming of the Lord.
John writes somewhat
similarly, when he says, "that if He shall be manifested, we may
have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming" (1 John
2.28).
"With all His saints" - "with" (Meta, with a genitive, as
here, means, with, together with) may signify the coming of the Son
of Man, when His saints shall come with Him, as in 2 Thessalonians 1.
10.
But, if we read coming (Parousia) as presence, it would read "at the presence of our Lord Jesus with all His saints," and would
indicate His coming for His saints.
As the construction of the
passage indicates our hearts being established in holiness before
our God and Father,it seems to indicate the latter view and not the
former.
1Thes4v1,2
Here Paul reaches the closing part of his epistle, and says,
"Finally," or for the rest; he exhorts them in the Lord Jesus, with
that authority derived from Him, as they had previously received in
the ministry of himself and the others, how they ought to walk and
to please God.
"Walk" here, as in very many other places in the
Scriptures, signifies the entire conduct of a person.
Paul says
that they were so walking, but sought that this good beginning they
had made in their behaviour should abound yet more.
He refers to
his former injunctions or commands that he had given to them in this
matter through the Lord Jesus.
1Thes4v3
Paul comes down heavily on irregular conduct which has from ancient
times stained the history of mankind - the lewd intercourse of the
sexes.
Fornication, being one of man's immoral members (Colossians
3.5), is a form of sin against which the Scriptures wage a ceaseless
warfare.
Paul says, that "the body is not for fornicatin, but for
the Lord; and the Lord for the body."
"Flee fornication," he says
(1 Corinthians 6.13,18), even as Joseph did when enticed in Egypt
(Genesis 39.12,15).
God's will is a life of sanctification from
moral corruptions.
1Thes4v4,5,6
Whilst, no doubt, both sexes are included in this corrective word of
the apostle, the male sex, is, I think, more in evidence.
He is to
possess or keep his vessel in sanctification and honour.
Men
should ever think of how their act may affect the following
generation both mentally and physically, and not be wholly engulfed
in their own passing pleasure of lust.
The Gentiles in Paul's time
were, and also are to-day, in a sordid state in this matter, but
God's saints should know better, as both God's grace in their hearts
and His word should teach them holy living.
Certainly where a
brother transgresses and wrongs his brother in this matter, this
raises a serious issue, and the Lord is an avenger in all such
things, as Paul had forewarned and testified to the Thessalonians.
1Thes4v7,8
The object in the call of God out from among them to a path of
separation is not to uncleanness, but to perfecting holiness in the
fear of God (2 Corinthians 6.14-7.1).
Paul says that we "were
called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to
the flesh" (Galatians 5.13).
We are called in sanctification.
Sanctification means a setting apart from what is common.
This is
the root meaning of holiness.
A saint is a holy one, set apart to
a life of holiness (1 Corinthians 1.30).
Paul says that he that
sets aside or rejects this teaching of sanctification, rejects not
man, but God, who has given each believer the Holy Spirit, who is
the Sanctifier of saints.
1Thes4v9,10
Philadelphia, love of the brethren, is taught us by the grace of the
new nature, the result of the new birth, by the indwelling Spirit of
God, and by His word.
This love the Thessalonians showed to all
the brethren who were in Macedonia, and they were encouraged by the
apostle to abound more and more in this grace.
Love begets love.
1Thes4v11,12
Some are naturally quiet, and some are talkative.
The latter need
more grace to give heed to the apostle's exhortation to be ambitious
to be quiet.
Some are lazy, and some are diligent in business, and
the former need more grace, and the latter need wisdom not to let
their business swallow them up.
Paul had enjoined upon the
Thessalonians "a quiet, industrious, holy life."
Saints are to
live a grateful, courteous, becoming life toward those who are
without, and being diligent and honest may have need of nothing.
1Thes4v13,14
We come now to one of the most illuminating paragraphs in the New
Testament relative to the coming of the Lord for His saints of this
dispensation, who form the Church which is His Body.
Old Testament
saints will not share in this resurrection, but will be raised in
connexion with the Lord's coming to earth (Daniel 12.1-3; Revelation
11.18; 20.4-6).
We are not able to shed light on which is the
correct reading "them which are asleep" (A.V.) (perfect tense) or
"them that fall asleep" (R.V.) (present tense), but these young
believers in Thessalonica required to be instructed, as we do, as to
what will happen to saints who die or fall asleep before the coming
of the Lord.
First of all, saints are not told not to sorrow when
their loved ones fall asleep, but they are not to sorrow as the rest
who have no hope.
The rest, the unsaved who have no hope, have no
hope of reunion nor will they wish any in eternity, as we see from
the rich man's words in hell (Luke 16.27-31).
The joyous hope of
reunion in resurrection is based upon the words, "if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again," for "if Christ hath not been raised,
your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which
have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Corinthians 15.17,
18).
But Christ having been raised, then them also that are fallen
asleep (or fallen-asleep ones) through (not in) Jesus will God bring
or lead with Him.
There have been differences between Greek
scholars in regard to the Greek here, as we see from the R.V.
Margin.
Some think it should read "fallen asleep through Jesus,"
and some, "will God through Jesus bring with Him."
I am of the
opinion that the reading should be, "fallen asleep through Jesus,"
that is the Jesus mentioned earlier in the verse, who died and rose
again.
Jesus died, He did not fall asleep, but saints fall asleep
through or because of Him who died and rose again, for had He not
died and risen again their death would not have been a sleep; they
would have perished.
"Shall God bring with Him":
this should not be read as though it
means the sending by God of the souls of the saints with the Lord
when He descends into the air, as we read later on, but it means the
bringing from the dead the sleeping ones in that resurrection of
which Christ is the Firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15.20).
"With Him"
does not mean at the same time, but is the "with" of association,
similar in meaning to our being quickened, raised and seated with
(Sun) Him in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2.5,6), this being the
spiritual quickening of the soul, while that of 1 Thessalonians 4.14
is the raising and quickening of the dead in Christ in a bodily
resurrection.
1Thes4v15
What Paul says here is backed by his claim that it is the word of
the Lord.
The living saints in Christ at the Lord's coming shall
have no precedence over the dead in Christ; they shall not precede
them that are fallen asleep in Christ.
1Thes4v16,17,18
Three definitions are given to what seems to me to be the same
thing.
The Lord descends from heaven while this sound is heard,
which is described as, "in a shout" (of command), "in voice of
archangel," and "in trump of God."
The result of this command to
assemble will be, that the dead in Christ will rise first.
Though
it is clear that the dead in Christ will be the first to rise of all
the redeemed dead, who will rise each in his own order or rank (1
Corinthians 15.23), yet "first," in verse 16, is in relation to the
living in Christ.
The first in the upward movement will be of the
dead in Christ.
Then they that are alive at the Lord's coming
shall join them and shall together with them be caught up in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Only here is it revealed where
the meeting will take place between the Lord and His saints; no
other portion of Scripture reveals this.
Only God can speak of
"first" and "then," as the upward movement of the quickened dead and
the changed living will be so close to each other.
The reunion of
sleeping and living saints will be complete as they ascend to meet
the Lord together in the rapture of that glorious day.
So shall
they ever be with the Lord.
The sorrow of verse 13 is meanwhile
largely dispelled by the comfort of verse 18.
What a blessed hope
as compared with the bleak outlook of the future in the case of
those who do not believe in the Lord or in resurrection!
How
glorious that reunion of saints in the glory of God!
1Thes5v1
The coming of the Lord to the air for all who are in Christ is not
related to the times and the seasons.
These have to do with
earthly events connected with the nations and the nation of
Israel.
This dispensation of grace in which we are is a unique
period of time in the dealings of God with men, during which the
Lord is building what He calls, "My Church," which is the Church
which is His Body (Matthew 16.18; Ephesians 1.22,23), the Bride of
the Lamb.
1Thes5v2,3
The day of the Lord begins with the descent of the Son of Man from
heaven (Acts 2.16-21, and many Old Testament Scriptures), when He
comes "in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not
God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2
Thessalonians 1.7,8).
This day is more than a thousand years in
extent, as we learn from 2 Peter 3.10, for in it the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved
with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein shall be
burned up.
This brings us to the judgement of the Great White
Throne (Revelation 20.11), when the earth and the heaven shall flee
away from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and no place
will be found for them.
The day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night, when men least expect it; when they are saying,
"Peace and safety," then sudden destruction shall come upon them,
and there will be no escape.
1Thes5v4,5
These verses show clearly the error of those who hold that saints of
the Church which is Christ's Body shall pass through the time of the
Great Tribulation.
If saints of the Church shall pass through the
Tribulation, then that day, the day of the Lord, shall overtake
them. But the reason given that they will not do this is, that they
are sons of the light and of the day.
We are not of the world's
dark night; but we see the shades of that night gathering around
us, a sign of the coming great apostasy, when men shall acclaim a
corruptible man to be god (2 Thessalonians 2.3,4), but that will not
make him God whatever they do or whatever he claims for himself.
It will be the worst form of idolatry which has ever appeared and it
will overspread the earth.
1Thes5v6,7,8
We are exhorted not to sleep (as, alas, the five wise virgins did,
as did also the foolish in the parable of Matthew 25.1-13), as do
the rest, such as have no hope (4.13); but we are to watch or be
awake, and to be sober, as vigilant sentinels who are armed with
breastplate and helmet, as those that await the dawn of day.
It
becomes sentinels to watch on behalf of the souls of men, neither to
sleep nor be drunken.
"Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman
said, The morning cometh, and also the night."
The morning will
come for some, the night for others.
1Thes5v9,10
This verse should be read in the context in which it is found, in
the consideration of the saints of this dispensation in regard to
the day of the Lord and the wrath of that day.
Also, "us" of verse
9 is dispensational in character, and does not apply merely to Paul
and the Thessalonians.
That hardly needs to be said.
The wrath
to which we are not appointed or set is quite evidently that of the
day of the Lord; that wrath we shall not see, the reason being that
we are set to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, for before the day of wrath comes upon this earth we shall
have been saved finally and fully by that salvation which is nearer
to us than when we first believed (Romans 13.11), with that
salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1.
5).
It is this hope of salvation which we have as a helmet as we
watch for the dawn of day.
How comforting and assuring are the
words, though they give no excuse for sleeping, that the Lord died
for us, that whether we wake (watch) or sleep (not live or die), we
should live together with Him!
Our being with the Lord and living
with Him is not determined by our waking or sleeping, but by our
having received Him by faith.
It was even so with the five wise
virgins.
They entered the marriage feast because they had oil in
their vessels with their lamps, not because they had kept awake.
Saints would be in great peril, if their being with the Lord was
dependent on their watchfulness.
"Wherefore," said Paul, "exhort
(or comfort) one another, and build each other up."
This the
Thessalonians also did.
1Thes5v12,13
Here Paul asks them to know their leaders in the Lord, men who
laboured among them and admonished them.
"Over them" (Prostemi)
means literally, to stand before, and signifies to be set over or
appointed with authority. The word is rendered "ruleth" (Romans 12.
8; 1 Timothy 3.4); "to rule" and "ruling" (1 Timothy 3.5,12); "rule"
(1 Timothy 5.17); "maintain" (Titus 3.4,8).
The men referred to
were elders or overseers of the church of God in Thessalonica.
They were to be highly esteemed for their work's sake.
Paul called
upon the saints to be at peace among themselves, for this would give
the elders less work and trouble.
1Thes5v14,15
Here Paul addresses the overseers in their responsibility in caring
for the saints.
The disorderly, the fainthearted, the weak, come
in for special mention as to how they were to be treated, and the
overseers were to be long-suffering toward all.
Saints rendering
evil for evil were not to be tolerated, but they were to follow
after good, one saint toward another, and toward all.
This is love
in practice.
1Thes5v16,17,18,19,20,21,22
Whilst these words may have a special application to overseers who
stand before the saints and should be pattern men, they are of
general application to all saints.
One is reminded of the
similarity of these exhortations to those of Romans 12, and also of
the manner in which they are given.
These exhortations are so
simple and their meaning so self-evident that they call for no
comment.
1Thes5v23,24
Here the Sanctifier is called the God of peace.
See other
references to the God of peace (Romans 15.33; 16.20; 2 Corinthians
13.11; Philippians 4.9; Hebrews 13.20).
This entire sanctification
is a setting apart of the whole person from sin in every form.
It
is explained further in what follows.
I am of the opinion that the
A.V. rendering here is better than the R.V., except that "may"
should take the place of the words, "I pray God," in the A.V. which
being in italics are shown not to be in the Greek.
Thus it would
read, "May your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless."
Thus the sanctification is of the whole person, of
spirit and soul and body subsisting, and is to be preserved
blameless at or in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The spirit
of the redeemed person is that part of man on which the Spirit of
God works, and the spirit of man should control the soul, the
reasonable soul, the person.
The soul should control the body in
its appetites and desires.
Alas, if the body gains control, then
indwelling sin will enslave the soul, and the spirit will be cast as
it were into prison and darkness, and as a consequence, the Holy
Spirit will be grieved and quenched. The God of peace will sanctify
us wholly, if we allow Him, and our whole being of spirit and soul
and body will act in harmony, which is the root idea in peace.
If
the body with its appetites is allowed control, then sin will enter,
the harmony will be broken, bringing grievous disturbance to the
whole system within, and this will result in blameworthiness at the
coming of the Lord.
1Thes5v25,26,27,28
Paul frequently besought the prayers of the saints, as here.
A
holy kiss was the mode of salutation in those past times; in this
country a warm shake of the hand is the mode of salutation.
Paul
adjures them that they read this epistle publicly to all the
brethren.
He closes his epistle, as in every epistle of his, with,
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
NOTES ON THE SECOND
TO THE THESSALONIANS
EPISTLE
2Thes1v1,2
The second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians followed closely on
the writing of the first.
The second forms the complement of the
first; for whereas the first deals in the main with the Lord's
coming to the air for His saints who comprise the Church which is
His (Christ's) Body, commonly called the coming of the Son of God (1
Thessalonians 1.10), the second deals principally with the coming of
the Son of Man to earth in judgement, and with events which
will immediately precede that coming, especially with the apostasy
and the revelation of the man of sin.
In addition, the last
chapter gives warning against unreasonable and evil men, and deals
with disorderly conduct in the church in Thessalonica, and the
course of admonition by the church is in addition to that indicated
in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, where the overseers are exhorted to
admonish the disorderly.
It will be noted that the manner of address of the epistle is
similar to the first.
2Thes1v3,4
These servants of God gave thanks to God continually for the
Thessalonians, for that their faith grew exceedingly, and their love
toward each other abounded.
Their glorying or boasting in them in
other churches of God must have been by letters which were sent to
the different churches, for we know of no journey by the apostle
from Athens (Acts 17) until he departed from Athens and came to
Corinth (Acts 18.1).
The Thessalonians were a suffering people, as
we see from the first epistle, and also here we read of their
patience and faith in the persecutions and afflictions which they
endured.
2Thes1v5,6
Such as have caused God's saints to suffer will themselves suffer
divine displeasure for their acts of persecution. We do not speak
of those who have repented of their acts, as the Apostle Paul did.
This is a righteous thing with God, and the suffering of saints at
the hand of the wicked is a manifest token of God's righteous
judgement which will come upon the wicked for their wickedness.
At
the same time, and in God's manifold wisdom in dealing with His own,
those who stand the test of suffering, whose faith does not give
way, are thus counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they
suffer; that is, such saints as are in the kingdom of God.
The
kingdom is not something that is entered once for all, nor is it
entered by the new birth, though all must be born again before they
can either see it or enter it.
The words of Acts 14.22 are
helpful, where Paul is seen confirming the souls of the disciples in
the churches of God in Galatia, as it says, "Confirming the souls of
the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the Faith, and that
through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God."
The words of Hebrews 12.28,29, show also continuity in the reception
of the kingdom of God: "Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot
be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service
well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a
consuming fire."
Believers who are in the kingdom of God and are
guilty of any of the sins of 1 Corinthians 5.11, 6.9,10, Ephesians 5.
5 cannot inherit or have any inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Hence they must be put away by the church of God, which is the local
expression of the kingdom of God.
See Revelation 1.6, where the
seven churches of God in Asia are described as having been made a
kingdom and priests by the Lord Jesus unto His God and Father.
This was God's kingdom then.
The kingdom of God is not entered by
being in a spiritual frame of mind, nor are persons out of it if
their spiritual condition of happiness is not on a high plane.
The
kingdom of God is righteousness, the right acting of those who are
together in obedience to the call of God, righteousness which is
according to the teaching of the Faith (Jude 3; Acts 14.22,23;
Matthew 6.10,33; Romans 14.17,18).
The kingdom of God was taken
from Israel, and given to the little Flock of the Lord's disciples
in the beginning of this dispensation (Matthew 21.43,31,32; Luke 12.
31,32; Acts 1.3).
2Thes1v7,8
The words of the Lord Jesus, in Luke 18.7,8, speak of the same time
as that of the verses above: "Shall not God avenge His elect, which
cry to Him day and night, and He is longsuffering over them?
I say
unto you, that He will avenge them speedily.
Howbeit when the Son
of Man cometh, shall He find (the) faith on the earth?"
God has
betimes visited men in judgement for their wicked persecution of His
saints, as witness the parable of the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew
22.1-14, in which the Lord showed God's punishment of the Jews by
the Romans for their shameful treatment and killing of His
servants.
But the full recompense of the wicked upon the earth
will be when the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, is revealed from heaven
with His angels in flaming fire, when vengeance will be taken on
them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of the Lord
Jesus.
This gospel is, I judge, the gospel of the kingdom, which
will be preached unto all the nations (Matthew 24.14).
The subject
of the gospel of the grace of God, which is preached in this
dispensation (Acts 20.24), and the gospel of the kingdom, is the
same in both cases, even "the Lord Jesus"; the former case tells of
Him who died, was buried and raised again, and went back to heaven;
the latter case of His imminent return to earth in judgement.
"Obey not" (Me hupakouo) means to refuse to listen, hence to refuse
to submit and obey.
The attitude shows intentional neglect or
sheer rebellion.
2Thes1v9,10
Those who refuse to listen to the gospel shall suffer punishment or
pay the penalty (Dike, judicial punishment), and this penalty is
eternal destruction (Olethros, vengeance, perdition, destruction).
This is not annihilation, an end of being, but an eternal
or continuous state of punishment.
Vain are the hopes of those who
persist in refusing to hear and obey the gospel, that sometime in
eternal fire of eternal punishment (see Matthew 25.41,46) they will
cease to be.
It is said of the Devil, that he, with the beast and
the false prophet, will be tormented day and night for ever and ever
(Revelation 20.10).
Even so will it be with the wicked of the
human race (Revelation 20.14,15).
The punishment of the wicked
envisaged in the verses above will begin when the Lord comes back to
earth with His angels and His saints, when He will come to be
glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that
have believed.
All who have believed will be with the Lord in that
day of judgement and victory.
The condition of being with Him is
not obedience and faithfulness, but simply one of believing, though
those who are with Him in His war against the beast and his ten
confederate kings will be such as are "called and chosen and
faithful" (Revelation 17.12-14).
2Thes1v11,12
The object or end of the prayers of God's servants was that God might
count them worthy of their calling.
They had been called out to a
path of separation, as in 2 Corinthians 6.14-7.1, and called into
the Fellowship, as in 1 Corinthians 1.9, which is simlar to the
call, in 1 Thessalonians 2.12, "God, who calleth you into His own
kingdom and glory."
The purpose in their being counted worthy was
that there might be fulfilled in them, or brought to completeness,
every desire or good pleasure of goodness, toward God (see Hosea 6.
4; Jeremiah 2.2), and work of faith (1 Thessalonians 1.3), toward
men, with power, that the name of the Lord Jesus might be glorified
in them, and they in Him, and this could only be through the grace
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Thes2v1,2
The coming of the Lord and our gathering unto Him is what is
referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4.16,17.
They were not to be
quickly shaken in their mind, as to what the apostle taught them,
from whatever cause, by spirit, by word, nor by epistle purporting
to have been written by the apostle, as that the day of the Lord was
then present.
Certain things, which are afterwards stated, must
transpire ere that day is present.
2Thes2v3,4
The day of the Lord cannot come or be present until two things take
place, (1) the falling away or the apostasy, and (2) the revelation
of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who is also called the
antichrist, and the (wild) beast (1 John 2.18-22; Revelation 13.3-8,
12-15, etc.).
Mankind, with the exception of the faithful remnant
of Israel, and the multitude of faithful witnesses scattered over
the earth, and others who will succour them, will apostatize
completely from God and will worship the beast and his image when
the beast is revealed.
The man of sin and the (wild) beast
describe the same person who is the object of worship.
The second
beast of Revelation 13.11-18 is the false prophet, not the
antichrist.
As to what some have alleged, that the Jews, the
apostate Jews, would not acknowledge a Gentile to be a messiah, I
think it will be found, from Ezekiel 21.25, that the deadly wounded
one (the beast with the death-stroke or deadly wound, of Revelation
13.3,12) is the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of
the iniquity of the end.
So that all that has been said about the
apostate Jews not receiving a Gentile king (indeed we do not know
whether the antichrist will be a Jew or a Gentile by race, though he
sits on a Gentile throne), and that the second beast who is a Jew is
the antichrist (Revelation 13.11-18), is just so much unsupportable
exposition.
(On this subject, see my notes on the book of the
Revelation.)
The man of sin exalts himself above all that is called God or that
is worshipped.
This agrees with what is said in Daniel 11.36-39:
"The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt
himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak
marvellous things against the God of gods ... Neither shall he
regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard
any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
But in his place
(office) shall he honour the god of fortresses: and a god whom his
fathers knew not (the Dragon, or Devil - Revelation 13.4) shall he
honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant
things.
And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the
help of a strange god (the Devil)."
These words show clearly that
the man of sin is the king that shall come, the last of the kings of
the north, the antichrist and the (wild) beast.
Some few have taught that the man of sin is Judas Iscariot, because
both are called "the son of perdition" (2.3; John 17.12).
There is
as much sense in this, as if we were to say, that because Judas
(John 6.70) and Satan are called diabolos (Devil), therefore Judas
and Satan are the same person.
The temple (Naos) of God is that which will yet be built in
Jerusalem, probably by the Jews.
Though God shall not dwell
therein, yet that place is His by right, hence it is called "the
temple of God."
2Thes2v5,6,7
"Your mind", of verse 2, about these coming events was formed by the
teaching of the apostle, as he shows in the above verses: "Remember
ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?"
We have in verses 6 and 7, "that which restraineth," and "one that
restraineth," or "the restraining thing," and "the restraining one.
"
Restraineth, Katecho, means here to hinder or impede.
The
"restraining thing" is the coming apostasy which must come first.
"The restraining one" is the Devil, who will hold back until the
season (the condition of time appropriate to the revelation of the
man of sin, "when the transgressors are come to the full" - Daniel 8.
23) arrives, which is in the time of the great apostasy.
The old interpretation of verse 8 is quite incorrect, that the one
that restrains is the Holy Spirit, whose restraint will be removed
when He is taken out of the way at the coming of the Lord for the
Church.
This interpretation implies that the Holy Spirit will not
be in the earth to restrain the uprising tide of lawlessness.
Far
from the Holy Spirit being taken from the earth, there will be a
world-wide out-pouring of the Spirit upon all flesh before the day
of the Lord comes, as is shown from Joel 2.28-32; Acts 2.16-21.
The battle between the Spirit-filled saints of that period and the
antichrist or (wild) beast will be vigorous and fierce, as the book
of Revelation shows.
The quotation from Joel 2 by Peter in Acts 2
was an application of what that prophet said as to what was
transpiring in Jerusalem at Pentecost, but it was by no means the
fulfilment of the Joel prophecy.
The words of verse 7 above are,
in my opinion, better rendered as follows: "Only he who restrains
at present, until out of the midst he become."
He who restrains is
the Devil, and he who shall become out of the midst is the
antichrist or (wild) beast.
When he rises out of the midst, then
shall be revealed the lawless one.
If the one who restrains and is
taken out of the way were the Holy Spirit, then the revelation of
the beast would take place consequent upon the Lord's coming for the
Church, which cannot be supported from Daniel and Revelation.
2Thes2v8,9,10
When the man of sin or (wild) beast rises from the midst, "out of
the sea" (Revelation 13.1) - "the waters which thou sawest, ... are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17.
15) - "then shall be revealed the lawless one."
Him "the Lord
Jesus shall slay" (Analisko, take away or destroy, not slay, as we
learn from Revelation 19.20, where are told that the beast and the
false prophet "were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth
with brimstone") with the breath (Pneuma, spirit or breath) of His
mouth.
He shall also bring him to nought (Katargeo, to render
inactive, make useless: see of death, 2 Timothy 1.10; of the Devil,
Hebrews 2.14; etc.), not annihilate, by the appearing (Epiphaneia),
or brightness, of His coming (Parousia).
The coming (Parousia) of
the lawless one, the beast or antichrist, is according to the
working of Satan, "in every power and signs and wonders of
falsehood" (translated literally), all of which will be aided and
abetted by the false prophet, who shall work great signs in the
sight of the beast, and shall deceive them that dwell on the earth
(Revelation 13.13,14).
Such wonders of falsehood shall be
connected with the deceit of unrighteousness, for sin is ever a
deceitful thing (Hebrews 3.13).
This deceit shall be to the
perishing ones, because they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved.
They loved falsehood rather than truth, hence
they were deceived, and they loved to be deceived.
What a sad
story!
But is it different in kind from what exists today?
Nay
verily: the deceit may be different in measure, for deceit will
then have reached its high water-mark, but it is not different in
kind from the many forms of deceit practised now.
2Thes2v11,12
Herein lies the cause of the rise of antichrist; men in general
want to be told lies, because they have pleaure in
unrighteousness.
They want to sin; they neither want to be
righteous nor to do righteousness.
Men need not blame the devil or
the antichrist; the state of the world, which will admit of the
last tragic scenes of Gentile government and behaviour, will be that
which men have made it for themselves.
Hence we have the awful
reality and truth of these verses, that God will send them a working
of error, that they all may be condemned who believe not the
truth.
The condition of men's hearts will be fully revealed in
that they will actually love lying rather than truthfulness, hence
the devil, the father of lies, will find men an easy prey.
2Thes2v13,14
Paul gives thanks again for the Thessalonians, that God chose
(Haireo, strictly "to take, to choose"; elsewhere he uses Eklego,
to pick, to choose, for election) them from the beginning unto
salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit, which is God's side of
salvation, and belief of the truth, which is our side.
In 1 Peter
1.1,2, we have election and sanctification of the Spirit again
spoken of, but there it is unto obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ, which is the New Testament answer to Exodus
24.3-8.
But in verse 13 above sanctification of the Spirit is unto
salvation.
These facts should be carefully noted.
It was unto
this salvation that the Thessalonians were called through the gospel
which had been preached by God's servants.
2Thes2v15
Seeing that this was God's purpose regarding them, in election,
salvation and glory, they were exhorted to stand fast and firm, and
to hold fast the traditions.
"The traditions" were the oral
instructions or instructions by letter which were given by the
apostles to the saints while as yet there was no New Testament.
The
epistles to the Thessalonians were among the first, if not the
first, parts of th New Testament to be written, so we see how the
saints of those days were shut up for instruction to the teaching of
the apostles (Acts 2.42) which was the traditions (1 Corinthians 11.
2; 2 Thessalonians 2.15; 3.6).
The word traditions ceased to be
used in the inspired writings of the New Testament as these writings
began to appear and be circulated among the saints.
2Thes2v16,17
The words, "which loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope
through grace," apply to the Father.
But Paul wishes the Lord
Himself and God the Father to comfort and to stablish the
Thessalonians in every good work and word.
The thought of the
Father having loved us and given to us eternal comfort and good hope
through His wondrous grace is very precious indeed.
Eternal
comfort - nothing can disturb the inward state of rest of the soul
that rests completely in Him who says, "Come unto Me ... and I will
give you rest."
2Thes3v1,2
Finally, or for the rest, the apostle asks them to pray for him, as
he often does throughout his epistles, that the word of the Lord
might run rapidly and be glorified in reaching the throne of the
hearts of the hearers, even as it had in reaching the hearts of the
Thessalonians.
There are ever opposers of the work of the Lord,
hence Paul writes of unreasonable and evil men, "for," said he, "all
have not (the) Faith."
The definite article is present before
faith and should appear, as evidently it is the Faith and not faith.
2Thes3v3
"The evil" would point out some definite form of evil, but no evil is
mentioned. It seems more natural to conclude that it is "the evil
one" who is envisaged.
The Lord, who is faithful, would stablish
or fix firmly, and guard them from the evil one.
He would guard
them as a sentinel, for the evil one goes about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5.8).
2Thes3v4,5
"In the Lord" is a term which implies subjection to His will; and
Paul was confident in Him that they were so subject that they both
did and would do what he commanded them, within the compass of the
Lord's will.
His wish for them was, that the Lord would direct
their hearts into the love of God, which is the mainspring of all
true acting, and into the patience or endurance of Christ.
The
endurance of the Master should be the endurance of all who follow
Him.
2Thes3v6,7,8
Whilst the overseers were exhorted, in 1 Thessalonians 5.14,
to admonish the disorderly (Ataktos, "principally spoken of soldiers
who desert their ranks"), we have here a state of disorder which
calls for admonition to be administered by all within the church;
all the saints being commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
to withdraw themselves from the disorderly.
This command would be
made by a public announcement by the overseers to the church.
The
apostle and his fellows had taught them how to walk orderly when
tjey were with them, and had shown orderly behaviour by working in
manual labour to maintain themselves while they preached to the
Thessalonians.
He described how that they had wrought night and day
in ceaseless toil, working and preaching, so that they would not be
a burden to any of them.
2Thes3v9,10
Paul had the right, as one who preached the gospel, to live of the
gospel (1 Corinthians 9.14).
But to show themselves ensamples for
others to follow, these men wrought to keep themselves, so as to
make the gospel without charge (1 Corinthians 9.18).
How wholesome
are his words, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat"!
2Thes3v11,12
Lazybodies become busybodies, officious, prying, intermeddlers,
persons who are a stain on any community and serious causes of
trouble with their tittle-tattle.
Such Paul commanded and exhorted
in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness, to give
their tongues a rest and their hands work to do, and to eat their
own bread, and not that of others.
2Thes3v13
The saints in Thessalonica in general were well-doing people, and
they were exhorted not to be weary in well-doing.
2Thes3v14,15
If the corrective words of this epistle were not obeyed by any one,
that man was to be marked (Semaino, from Sema, a sign or mark, and
means to signify, also to declare, to announce), and the saints were
not to keep company or associate with him, so that he might be
ashamed of his conduct.
He was to be admonished as a brother and
not accounted as an enemy.
This is admonition within the church.
2Thes3v16,17,18
We read of the God of peace several times.
Here we have the Lord
of peace Himself who would give them peace always and in every way.
Paul's wish was, "The Lord be with you all."
As of old, so now, He
will be with us, if we be with Him.
Here is Paul's salutation, a
salutation in every one of his fourteen epistles, that of "grace."
It is given under his own hand, as in 1 Corinthians 16.21;
Colossians 4.18.
See in contrast Romans 16.22, and also Galatians
6.11.
NOTES ON THE
TO TIMOTHY
FIRST
EPISTLE
1Tim1v1,2
Paul speaks of himself as being a called apostle of Jesus Christ in
1 Corinthians 1.1.
(See also 2 Corinthians 1.1; Ephesians 1.1;
Colossians 1.1; 2 Timothy 1.1), but here he speaks of himself as
being an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God and Christ
Jesus.
God is called here our Saviour and Christ Jesus is our
Hope.
Christ is our Hope before God, our Priest, the "better Hope,
" through which we draw nigh unto God (Hebrews 7.19; see also 6.18;
3.6).
He is also the blessed Hope, the One who is coming again
(Titus 2.13), "who shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to
them that wait for Him unto salvation" (Hebrews 9.28); not
salvation from the penalty of sin, but from the presence of sin,
that salvation which is "ready to be revealed in the last time (1
Peter 1.5), which is nearer to us than when we first believed"
(Romans 13.11).
The A.V. gives "my own son in the Faith."
It is
not "my own son," but "my true child," and it is "in faith" not "in
the Faith," though there are differences of opinion on the point
among scholars as to whether "the" is implied before "faith," though
the definite article is not in the Greek.
We may safely follow the
R.V. reading - "my true child in faith."
1Tim1v3,4
The question arises, "When did Paul exhort Timothy to tarry at
Ephesus when he was going into Macedonia?"
Was it some time before
his imprisonment in Rome, of which we read in Acts 28.16,30, when he
abode in his own hired dwelling "with the soldier that guarded
him"?
Was there but one imprisonment, or were there first and
second imprisonments?
In Philippians 1.26 Paul writes anticipating
being with the Philippians again, and in Philemon 22 he writes to
Philemon in Colossae, "But withall prepare me also a lodging: for
I hope that through your prayers I shall be granted unto you."
To
Timothy he also wrote, "The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus,
bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments" (2
Timothy 4.13).
In this same chapter he said, "Trophimus I left at
Miletus sick" (verse 20).
It seems to me that these references
indicate that there were two imprisonments, and that the events he
alludes to in 1 and 2 Timothy took place after the book of the Acts
closes, between Paul's two imprisonments in Rome.
Timothy was besought or exhorted by Paul to stay in Ephesus while he
himself proceeded to Macedonia.
The object, as Paul stated, was
that Timothy should charge certain men not to teach heterodox
doctrines, doctrines contrary to what Paul had taught, nor to give
heed to fables (Titus 1.14 speaks of Jewish fables) and endless
genealogies.
In these interminable genealogies the Jews, in their
pride of race and natural birth, took a special delight.
The
genealogy of Jesus Christ is the only genealogy in the New
Testament.
He being proved to be the Messiah, having come of the
seed of David and Abraham, the vital matter from then on is not
natural birth, but the new birth, the birth from above, by the
Spirit and word of God, by which all so born are children of God.
These fables and genealogies led to questionings out of which arose
strifes, the produce of the carnal mind.
This is the opposite of a
dispensation which is in faith.
Here is the great cleavage between
that which is natural and that which is spiritual, of works and
faith, of law and grace.
If people are believers it matters not
whether they are Jews or Gentiles, royal or noble or of the common
folk; pedigrees have no value now with God.
1Tim1v5
The end, object or purpose, of the charge was love out of a pure
heart.
Of what value is love, if it does not proceed out of a pure
heart, if the motive behind a profession of love is not pure?
Love
is easily felt where it exists; it is evident in love's labour (1
Thessalonians 1.3).
Then follows the next component of the charge,
"a good conscience."
No believer can please God with a bad or
defiled conscience.
What is conscience?
It is the inward
knowledge of a person which bears witness to his words and works
whether they are good or bad, right or wrong.
Conscience either
accuses or excuses (Romans 2.15).
It may be seared as with a hot
iron (1 Timothy 4.2), and so rendered ineffective in its witness.
Conscience is not in itself the standard of right and wrong; it can
be perverted by wrong teaching.
Paul claimed to have lived with a
good conscience even when he was a proud Pharisee persecuting the
saints (Acts 23.1).
When he became subject to the doctrine of the
apostles then his conscience, enlightened by the new teaching,
reacted in quite another way.
The third part of the charge is
"faith unfeigned."
Faith is the result of hearing the word of God
(Romans 10.17).
If there is no revelation there can be no faith.
Some say, "I believe," when they should say, "I think."
Faith
unfeigned is not a mere pretence at believing, nor is it a false
faith which does not rest upon the word of God.
1Tim1v6,7,8
To swerve is to miss the mark. Sin also means to miss the mark.
Men like to talk who have no ear to listen to God talking to them.
"The talk of the lips tendeth only to penury" (Proverbs 14.23).
How useless is empty talk! trivial, vain disputings!
Such vain
talkers desired to be teachers of the law, but they were without
understanding of its use in this dispensation.
Indeed it is well
for all carefully to follow Paul's teaching regarding the law, its
functions as a rule of life, not a means of life, its uselessness in
dealing with sin as rooted in the flesh, its inability to give life
to the sinner dead in sins, or to provide him with righteousness.
Its use to saints is the same in this dispensation as in the past,
as a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, to teach them how
to behave before God and men, love being the fulfilment of law
(Romans 13.8-10).
Paul says of the law in Romans 7.12 that it is
holy, and the commandment thereof holy, righteous, and good.
Its
use is to guide the just who are liable to go wrong, and man being
by nature a wrong-doer must learn that wrong-doing is sin against
God, and so by the law cometh the knowledge of sin (Romans 3.20).
1Tim1v9,10,11
Here we have a lengthy list of various forms of evil-doing and vice
which illustrates what Paul wrote in Galatians 3.19: "What then is
the law?
It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed
(Christ) should come to whom the promise hath been made."
"Through
the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3.20).
"I had not
known sin, except through the law" (Romans 7.7).
The true motive
power of all well-doing is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," and
"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
The Lord said, "On
these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets"
(Matthew 22.34-40).
He gave the meaning of what He called the
second commandment in His teaching in Matthew 7.12: "All things
therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so
do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets."
This
is the simplest, greatest and most corrective statement of the
conduct of men toward each other that was ever made, and, if it were
obeyed on earth, would turn earth into a veritable heaven.
But
self-love, with its covetousness and all other forms of evil, makes
this world a heap of reeking moral and physical corruption.
It is
against such a state that the voice of the law speaks loudly, in the
light of which men are called to repent.
Even the world's
legislatures are continually churning out laws to control men in
their sinful propensities.
Kind and loving people need few laws.
The cause of all the trouble is that state of moral corruption which
Paul so frequently calls "the flesh."
A list of its works he gives
in Galatians 5.19-21.
The moral depravity of human nature was the
cause of Israel's and also of the world's corruptions and
distresses.
Against the fruit of the Spirit who indwells all
believers there is no law (Galatians 5.22,23).
The gospel of the
glory of the blessed (or happy) God proclaims the need of new birth
to men; this message of divine glory is totally against human sin
and corruption.
It opens the door to a new way of life, a divine
and heavenly mode of living in a world which is waxing worse and
worse.
1Tim1v12
"I thank Him," or "I am thankful to Him" (Charin Echo can correctly
be rendered "I am thankful."
See 2 Timothy 1.3; Luke 17.9;
Hebrews 12.28) who strengthened or empowered me; such was the
appreciation of Paul in regard to the grace which he had known and
which was not found vain in him (1 Corinthians 15.10).
It produced
in him a spirit of thankfulness.
He speaks of the Lord counting
him faithful, appointing him to his service (Diakonian).
The Lord
makes no mistakes, for His gifts and calling are without repentance
on His part (Romans 11.29).
He knew Paul perfectly when He saved
him on the Damascus road; He had separated him even from his
mother's womb (Galatians 1.15), and long ages before that, in times
eternal, there was a purpose and grace given to him in Christ Jesus,
which became manifest through his being saved and called with a holy
calling (2 Timothy 1.9); this calling became evident to men in Acts
13.1-3.
1Tim1v13,14
The record from the pen of Luke of Paul's actions prior to his
conversion, and what he says of himself in the Acts and elsewhere,
fully confirm what he says here, that he was indeed to the full
extent a blasphemer, not only one himself, but he sought to make the
saints who suffered at his hands blasphemers also.
He persecuted
the saints even to foreign cities (Acts 26.11), and he laid waste
the church of God in Jerusalem, haling men and women to prison (Acts
8.3; 1 Corinthians 15.9; Galatians 1.13).
How deeply Paul felt
in his conscience the memory of those past days!
But God had mercy
on him, because, he says, "I did it ignorantly in unbelief."
The
Lord prayed for those that killed Him in the words, "Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23.34).
Peter said to
the Jews in Jerusalem, "Brethren, I wot that in ignorance ye did it,
as did also your rulers ... Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that
your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3.17,19).
Ignorance and
unbelief were far from being good qualities in Paul.
They did not
provide merit so that God had mercy on him, but show the justice of
God in discriminating between what may be done in ignorance and the
terrible evil of rebellion, of sinning against light.
Paul
evidently was one of those to whom the Lord referred in John 16.2,
when He said, "The hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall
think that he offereth service unto God."
The grace and love of
the Lord abounded exceedingly in Paul's case, for which he was truly
thankful to Christ Jesus his Lord.
"Which is" is the English
rendering of the Greek singular definite article Tes and refers to
the love which is in Christ Jesus.
The passage indicates Paul's
faith and Christ's love.
1Tim1v15
Here it is clearly stated that the purpose of the Lord's coming into
the world was not to set up His millennial kingdom and to reign over
Israel and the world.
No such kingdom was offered to the Jewish
people, as some interpreters have erroneously explained the words of
John the Baptist and of the Lord, "Repent ye; for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3.2,4,17).
It is also said "For God
sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the
world should be saved through Him" (John 3.17).
We know from many
scriptures that the judgement of the world precedes the millennial
reign of Christ, and had He come with the intention of reigning, and
not suffering, then must He have come to judge the world.
But the
Lord is most emphatic that He was not sent to judge, but to save the
world.
The words of John 3 were spoken at the commencement of His
public ministry and those of Matthew 20.28 near the close of His
life.
He said, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."
He is the
Saviour of the world, and He had not come to save Israel from the
power of Rome, but from their sins (John 18.36; Matthew 1.21).
He came, as Paul says, to save sinners from the penalty and also
from the power of sin.
Of the vast concourse of sinners Paul puts
himself first and chiefest of all.
1Tim1v16
The purpose, emphasized by Paul, why the Lord had shown mercy to him
was that He might show forth in Paul an ensample of His
longsuffering mercy with sinners.
Need we say that Paul is not
here speaking of his suffering for Christ and the gospel's sake as
an example for others to follow, but that he was an ensample of the
Lord's longsuffering with men who in the hardness of their hearts
kick against the goads of divine reproofs, so that they might know
the way of God's salvation?
Surely divine mercy waited on Saul of
Tarsus, who was fitting himself to be a vessel of destruction.
Here in the chief of sinners we see the longsuffering of the Lord
magnified.
Peter says that the Lord is longsuffering to usward,
not wishing that any should perish.
He also refers to the
long-suffering of God in the days of Noah (2 Peter 3.9; 1 Peter 3.
19,20).
1Tim1v17
The redeemed soul of Paul, as he thinks of God's abundant love,
grace and mercy to him, a one-time persecutor and now an apostle of
Jesus Christ, bursts out in praise to God, the eternal King and only
God, who is incorruptible and invisible, of whose infinite kindness
he had known.
Instead of languishing in torment which his sin
deserved, he, in the joy of salvation, praises God whose hand in
mercy had been stretched out toward him.
Shall we not ever do
likewise when we too take the cup of salvation and call upon the
name of the Lord?
1Tim1v18,19,20
After the digression Paul has made, first to speak of the purpose of
the law and of God's mercy to himself, a law-breaker, he returns to
the charge referred to in verse 3.
He writes to Timothy in the
endearing term of "my child," not "my son."
He refers to the
prophecies connected with Timothy's call to the ministry, first as a
fellow servant with Paul. This is referred to in 4.14, where Paul
says, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."
God
had spoken by the mouths of persons, perhaps the brethren at Lystra
and Iconium, as we read in Acts 16.2: "The same was well reported
of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium."
Whilst the
minister of Christ is one who feeds the lambs and sheep, and the
flock of God, he is, in another sense, to be a warrior who will face
and fight those who are enemies of God's flock.
David the
shepherd-king of Israel was such.
He fed his father's sheep, but
when a lion or a bear took a lamb out of the flock he went after
him, and slew him and deliverd the lamb.
Later, when he cared for
the flock of God, he slew Goliath and other enemies besides.
Timothy was to take sword and shield and to be a good soldier of
Christ Jesus and to war against false teaching and false teachers.
There are times for soft words and times also for words that are
strong and powerful.
The Christian soldier must hold faith and a
good conscience; otherwise he will be weak before the enemy.
Some
had violently thrust these essentials from them, little realising
their immense value, and were as a vessel without chart or rudder, a
plaything of wind and wave. Shipwreck was the result.
Few things
present such a hopeless and melancholy sight as a shipwreck. What
once had been a noble vessel, perchance the pride of the seas, at
last becomes a wreck, mere scrap for the furnace, or worse, to go
gradually to pieces as it sinks daily to oblivion beneath the
waves.
Of such as made shipwreck concerning the Faith (not
concerning salvation) were Hymenaeus (perhaps the same as in 2
Timothy 2.17) and Alexander (perhaps Alexander of 2 Timothy 4.14).
These two men had been guilty of blasphemy.
(Blasphemy literally
means hurtful speaking, to speak injuriously, evil speaking.
In
things pertaining to God, it means, "to speak of God and divine
things in terms of impious irreverence.")
These men had been
excommunicated, that is, they had been delivered to Satan for their
evil speaking.
(See 1 Corinthians 5, where the man there was
delivered unto Satan for immoral conduct).
In both cases the
judgement of the apostle, which was God's judgement, had been given
effect to in the respective churches.
1Tim2v1,2
Here begins that section of the epistle which deals with the
behaviour of men and women, of overseers and deacons, in the house
of God (2.1-3.16).
Of this part Paul writes, "These things write I
unto thee ... that thou mayest know how men ought to behave
themselves in the house of God" (3.14,15).
Any movement that is of
God, whether in an individual or among a people, begins with and is
maintained by prayer.
If men have no living, continuous contact
with God, then there can be neither light nor power.
This
dispensation began with prayer: "These all with one accord
continued stedfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother
of Jesus, and with His brethren" (Acts 1.14).
The powerful witness
of the apostles continued on similar lines: "Now, Lord, look upon
their threatenings: and grant unto Thy servants to speak Thy word
with all boldness ... And with great power gave the apostles their
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was
upon them all" (Acts 4.24, 29-33).
Great power and great grace
were the result of much prayer.
Here in 1 Timothy right behaviour begins with prayer.
Supplication, prayer, intercession, are words which convey ideas
much akin to each other.
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word
translated supplication conveys the idea of graciousness, a seeking
of grace.
Gesenius says that properly it means the cry for
mercy.
This seems to be borne out in the first use of the word in
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the house of the LORD.
He
uses the word frequently (1 Kings 8.28,30,33,38,45,47,49,52,54,
59).
Note particularly the words of verse 52: "That Thine eyes
may be open unto the supplication of Thy servant, and unto the
supplication of Thy people Israel, to hearken unto them whensoever
they cry unto Thee."
The Greek word for supplication in 1 Timothy
2.1 means a petition, a begging as the result of need, an asking.
Prayer means a wish, entreaty made to God as the result of need, an
asking.
Prayer means a wish, entreaty made to God only, or a
vow.
Intercession means a meeting with, an interview, intercourse
with the object of interceding for someone.
Thanksgiving is the
expression of gratitude, the use of grateful language to God.
These
words are all in the plural, showing that there is to be a continuance
in their exercise. Such are to be made for all men.
In the matter
of prayer there is gross darkness in many hearts in many lands, and
there are many lying vanities.
The Buddhist turns his prayer wheel
and cries, "O Jewel of the Lotus, Amen."
The Moslem prays to Allah,
Mahomet's god.
The Romanist ceaselessly repeats "Hail Mary."
Protestants pray betimes to Almighty God without reference to Jesus
Christ, the one Way of reaching the ear of God His Father. They, at
least, should know better.
There are prayers in plenty, but most
who pray know neither the Lord Jesus nor His Father.
Such prayers
are vain.
The Lord said to His disciples in the matter of prayer,
"In praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they
think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" (Matthew 6.
7).
Surely there is much need for prayer by those in whom is the
Spirit of God and who know Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, for
men steeped in ignorance and unbelief who are drifting on to hell
and eternal misery.
Particular prayer is to be made for kings and all in eminence or
dignity in human affairs, so that things may be overruled by God
that we may be able to lead a quiet and tranquil life in all
godliness and gravity.
The Christian should be a godly and grave
person, not gloomy and dejected: he has everything to make him
happy and cheerful in the present joy of the Holy Spirit and the
future inheritance in glory.
1Tim2v3,4
God is not ignorant of the need of the souls of men nor does He need
to be stirred to concern and activity concerning that need.
So
great was His love for the world that He gave His only begotten Son
to die on Calvary (John 3.16; 1 John 4.9,10).
He has also sent
forth His Spirit to convict men of sin and to bear witness
concerning Christ (John 15.26; 16.7-11).
What more could He have
done?
His will is that saved illuminated men and women should be
His witnesses in the world, each in his own sphere, shedding their
light in the darkness.
God is the Saviour, saints are His
messengers, the instruments He uses, but they must be in touch with
Him, hence the need for prayer.
God willeth, that is, he desires,
all men to be saved.
God's desire is equal to the provision He has
made, for there is one Mediator between God and men, and that
Mediator is the redemption price as well.
Saved men should not
stop at being saved.
Alas, many do.
They should go on to the
knowledge of the truth.
Coming to the knowledge of the truth does
not mean coming to know the way of salvation from hell.
It means
coming to know the way of the truth for believers, for God has a way
in which they should walk as well as a way for them to be saved.
See the following passages where the phrase "the knowledge of the
truth" is mentioned: 2 Timothy 2.24-26; 3.7; Titus 1.1; Hebrews 10.
26.
If the knowledge of the truth was synonymous with being saved,
then we should certainly have the falling away doctrine taught in
Hebrews 10.26-31.
That believers can fall away from the living God
and from a place in divine service is plainly taught in the word,
but they cannot fall away from grace and be lost eternally.
Believers should not remain ignorant of what the will of God is.
The Lord revealed in John 7.17 the principle on which God works, "If
any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching."
If
the believer is willing to do God's will then God will teach him.
1Tim2v5,6
Men conceive and make gods many (1 Corinthians 8.5).
Idolatry and
mythology stocked the world and men's minds with gods in abundance,
and still do.
Greece, to take one example, the land of philosophy
and worldly wisdom, had gods for all purposes, gods for war and gods
for peace, for land and sea, for debauch and sensuality, gods that
married and gods that fought with each other, and in addition there
was AN UNKNOWN GOD, who was the God that Paul declared to the
philosophers in Athens (Acts 17.22,31).
Worldly wisdom did not rid
the minds of men of such vain imaginations, nor can worldly wisdom
rid men's minds of the idolatry of our times.
The Scriptures
proclaim from first to last that there is one God.
How did the
world get on and how were men saved before the arrival of the pope
of Rome and all the idolatrous images of the papal system or the
ikons of the Greek church? and what of the world before the arrival
of Buddha and Mahomet?
Where was God then?
The God of Israel and
of the patriarchs of the book of Genesis is the same one God that
Paul proclaimed.
Any other person or thing that claims the
veneration of men, a veneration which is due to God alone, is
idolatry.
In the days of the apostle men had angelic mediators
whom they worshipped (Colossians 2.18).
Papal Rome carries on this
practice, but instead of it being angels it is Mary, whom the Roman
catholics worship as the queen of heaven, which is an ancient form
of idolatry which is condemned by God in Jeremiah 7.16-20; 44.
15-30.
To mariolatry (the worship of the Virgin Mary, whom they
have erroneously held for long years as "ever virgin") they have
recently added the dogma that she went to heaven in bodily form,
and it is mortal sin for a Roman catholic not to accept this.
Where in
the Scriptures do we find the death of Mary? or where do we find
that she went to heaven when she was alive or that she died and was
raised from the dead and went to heaven? Such are nowhere to be
found in the whole New Testament.
Men believe what they want to
believe and what they think will be to their advantage.
Lies
spring out of the earth today like weeds in a garden, but, thank
God, the day of the Lord is coming when truth shall spring out of
the earth (Psalm 85.11); then the hideous monstrosities of
idolatry, of Rome and all other systems of idolatry, will be swept
away.
Before that day men will cast their idols to the moles and
the bats, and shall seek to cover themselves in the caverns and
clefts of the ragged rocks from the terror of the LORD.
(See
Isaiah 2.5-22; Revelation 6.12-17.)
Let it be shouted from the
housetops that there is one God and but one Mediator and one High
Priest.
There is no other priest or mediator that comes between
the souls of men and God, it matters not what systems of education
or ordination men may establish; men's systems are human, Scripture
revelation is divine.
The blessed Man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator, is Himself the
ransom price of the souls of men.
He is between God and all men; He
also gave Himself a ransom for all men, so that there is abundant
provison for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the
truth.
If men are not redeemed the fault does not lie at God's
door, but at the door of those who refuse the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus. God has done all that is possible, providing
salvation and eternal life as a gift (Romans 6.23; Ephesians 2.8).
1Tim2v7
Here Paul shows his part in the work of God relative to the
salvation of men, and the coming to the knowledge of the truth on
the part of those that are saved.
Paul's work lay principally
among the Gentiles; he was an apostle of Gentiles, as sent to
them.
Some men may be more of the herald than the teacher, and
some more of the teacher than the herald, but Paul was one who could
sling equally well with both hands.
He could make disciples and
also teach them to observe all that the Lord had commanded (Matthew
28.19,20).
1Tim2v8
Here the original word for "desire" is Boulomai, the word "willeth,"
in verse 4, Thelo.
Wordsworth says "that Thelo expresses a
stronger desire than Boulomai."
The former "has been explained of
active volition and purpose," and the latter (Boulomai) "of mere
inclination, passive desire, or propensity."
Paul desires that men
should pray.
Here he makes a difference between the sexes, as he
does in verses 9-15 in regard to women.
Prayer in public, which
Paul has in view, is the function of the men.
There is little fear
in regard to men's conduct in the house of God if they are praying
men who pray lifting up holy hands without wrath or disputing.
Wrath and disputation will dispel holiness of life and fervency in
prayer, these things cannot dwell in the same heart as prayer.
1Tim2v9,10
In assemblings where the men are to pray (for all men and kings and
so forth) the women are not to mar these gatherings by their
clothing or behaviour, but they are to appear in seemly guise, their
arrangement of dress is to be with modesty and discreetness.
"Shamefacedness" of the A.V. is a corruption of the word
"shamefastness" of the R.V., which is correct.
The word means
modesty.
Women are to exhibit proper womanly reserve so becoming
of their sex.
Many modern women have cast aside much of this
reserved dignity and grace, and this is not to their honour.
Women
are not to adorn themselves with plaits of hair, gold or pearls, but
(what is becoming in women professing godliness) through good
works.
How fitting it is for men to be lifting up holy hands in
prayer to have such women in their company whose attire and decorum
is of that godly sort which is an encouragement and not a hinderance
to prayer!
1Tim2v11,12
As in public gatherings the men are to pray, so also in public
gatherings women are not to teach, but to be in quietness.
This is
the voice of the Spirit of God, for here Paul is writing inspired
Scripture, and not as some say, who wish to get round the
commandment of the Lord, that it is Paul's opinion.
To make this
to be Paul's opinion would make His writings on other matters Paul's
opinion also.
Where would this lead us to?
Women who fear God
will hear and heed God's word as here given.
They will be glad to
take the place assigned to them by God from the very beginning.
Women are to be in subjection.
This does not mean inferiority.
If subjection meant inferiority then it would mean that the Son of
God is inferior to God (1 Corinthians 15.28).
He is the equal of
God the Father (John 5.18), and on equality with God (Philippians 2.
6), and of the essence and nature of God, and consequently in the
image of God (Colossians 1.15-19; Hebrews 1.3).
Woman is man's
equal in essence and nature, not an inferior creature, but in God's
all-wise purpose, in our present earthly estate, she is in
subjection to the man, in the ordination of God, and must not in
public assemblings teach, and she must not exercise dominion over
the man.
The Greek word for "to have dominion" is Authenteo, which
means one acting by his or her own authority, to domineer.
1Tim2v13,14
Here Paul gives reasons why the woman is to be in subjection and in
quietness; the first is in the order in which man and woman were
made.
Paul uses the Greek word Plasso for formed, a word similar
in meaning to the Hebrew word used by Moses in Genesis 2.7: "The
LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground"; both words mean to
mould, as the potter moulds a vessel of clay.
Eve in contrast was
made of a rib taken from Adam's side.
The word "made" in "made He
a woman" (Genesis 2.22) means "to build" (R.V.marg.).
It means to
build anything, a house, a city, and so forth.
It is also used of
a man and a woman building a house by having children (Genesis 16.
2; Deuteronomy 25.9; Ruth 4.11).
The Lord when speaking of the
Church, which is His Body, His Bride, speaks of building the Church
(Matthew 16.18).
The purpose of God in the woman was that she
should be a help meet, a female helper to the male, to aid, succour,
and answer to man's needs in all respects, spiritually, mentally
and physically, and to assist him in wedlock in building his house
by bearing him children.
No other creature that God had made could
do this.
The animals had no spiritual life, no consciousness of
the Divine Being, no mental ability such as man was given as the
lord of all earthly creatures, and to mix with beasts physically
would have been bestiality of the most abominable kind.
Thus woman
is man's true helper, answering to him in all his needs.
Alas, the
second reason for the woman's subjection to the man lies in how the
fall took place.
Eve was beguiled, deceived or seduced, and fell
into transgression.
Hence the sentence of God in Genesis 3.16, "I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee."
Adam, in contrast to Eve, was not
deceived.
His transgression, being sin against light, was the more
serious of the two.
1Tim2v15
In what sense is the woman to be saved through the childbearing?
What is her danger?
This verse is integrated with what goes before
by the conjunction "but" (De).
She is not to have dominion over
the man or to teach publicly.
Childless Eve acted on her own
authority without consulting her husband.
She took of the
forbidden tree, and did eat of its fruit and also gave to her
husband, and he did eat.
Thus the devil wrought from beneath,
through the animal, the serpent of the field, to the woman, and
through the woman to the man.
He ever works from beneath. God
works from the man to the woman and by them to the animals.
He
works from above.
Thus it was that the fall of mankind came
about.
To meet the ravages of death, conception and the birthrate
had to be increased, and what was God's judgement on the woman and
womankind was to be to their salvation.
Their desire was to be to
their husbands who would rule over them.
The childless wife is in
need of special grace so that she will not usurp the rights and
place of her husband, and act on her own authority and teach him
what to do.
Some have this grace, and those who have not got it
should seek it.
This comely state of the proper relationship of
husband and wife will be realized, if they continue in faith and
love and sanctification with sobriety.
Sobriety means discreetness
or restraint of the desires or passions.
The childbearing is the
natural childbearing of a husband and wife, and has nothing to do
with the Lord's miraculous birth or with salvation which comes to us
by His death and resurrection.
1Tim3v1
"If a man seeketh," that is, stretches forward to overseership, does
not mean that one through ambition or otherwise expresses a wish to
be appointed or recognized as an overseer, but by his actions shows
that he is stretching forward to do such a work which the Lord has
laid upon his heart.
The work of constituting a man an overseer is
of the Holy Spirit.
"Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, in the which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops
(overseers), to feed the church of God" (Acts 20.28).
Men may
ambitiously seek overseership, and others may appoint to that
position those who have shown no evidence in their life that they
are seeking the work, but are seeking only the position of
overseers.
This is the sure road to trouble.
Note that
overseership means work, place is of very secondary importance.
Indeed the overseer should be the servant of all and the least of
all.
There is no word in the Greek for "office."
The words "the
office of a bishop" are one word in the Greek, Episkopes, which
means "overseership."
Paul says that this is a good or beautiful
work.
1Tim3v2,3
The overseer's conduct is carefully dealt with by Paul, for he is a
public man and one who is to be a pattern to the saints.
They
should be able to look to him as an ensample, and the overseer might
at times correct his behaviour by asking himself the question,
"Would I like all the saints to be like me?"
If he would not, then
it is time to apply the proper correction to his life.
He is to be
irreproachable, blameless, one whose conduct cannot be attacked or
censured.
"The husband of one wife" has been the subject of
considerable discussion.
There are at least five views as to what
these words mean:(1)
A man who prior to conversion had had more than one wife, and
who were still alive.
(2)
A man who has but one wife alive (though there is no evidence
whatever that Christians at any time were guilty of polygamy,
of having more than one wife).
(3)
A man who has been married once only, a second marriage upon
the death of his wife being disallowed in the case of an
overseer (see chapter 5.9).
(4)
Chaste fidelity to the marriage vow ("that neither polygamy,
nor concubinage, nor any offensive deuterogamy, should be able
to be alleged against such a person")
(5)
A man who is an overseer should be a married man, the husband
of a wife.
We may dismiss (5) in the light of the fact that Paul himself was
not a married man, or, as some think, a widower (1 Corinthians 7.7,
8; 9.5,6).
An apostle was an elder or overseer (1 Peter 5.1).
It
might be argued that the words, "One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity," imply that he
must be married and also he must have children.
Even if he had but
one child he would thus not be eligible, for the scripture speaks of
children.
This, we judge, would be straining Scripture beyond its
proper limit. As to (4), this is too vague.
It is not simply that
a man believes in the chastity of marriage and faithfulness to the
marriage bond, but that he is himself the husband of one wife.
Then in regard to (3), Paul elsewhere shows that death severs the
marriage bond, making the person thus freed free to marry again (1
Corinthians 7.39; Romans 7.2). In 1 Timothy 5.14 he desires the
younger widows to marry.
As to (2), does the apostle mean that overseers must have only one
wife but saints may have more than one?
We believe that this would
be a very improper view to take.
Saints were not allowed to have
more than one wife.
When Paul says that the overseer must not be a
brawler, a striker, or a lover of money, he is not allowing that the
saints may be brawlers, strikers or lovers of money.
Paul is
making positive statements as to conduct.
Should an overseer's
wife die, are we to lay it down as the Lord's will that he must live
a celibate life afterwards?
Would not this be going beyond what
the Lord says about a man's gift in Matthew 19.11,12? and such a
course of teaching might reap its terrible reward in some cases.
We
must avoid the teaching of certain in the days of the apostle, and
in our own times, whose doctrine he sums up in the terse words "forbidding to marry."
Death discharges the bond of marriage,
leaving the freed person free to marry in the Lord, if he so
desires, though the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 7.40 may have a
bearing in some cases.
Then as to (1), it seems to us that the correct view of "husband of
one wife" is, that prior to conversion a man may have married and
divorced his wife and remarried another woman, and there might have
been, besides the wife he was living with, one or more women alive
who had been his wives.
The following is an extract from "The life
and epistles of Paul," by Conybeare and Howson, page 751:"In the corrupt facility of divorce allowed both by the Greek and
Roman law, it was very common for man and wife to separate, and
marry other parties, during the life of one another.
Thus a man
might have three or four living wives; or, rather, women who had all
successively been his wives ... We believe it is this kind of
successive polygamy, rather than simultaneous polygamy, which is
here spoken of as disqualifying for the Presbyterate."
The overseer must be temperate, that is sober, not given to wine,
therefore vigilant; soberminded, that is discreet, sensible,
prudent, wise; orderly, decorous, well behaved; given to
hospitality, one who loves or is kind to strangers; apt to teach,
one who is skilful or qualified to teach.
The overseer is not to
be a brawler, a reviler, as the result of wine-drinking; he is not
to be a striker, one apt to strike, a characteristic allied to being
a brawler.
He is to be gentle, mild, yielding easily; not
contentious, not disposed to fight, not quarrelsome; no lover of
money, and as a consequence, liberal, generous.
1Tim3v4,5
The household of an overseer should be a pattern of order and his
children should be in subjection with gravity or solemnity.
If a
man fails in the rule of his own house, Paul quite correctly asks
how will such a man care for the church of God; if he fails in the
lesser sphere of rule, how can he succeed in the greater?
The
principle of added responsibility being, as the Lord said, "He that
is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much" (Luke 16.
10).
It must not be deduced, as we have said before, from what
Paul says here, that a single man is not eligible for oversight work
because he has no household and no children.
It must at the same
time be conceded, I think, that, generally speaking, the family man
is taught many practical lessons that can be profitably turned to
good account in the rule of a church of God.
1Tim3v6,7
A novice is one that is newly planted in a church of God; a church
of God is a planted thing (1 Corinthians 3.6).
The word translated
"puffed up" (Tupotheis) comes from the word smoke.
It not only
signifies being puffed up or inflated, but that pride, which is like
smoke that blinds the eyes, blinds one to a proper sense of one's
importance.
Such a proud puffed coxcomb would be useless in the
position of ruling others.
A novice cannot become an overseer lest
he fall into the fault or crime of the devil, which was pride
(Ezekiel 28.17).
The overseer must also have a good testimony from
without, that is, without the church of God.
"Them that are
without" is a phrase which was first used by the Lord (Mark 4.11) to
describe those who were outside the circle of His disciples.
It is
also used in 1 Corinthians 5.12,13; Colossians 4.5; 1 Thessalonians
4.12, as well as here in 1 Timothy 3.7.
If overseers are to have a
good testimony from them that are without, then they must walk in
wisdom and honesty toward them.
This is what Paul enjoins in
Philippians 2.15, and Peter also says, "Having your behaviour seemly
among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as
evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify
God in the day of visitation" (1 Peter 2.12).
He who is the
accuser of the brethren before God (Revelation 12.10) will soon fill
the mouths of his servants with reproaches against saints whose
behaviour is not what it ought to be.
Those who fall into the
devil's snare, whatever form it may take, may have great trouble
getting out, and especially so if such persons should be recognized
in the public work of oversight.
Falling into the devil's snare
may be like the bird with the broken pinion that ne'er soared as
high again.
1Tim3v8,9
Deacons are mentioned in Philippians 1.1 with saints and bishops
(overseers).
What is a deacon and what is an overseer?
A deacon
is a servant, a waiting man, a messenger.
Liddell and Scott say,
"Commonly derived from Dia (through) and Konis (dust), one who is
dusty from running ..., or one who sleeps in dust and ashes."
Another opinion is that the word is derived from Diako, to run or
hasten.
Its application in Scripture is that it signifies a
servant or minister.
An overseer (Episkopos) literally means one
who watches over, a guardian, a superintendent; it is equal to
Presbuteros (elder).
See Acts 20.17,28; 1 Peter 5.1,2.
Ministry
of various kinds, but particularly ministry of the word, is the
function of the deacon.
Rule, feeding, and caring generally for
the flock, is the responsibility of overseers.
Such as are
overseers are to be obeyed by the flock (Hebrews 13.17).
Deacons are to be grave, serious, venerable; not double-tongued
(diligos), not speaking one thing and meaning another, not deceitful
in words; not given to much wine.
See the wise words of king
Lemuel's mother to her son (Proverbs 31.4,5).
Deacons are not to
be greedy of filthy lucre, that is sordidly greedy of gain; they
are to be holding the mystery (hid from many and revealed to some)
of the Faith (the revealed will of God for His people in this
dispensation) in a pure (clear, unsoiled) conscience.
1Tim3v10
Note the force of the word "also" in connexion with the proving of
deacons, which shows that the overseers had been proved.
Overseers
are to be proved by overseers.
When proved they are to minister or
act as deacons, if they be blameless.
By their general ability for
the work of ministry deacons show their fitness for the work.
The
proving requires a time of probation.
A man may do carpenter work
who would not be described as a carpenter, so also one may do deacon
work who is not a deacon.
A deacon is one who (might we say?) has
served his apprenticeship.
1Tim3v11
There being no word for "wife" in the Greek, as there is no word for
"husband," has led to divided judgement as to whether women here
should be wives, that is wives of deacons, or whether they are
deaconesses.
Why should wives of deacons be mentioned, and a
standard of conduct be demanded from them, and the wives of
overseers be not referred to?
The work of overseers being somewhat
more prominent and responsible than that of deacons, the conduct of
their wives would be of first importance.
I am of the opinion that
the women here are female deacons, that is, deaconesses.
We have
one reference to a deaconess which is of help in the interpretation
of this verse.
Paul says, in writing to the saints in Rome, "I
commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant (deaconess) of
the church that is at Cenchreae."
Her work as a deaconess was not
public nor in the public ministry of the word, but within a woman's
sphere of service.
This is explained by Paul in the words, "She
herself also hath been a succourer of many, and of mine own self"
(Romans 16.1,2).
The deaconess is to be grave, serious, and not to
be a slanderer (Diabolous - devils).
See also Titus 2.3, where the
same word "slanderers" is used.
They are to be temperate (see verse
2).
How much is comprehended in the words "faithful in all
things"!
The deaconess is one who can be trusted implicitly that
the work with which she is entrusted will be carried out in a manner
worthy of the work of the Lord.
(Would that this could be said
about all, both men and women, for, alas, it seems to be with some
that anything will do for God.
What many human masters would not
tolerate God seems to have to put up with.)
1Tim3v12
Deacons, like overseers, are to be husbands of one wife (see remarks
on verse 2, and are, like overseers, to rule well their children and
their houses.
Having children on the part of a married man is
contemplated in a deacon, but having no children cannot be a cause
of exclusion from being a deacon.
1Tim3v13
Serving well as deacons has its present recompense, for by their
service they gain for themselves a good standing or degree.
The
word means a step.
There is an ascent to higher heights in the
things of God.
Many are content to remain at the bottom of the
ladder; they do not give themselves to God's things, as Timothy was
exhorted to do (1 Timothy 4.15), consequently there is no progress
manifest.
An eminent servant of Christ used to say, "Many are at
the bottom; few are at the top."
Those who have served well gain
also great boldness or confidence; it literally means freedom of
speech in the Faith in Christ Jesus, not faith in Christ Jesus.
1Tim3v14,15
"These things" refer to the things of chapters 2 and 3 in regard to
prayer, and the proper behaviour of men and women, of overseers and
deacons.
Paul hoped to come to Timothy sooner than perchance he
thought as he wrote the epistle, but if he tarried, what he had
written would show Timothy and others what Paul's (and the Spirit's)
mind was as to proper conduct in that which is the house of God.
What was proper behaviour for the church of God in Ephesus was
correct behaviour in every other church of God; Paul taught the
same things in every church of God (1 Corinthians 4.17).
The
house of God which is the church of the living God is the pillar and
ground (or base, not foundation) of the truth.
It is a pillar of
witness to the truth of God.
Testimony and conduct are ever wedded
together.
If good conduct goes then testimony will perish.
Hence
it was that with such public servants as overseers and deacons, Paul
went into their behaviour fully and carefully.
The thought of the
pillar of testimony carries the mind back to Jacob, in Genesis 28,
when he set up his stone pillow as a pillar and poured oil on the
top of it, and said, "This stone, which I have set up for a pillar,
shall be God's house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will
surely give the tenth unto Thee" (Genesis 28.11,17,18,22).
The
tabernacle in the wilderness is called the "tabernacle of the
testimony" (Acts 7.44).
The house of God and the Body of Christ
should never be confused and confounded; such distinctions as men
and women (i.e. males and females), overseers and deacons, are not
in the latter as there are in the former.
There are many other
distinctions in these widely different things.
1Tim3v16
Proper conduct in the house of God is godliness; that piety, or
reverential awe, which befits those who are in God's earthly
dwelling.
How and where shall we learn this?
We shall learn it
from One who was manifested in the flesh, who is the mystery of
godliness.
Those who are Christ-like set forth this behaviour that
Paul calls for.
There has been much discussion as to what is the
correct rendering in this verse, whether it should be "God was
manifested in the flesh," or, "He who (or who) was manifested in the
flesh," whether Paul wrote OS (or Ths) (an abbreviation for Theos God) or OS (Hos - who).
Textual critics differ in their judgement
as to which word was written by Paul.
One has asked what our
spiritual reaction would be if it were read thus: God was
manifested in the flesh; God was justified in the Spirit; God was
seen of angels; God was preached among the nations; God was
believed on in the world; God was received up in glory.
Reading
the verse thus, our reaction would be in favour of "who" rather than
"God."
In this complex sentence "God" or "who" is in the
nominative.
It must not be concluded that those who favour "who"
here are against the Deity of the Lord in doing so.
The Deity and
Eternal Sonship of the Lord are well established in many other
passages of the Scriptures.
The mystery of godliness is the
incarnate Christ, on this there is little or no difference between
all true believers.
1Tim4v1,2
The Greek word rendered "expressly" is derived from Rhetor, an
orator, and signifies "plainly" or "expressed in words."
How the
Spirit spoke is not revealed, and how men, such as Paul, were
definitely assured that the Spirt had spoken are among the secret
things about which conjecture is vain.
"In later times" signifies
times later than those when this epistle was written.
They do not
mean the same as "the last days" of which 2 Timothy 3.1 speaks.
Some were to fall away or apostatize from the faith.
This means
that they would give up the stand that they had taken earlier for
the truth as being in that which is the house of God, the pillar and
ground of the truth (3.15).
We are told how this falling away was
to take place.
It was to come about by lying and hypocritical men
who would be used by seducing spirits to propagate the doctrines of
demons.
Such evil spirits are the spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places (Ephesians 6.12) against which the Christian soldier
must wage a ceaseless battle.
He is provided with armour by his
Captain for this warfare.
How do demons operate?
They first win
men to their side, often for filthy lucre or mercenary gain.
The
conscience of such perverted men is branded, as one has said, "with
the foul marks of their moral crime," and being thus cauterized is
rendered ineffective.
In hypocrisy they speak the devil's lies
to the destruction of those that hear them.
Alas, the way of
Judas, whose covetousness led him to the fatal choice of getting
easy money, is followed by many still.
Christ is being betrayed on
all sides, and those only escape who give heed to and hold fast to
the word of God as written.
1Tim4v3
We have, no doubt, here reference made to the heresis of the
Essenes and others who regarded marriage to be contrary to their
ideas of the purification of the body; the same ideas prevailed
among them on the matter of meats.
They failed completely to
appreciate the meaning of the Lord's teaching on meats, in Mark 7.
14-23, that it is not what goes into the stomach that defiles, but
what comes out of the heart.
This matter of eating meats is dealt
with in Acts 10 and Romans 14.
Marriage, we are told, is
honourable (Hebrews 13.4), but some for the kingdom of heaven's sake
(Matthew 19.12), or for other reasons, live celibate lives.
Satan
either leads men into spiritual and moral depravity, or teaches a
supposedly higher state of body purification than is taught in the
Faith, but he neither can nor will come down foursquare on the
doctrine taught by the Lord and His apostles, which is truth, for
there is no truth in him.
Rome follows the Essene ideas in
commanding her priests and nuns to live celibate lives, and alas,
what moral perversions and fatal retributions have followed this
mere human commandment, which is contrary to the constitutions of
human beings in general!
Rome also commands the abstention from
meats at certain seasons.
Those that know the truth enjoy the
greatest liberty in the matter of eating, for there is nothing
unclean of itself (Romans 14.14).
1Tim4v4,5
Of every creature it is said, "God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1.
25).
Nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with
thanksgiving.
It is sanctified to the Christian's use by the word
of God in Mark 7, and this is repeated in other passages already
referred to.
It is sanctified by the prayer of the recipient.
This is more than the relationship of man to his Creator, it is that
of the believer to his God.
In the Levitical code, when God was
dealing with Israel after the flesh, certain meats were common and
unclean and unfit for the consumption of a holy people, and certain
were sanctified by God in the law and were to be thankfully received
by Israel.
1Tim4v6
"These things" of chapter 3.14 are the things of chapters 2.1-3.
13.
"These things" of this verse (6) are the things of which the
Spirit had expressly spoken concerning the apostasy of certain from
the truth, from the faith which was once for all delivered to the
saints (Jude 3).
Timothy in his laying these things before the
brethren, the divine institution of marriage, and all that goes with
it, and also the matter of meats, things covering so great an area
of human existence in this scene, would be a good minister or deacon
of Christ Jesus.
He would be combating the fast-flowing tide of
the heresies of the Essenes and others concerning these things,
which submerged and drowned so many in later times.
His faithful
ministry would reveal that he had been nourished (which means to
make firm or solid, and in consequence one who by reason of
education and training would not be moved) in the words of the faith
and of the good (the word also means beautiful) doctrine which he had
closely followed till then.
He was no mere camp-follower, one who
followed a long way behind.
1Tim4v7,8,9
How much precious time, a most precious thing for the Christian in
this life, is wasted upon profane (from Greek Belos - a threshold,
what is open to all and is consequently unholy) and old wives'
fables, things which are silly and absurd, and are often harmful!
Such were to be declined, avoided, refused, by Timothy and all like
him, but in contrast to the listless and enervating effect that
these old wives' fables produced, he was to be a man of firm moral
and spiritual fibre by exercising himself unto godliness.
Godliness is the reverential awe of the Divine Being which is not
natural to man in his fallen state.
Such is produced in the
believer by the prayerful reading of the Scriptures and the
practising of what is read.
Fables feed the natural superstition in
the human mind, which is the opposite of godliness.
Human beings
are often superstitiously afraid of things and persons that they
need not fear at all.
Some fear priests, statues, images, stocks,
stones and wells and relics of paganized Christianity in which there
is nothing to fear.
Think, too, how much evil is done by novels,
those fabulous fabrications, all of them untrue in fact, which often
pander to the lower and lustful side of human nature.
If novel
reading is persisted in, then be sure that godliness like a scared
bird will fly out of the window.
Godliness is not attained in a
day or two.
Exercise in the Greek is the word Gumnazo - gymnastic
exercise.
Godliness has the promise of the life that now is and of
the life to come.
Thus the godly man gets the best out of life
here and hereafter.
We must keep up this exercise of godliness all
through life, for the athlete who gives up exercise soon
deteriorates and the profit derived from exercise passes like a
morning cloud. Bodily exercise is really of small profit compared
with the exercise of godliness.
1Tim4v10
The living God is the Saviour or Preserver of all men.
Here it is
not salvation from sin's penalty but from the effects of sin's awful
power.
The human race has in it all the potentialities of
self-destruction, and it had long perished from off the earth but
for the fact that the living God is the Preserver of all men, not
simply of believers.
Paul and others laboured and strove after that present salvation
which is connected with godliness, for God saves the godly from many
temptations which drown other men.
Indeed the godly have ever been
as the salt of the earth (Matthew 5.13), men and women whose
presence on earth retarded the world's corruptions.
Peter in this
connexion asks, "If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the
ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Peter 4.18).
There is no such thing
as the believing sinner being scarcely (Molis - with difficulty,
hardly) saved from sin's penalty.
In contrast, the believer who
works out his own salvation by the power of God working in him
(Philippians 2.12,13) has often a hard task against the flesh, the
world and the devil, and often bemoans his ungodly thoughts, though
he may appear outwardly a moderately godly person.
We all know
this labouring and striving, and the nearer to the Lord we seem to
get the greater the inward strife seems to become.
1Tim4v11,12
Here Paul measures preaching with practice.
The rule is ever the
same as that exhibited in the life of the Lord, in "all that Jesus
began both to do and to teach" (Acts 1.1).
Doing and teaching
should never be divorced.
Timothy the teacher was to be a pattern
of godly living.
Here we see the spectrum of the beautiful life of
godliness broken up into its parts through the mind of Paul,
revealing its several excellences - in word, manner of life, love,
faith, purity.
Timothy was to be a model for all to follow.
How
often Paul refers to his own life as a pattern for saints to
imitate! (1 Corinthians 11.1, etc.).
Youth is no disqualification
to gift and godliness.
1Tim4v13,14
Until the apostle should come, who would confirm his work, Timothy
was to give heed, attend to or give himself to, the public reading
of the Scriptures, to public exhortation and teaching of the Old
Testament and such other books of the New Testament as were by that
time written.
He was not to neglect, not to allow to decay through
carelessness, the gift that was in him.
This was a gift of service
answering to the spiritual ability of Timothy for such service.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.6, "Stir up (into a flame) the gift of God,
which is in thee through (Dia - by means of) the laying on of my
hands."
Timothy was a young man with God-given natural ability,
which was sanctified by the added gifts in grace of the Spirit.
Such were seen by others, and through (Dia) prophecy, and through
(Dia) the laying on of the apostle's hands, the gift of a fuller
sphere of divine service was imparted to him; this was done with
(Meta) the laying on of the hands (the fellowship) of the elderhood
or presbytery.
It is comely when there is the recognition of God's
gift in a man, that he be given the gift of service for which he is
divinely fitted.
It is as uncomely when a man is seeking to do a
work for which he is not fitted.
No number of men can supply a
gift that God has left out of any man's constitution.
The
historical account of what Paul alludes to in these verses is given
in Acts 16.1-3: "And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra: and
behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a
Jewess which believed; but his father was a Greek.
The same was
well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him."
1Tim4v15,16
"Be diligent" (the Greek word here means to meditate on, think upon,
revolve in the mind): "give thyself wholly to them", that is,
literally, "in these things be"; they were to be the business of
Timothy's life. The Lord said to His parents, "Wist ye not that I
must be in the things of My Father?" (Luke 2.49, R.V.M.).
If one
would make progress in the things of God, one must make them one's
lifework.
Other things are incidental and accessory to redeemed
men's chief business in this world.
When other things, things
worldly and material, dominate the believer's life, though no moral
misdemeanour is seen, he begins to lose ground, and if that state of
things continues, the deterioration in both service and living for
God becomes more rapid, till at last the service of God may be given
up entirely and the believer loses all the marks of a saint on the
way to glory.
"Take heed to thyself" comes before, "and to thy teaching."
Practice comes before preaching.
If the practice is wrong, the
preaching should stop till the practice is put right.
Paul asks,
"Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?"
By continuing in these things, by preaching what he practised,
Timothy would save both himself and those that heard him.
How
profitable is a godly life and a godly minister!
1Tim5v1,2
"Elder" here, as the context shows, means simply an old person, not
an elder or overseer.
An old man was not to be sharply rebuked,
but exhorted as a father, and the younger men were not to be lorded
over, but treated as brethren.
Likewise, elder women were to be
dealt with as mothers and the younger as sisters.
Such
relationships were to be in all purity, that is, in chastity,
modesty, blamelessness.
1Tim5v3,4
Honour those who are really widows, which means that their needs
were to be supplied.
See the Lord's teaching in Matthew 15.3-6.
Here is wholesome instruction for those who are children or
grandchildren in regard to their widowed mother or grandmother.
It is a shame for children to cast their widowed mother on the care
of others.
It is a shame for any to do this, but for professing
Christians to do this is abominable.
Words cannot be too strong to
describe such hard-heartedness.
Let children think long and
soberly of a mother's love and unwearied care on their behalf before
they turn them out for strangers to look after.
We repeat Paul's
weighty words, "Let them learn first to shew piety to their own
family, and to requite their parents."
Let us each think of the
Lord's care for His mother when He was dying on the cross, and how
He left her in the care of the apostle John.
It is said that he
"took her to his own."
There is no "home" in the Lord's words.
All that was John's was hers, home, food, clothing, and so forth.
Alas, we live in a cruel and heartless age!
Sin is proud, selfish
and cruel.
Care of parents is acceptable in God's sight.
Let
children remember the first commandment with promise, which is,
"Honour thy father and thy mother."
1Tim5v5,6,7
Here we have two kinds of widows, the real, sincere, pious widows,
and the merry widows, the frivolous and light hearted who live for
self-gratification.
The one sort live in continuous touch with the
throne of God, the other are dead while they live.
Such things were
to be commanded; it was not a matter of entreaty, for reproach
could be brought upon the testimony of the Lord by careless
behaviour.
1Tim5v8
To provide means, literally, to perceive beforehand, to foresee.
It has the same meaning as when Abraham said, "God will see for
Himself" (Genesis 22.8, R.V.M.).
Jehovah-Jireh means, "The LORD
will see" or provide (Genesis 22.14, R.V.M.).
Pre-vision comes
before pro-vision.
The head of a Christian household is
responsible to foresee the needs of those for whom he is
responsible, and to make provision for them up to his capacity so to
do.
If he wantonly fails in the discharge of his duty he comes
under the stricture of the apostle: "He hath denied the Faith, and
is worse than an unbeliever."
Let it be noted that this verse
comes into the paragraph that deals with the care of widows.
1Tim5v9,10
We must, I think, make a difference between ministering to the poor
and needy and the enrolment or listing of widows.
The poor may
require to be cared for at a much earlier age than sixty years, but
widows were not to be enrolled for the purpose of being relieved
until they were sixty.
Then there are other conditions which show
that the enrolled widows had been persons of a high standard of
Christian conduct.
Regarding the condition, "the wife of one man,"
see note on 1 Timothy 3.2.
The conditions show that widows were
not enrolled, shall we say automatically, when they became sixty.
In being cared for by the church they were reaping a little of the
fruit of their sowing in past years, when they ministered to the
need of others.
Verses 4-16 show that if they could be cared for
by others, relatives in particular, this should be done so that the
church should not be burdened.
1Tim5v11,12
Timothy and the elders with him were to decline enrolling widows
younger than sixty.
The word rendered "refuse" here is rendered
"reject" in connexion with the heretic, in Titus 3.10 A.V.
In the
one case it is to refuse enrolment for relief; in the other it is
to refuse fellowship to the heretic.
The gifts of the church to
younger widows, as Paul viewed it, would tend to increase a state of
wantonness against Christ.
The word rendered "wanton" here is
derived from a word which means "to take away the rein," and means
"to revel, to become luxurious or lascivious against".
Paul later
recommends the younger widows to marry; there is a Christian
propriety in such a matter.
Here desiring to marry is the
excessive desire born of lasciviousness, which is unbecoming in
those who are disciples of Christ.
In such a course of conduct by
widows, they are guilty or condemned, for they have cast off their
first faith, which was so real and sound that it led to chastity of
conduct which the Faith requires of the Lord's disciples.
"Their
first faith" does not mean, in my opinion, the marriage bond of the
first marriage, which was discharged by death.
1Tim5v13
Here we have a description of women out of control with idle hands
and loose tongues.
They learn to be idle; what a school of
learning to attend!
They also go about from house to house, an
aimless but harmful life.
The original word for "tattler" is
derived from a word which means "to boil over or bubble."
Such
tattlers or gossipers and busybodies, prying, intermeddling persons,
are a menace to the peace of any community.
How seriously the
characters of saints suffer at their hands!
To some, retailing
scandal seems a pleasant occupation.
Garbage collecting is poor
employment for one on the way to heaven.
1Tim5v14,15
There is no conflict between 1 Corinthians 7.39,40 and Paul's
expressed desire here, that the younger widows marry and bear
children.
The widow in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says, "is free to
marry whom she will: only in the Lord."
But in the matter of
happiness, he gave his judgement, that is, that higher happiness
which springs from being devoted to the Lord and free from the cares
of married people, of which he wrote in 1 Corinthians 7.34: "She
that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, that she
may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married is
careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
"
It is in the light of this that Paul says that "she is happier
if she abide as she is, after my judgement."
This matter of
remaining unmarried is one of gift (Matthew 19.10,11).
In view of
the fact that some younger widows had given way to carnal desires,
and had gone after Satan, and others seemed to be tending in the
same direction, Paul could not counsel them in regard to the higher
happiness, and he advises that the younger widows should marry,
when, of course, opportunity offered, and live the respectable life
of a married Christian woman, in bearing children (not seeking to
avoid the consequences of the marriage of normally healthy people),
ruling the household, and giving no occasion to the adversary for
railing.
1Tim5v16
Certain textual critics (the R.V. takes the same line) delete
"man" here.
Such as had widows, beyond the relationships indicated
in verse 4, that of children or grandchildren, were to relieve them
so that the church might relieve such as were widows indeed.
1Tim5v17,18
Here we have an interesting fact, we have two quotations made by
Paul, both of which are called Scripture, the one about the ox from
Deuteronomy 25.4, and the other from Luke 10.7.
The Gospel
according to Luke is divinely inspired Scripture as is the book of
Deuteronomy.
Peter also classes the writings of Paul among the
Scriptures (2 Peter 3.15,16). Elders are not equal in ability,
piety and devotedness.
Such as take the lead and do so well are to
be counted worthy of double honour.
There are those still, who,
like Korah and his company of old, would rise up against God-given
leaders, and say by their actions what Korah said, "Ye take too much
upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy" (Numbers 16.3).
Good leaders have to be honoured and all leaders obeyed (Hebrews 13.
17).
It would seem that as there were whole-time ministers of the
gospel, who, as they sowed spiritual things, were to be ministered
to in carnal things (1 Corinthians 9.11), so there were elders who
ruled well and laboured in the word and teaching in whole-time
service, who were to be cared for by the saints.
The same words
are used of both, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out
the corn."
An ox might be muzzled at other times, if, or when, he
was not treading out the corn; but when he was at the work of
providing food for others he had a God-given right to eat himself.
1Tim5v19
Some think that their individual testimony against another, and
perhaps especially against an elder, should be accepted without
question, and seem peevish and think that they are regarded as
being untruthful if their word is not received and acted upon.
The
apostle's command here is no doubt based upon Deuteronomy 19.15.
See also Numbers 35.30; Matthew 18.16; 2 Corinthians 13.1.
God's
ways in judgement are perfect.
We each do well to consider the
Lord's words in Matthew 7.1-5, especially His words about the mote
and the beam.
1Tim5v20
Where sin is duly proven it must be dealt with.
To cover up the
sin of an elder because he is an elder is a sure road to trouble,
which may become widespread and the many be defiled (Hebrews 12.
15).
Such as sinned had to be convicted on the evidence of
witnesses, and had to be reproved or rebuked that the rest of the
elders might be in fear, for dealing with wrong has, or should have,
a salutary effect on all.
"The rest" here are not the rest of the
saints in an assembly.
Elders are to be dealt with by their peers
and before their peers and not before the saints.
1Tim5v21,22
Here is a most important charge on the serious matter of divine
judgement, which God in the present phase of His kingdom has
committed to men on earth, wherein some have to deal with the
actions of their fellows.
The charge is given before the highest
court of judicature - God, Christ Jesus, and the elect angels.
Who
are the elect angels?
Two views may be put forward for
consideration: (1) that they are the "good angels as distinguished
from the bad," the latter being the angels of the devil (Revelation
12.7); (2) that they are certain of the heavenly host who are
chosen out for special service in connexion with heavenly worship
and government.
It seems to me that (2) is the correct view.
I
would draw the attention of the reader to two scriptures and
suggest, without being dogmatic, that they show a class of heavenly
beings which are distinct from the innumerable hosts of angels.
In
Hebrews 12.23 we have "the church of the firstborn (ones) who are
enrolled in heaven."
This is a distinct company as the Greek of
the passage plainly shows, from the innumerable hosts of angels
which form the general assembly.
It is an unfortunate translation
in both the A.V. and R.V.
The error is corrected in Mr. Darby's
translation (see footnote).
Compare with this the inner place
around the tabernacle which was occupied by the Levites, who were
taken instead of the firstborn sons of Israel who sinned in the
matter of the golden calf.
See Exodus 13.2,15; 32.26-29; Numbers 3.
44-51.
It seems clear that the church of firstborn ones are angels
called out by God according to His purpose.
Church signifies such
as are called, and it also implies election.
Then in Revelation 4
and 5, we have twenty-four elders; heavenly beings who are distinct
from the ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of angels.
Twelve is a governmental number, as witness the twelve tribes of
Israel and the twelve apostles.
Twice twelve is also a
governmental number.
These twenty-four elders sit on twenty-four
thrones, which show that they have spheres of authority and rule.
We learn from Colossians 1.16, 2.10 etc., that all angels are not
equal; there are those over others, as is clearly indicated in
thrones, principalities, and so forth.
Timothy, in the matter of judgement, was to act without prejudice,
that is, apart from judging a matter beforehand, before evidence was
given by faithful witnesses.
The day of Christ will reveal how
often brethren have decided a case, for one reason or another,
before the time had arrived for judging according to the evidence.
Timothy was also to be impartial, that is, without leaning towards
anyone and showing favour, without being biased, in his judgements.
He was not to lay hands hastily on any one.
The whole of a man's
conduct over past years needed to be taken into account when he was
being considered for some particular responsibility in the service of
God.
How comely it is when a man is given work for which he is
suited!
Timothy was also to be careful that he did not involve himself in
the wrong-doing of others.
His honour would be tarnished by being
a partaker in other men's sins.
He was to keep himself pure.
The
original word for "pure" means "to watch over, to be on one's guard
against, to take care"; his ways and actions were to be
irreproachable.
1Tim5v23
It may be right to think of Timothy as being a man of weak physique
and timid disposition.
At the same time we can well understand
that the strain of great assembly responsibilities would drain the
vital force of his nervous system, and in consequence his stomach
and digestion would suffer.
He was an abstemious man, a drinker of
water, and Paul advised him for medicinal purposes to use a little
wine for his stomach's sake and his frequent weaknesses.
Trouble
with false teachers, experienced by one who had a highly spiritual
mind and a weak body, resulted in the physical weaknesses of
Timothy.
Any one who has had a measure of such troubles knows how
much one's health may suffer at times.
The connexion in which Paul
alludes to Timothy's health is significant.
FOOTNOTE
Mr. Darby renders the passage: "and to myriads of angels, the
universal gathering; and to [the] assembly of the firstborn [who
are] registered in heaven;"
The Englishman's Greek New Testament translates somewhat similarly:
"and to myriads of angels, [the] universal gathering; and to [the]
assembly of [the] firstborn [ones] in [the] heavens registered; ..."
- J.M.
1Tim5v24,25
Some men's sins are flagrant and open and pass on to judgement
before the day of judgement comes; that is, the judgement with
which Timothy had to do.
On the other hand the sins of others are
secret, and only after due inquisition are they discovered.
In the
one case the notoriety of their wrong-doing precedes them; in the
other their sins follow them, and sin ever follows the wrong-doer;
he can never free himself from it.
So also is it with good
works.
Some good works are clearly seen, and some are secret, but
the latter cannot remain hidden; they too will be discovered.
We
may think that our actions will not be revealed.
That is
impossible.
"Every child maketh himself known by his doings,
Whether his work be pure, and whether it be right"
(Proverbs 20.11).
1Tim6v1,2
Servants here were bondservants or slaves, slaves under the yoke,
and were to honour their unbelieving masters.
Christian slaves who
had unbelieving masters would no doubt be greater in number than
those who had believing masters (Despotes, a master of slaves).
Christian slaves by their conduct were not to cause the name of God
and the doctrine to be blasphemed.
Even household servants were to
suffer their wrongs patiently (1 Peter 2.18-23).
Christ was to be
their example of patient suffering.
Such slaves as had believing
masters were not to despise them because they were brethren, but to
serve them the rather.
Though there is no slavery today, as in
that past day, it is still a difficulty where there are Christian
masters and servants.
Sometimes such masters may not be the best
of masters, and equally the servants do not make the best of
servants.
Each may make too great claims on the other.
It at
times presents difficulties where assembly and business
relationships are involved.
The same difficulties seemed to exist
in the apostle's days also.
Paul's words here, if heeded, will be
found to be helpful.
Who are those that partake of the benefit?
It seems to be the masters that partake of the benefit of the
service of the slaves.
A good slave was, no doubt, a sharer in many
benefits and good work-people today often reap bountiful rewards.
1Tim6v3,4,5
We return in this verse to the purpose for which Paul left Timothy
in Ephesus, namely to "charge certain men not to teach a different
doctrine" (1.3).
The words of the Lord Jesus are the test of sound,
healthful doctrine, which issues in a godly life.
Any doctrine
which does not result in godliness is unhealthy.
In contrast, the
doctrine of Christ received and acted upon makes men like Christ.
Another (Heteros, of a different kind) doctrine results in pride, the
person who teaches it is puffed up (Tuphoo, which is derived from
Tuphos, smoke), knowing nothing, his mind is darkened by his smoky
pride and it has a like effect on his hearers.
He is one who is
doting (Noseo, sick, and has a depraved appetite) about questionings
and disputes of words, an argumentative, proud fellow.
Think of
the list that follows from this state of spiritual sickness: envy,
strife, railings, evil surmisings, wranglings of men corrupted in
mind and bereft of the truth.
Could we have a brood of vipers
worse than these?
They would drive peace out of any community and
poison any communion to its vitals.
What is the object of such
teachers?
What do they hope to gain by it?
Paul's answer is
plain - "supposing that godliness is a way of gain."
Their
religion was but a gainful occupation.
It was the things of earth
and not those of heaven they sought.
It was self and not Christ!
Theirs was the religion of Judas, who carried the bag and stole the
Lord's money.
1Tim6v6,7,8
Godliness, that comely reverential fear of God, coupled with a mind
contented with its lot is, says the apostle, great gain or profit.
Such a person is one of heaven's noblemen.
We brought nothing into
the world at birth, neither can we carry anything out at death,
though we can, according to the exchange of heaven in the matter of
giving on earth, have a treasure laid up for ourselves where there
are no thieves to steal what will be ours permanently.
Having
sustenance and covering we are to be content.
Pilgrims should not
attempt to carry too heavy loads!
1Tim6v9,10
Paul here is not condemning rich people, but such as desire to be
rich, persons who have a craving after riches.
Such fall into
temptation, tempted to do shady or dishonest things for gain.
Often they are caught in a snare and are trapped by the devil and
lose their Christian liberty, and are no longer free to serve the
Lord, as, perhaps, they once did.
They may also fall into many
foolish lusts which are hurtful to themselves and perchance to
others also.
These things sink men into destruction and
perdition.
The lives of such believers might have been lives of
usefulness and of eternal profit, but they became saved believers
with lost lives.
The love of money (not money itself) is a root of
all kinds of evil.
All kinds of sin against God and crimes against
humanity are traceable to this vile root, which has spread
throughout the whole race of mankind.
It seduces men from the
Faith, and they pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
1Tim6v11
A man's greatness is not in what he has, but in what he is.
Nabal
of old (1 Samuel 25) was a great man, because his greatness
consisted in having three thousand sheep and a thousand goats (verse
2).
But "Nabal (fool) is his name, and folly is with him" (verse
25).
The Lord said, "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12.15).
There are
qualities in a Christian man's life that no money can buy, such as
those which Paul indicates here, and which are proper to a man who
can be called a man of God.
Here is a pursuit in life worthy of us
all.
1Tim6v12
The fact that the definite article is before eternal life here does
not make it something different in kind from eternal life in John 3.
16, etc.
Life here is something that is set before us to lay hold
upon.
Eternal life, which is the gift of God to all believers, may
be increased in the measure in which we grow spiritually.
The Lord
said, "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly"
(John 10.10).
The measure of the life of a babe in Christ is not
to be the measure of the life of a young man or a father (1 John 2.
12-14).
Paul in Galatians 6.8, writes about reaping eternal life,
that is, by sowing to the Spirit we may reap an increase of the
eternal life that we already have.
A spirit of lifelessness
will yield no increase of life, and such as follow this course
continue as mere children to be tossed to and fro by the winds of
doctrine, the playthings of the devil's stratagems.
The present
conflict calls for living, vigorous saints, such as not only have
life, but are laying hold of it.
Plants that have been planted in
the soil are alive, but they never grow and develop the life that
they have until they lay hold of the earth in which they are and
begin to draw from it the nourishment that they need.
We are
called to live the eternal life that has been given to us, but,
alas, we may have a name to live and yet be dead (Revelation 3.1),
there being no movement in the soul.
Timothy had a vigorous life,
for he had confessed a good confession in the sight of many
witnesses.
Witness-bearing demands that we live the life to which
we bear witness.
To what purpose is it to speak to others of
eternal life, if that life has no manifestation in ourselves?
1Tim6v13,14
Timothy was charged before God who makes all things to live, who
would quicken him to keep, preserve as a sacred trust, God's
commandment without spot and irreproachable until the Lord
appeared.
He was charged also before Christ Jesus, of whom it is
said that He witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate.
Thus we have in God the Source of Life for all obedience and
testimony, and the blessed example of the Faithful Witness
(Revelation 1.5), who right to Pilate's bar confessed a good
confession.
The Lord's appearing is His returning to this scene of
testimony, not His appearing to His own.
This fact is seen in the
next verse.
1Tim6v15,16
"He shall shew"; who is the "He"?
It is the Lord Jesus Christ of
the previous verse.
"Its own times" refers to the day of the Lord's
appearing.
In that day of the Lord, He will show, make visible,
that He is Himself the blessed and only Ruler, the King of all kings
and the Lord of all lords.
He only, at the time that Paul wrote to
Timothy, had immortaility, raised in a resurrection body in which He
neither will nor can die again.
We also at His coming again, if
alive, shall put on immortality, and if we are then amongst the dead
in Christ then shall put on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15.34-54).
The Lord saw no corruption when He lay in the tomb (Acts 13.
35-37).
Rome has now proclaimed that Mary, the Lord's mother, went
to heaven in bodily form.
This is impossible, for notice what Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 15.23, "Christ the firstfruits; then they
that are Christ's, at His coming."
Note the force of "then", not
"then Mary," but "then they that are Christ's."
Note, too, what
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4.16,17: "The dead in Christ shall
rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together
with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.
"
The first to rise from the dead after the Lord's resurrection
are the saints of this dispensation, those that are in Christ, at
which time the living in Christ shall put on immortality.
Let none
confuse immortality with eternal life; immortality has to do with
the body, not with the soul.
Every believer has already received
the gift of eternal life (John 3.16,36, etc.), but believers are
mortal, that is, subject to death, as to their bodies.
Let none be
trapped by those who ask the question about having an immortal
soul.
This is a confusing of terms, and it is the confusing of
terms that has led to so many heresies.
Mortal and immortal have
to do with the body, not with the soul. Sinners are dead through
their trespasses while they are alive in a mortal body, and if they
believe in Christ they are made alive with Him (Ephesians 2.1,5)
and are saved by grace.
At the present time the Man Christ Jesus dwells in light
unapproachable, which no mortal man has seen or can see.
We shall
shortly see Him at His coming, even as He is now, and be like Him (1
John 3.2), and we shall then have bodies like unto His glorious body
(Philippians 3.21). To God's Christ, who is both God and Man, be
honour and might eternal.
1Tim6v17,18,19
Here we have Paul's charge to the rich in this present age.
First,
they are not to be high-minded, an ever present danger in the case
of rich folk.
Earthly riches are uncertain and fortune is fickle,
hence believers are not to make riches the basis of their hope of
security for future contingencies in earth's changing scenes.
The
living and unchanging God is our security, and He provides richly
for our enjoyment and we have His promises which can never fail.
The rich are to be rich in good works, liberal in distributing and
ready in their fellowship.
In so doing they are laying up treasure
for themselves, which is a good foundation for the future.
In this
way they lay hold on what is truly life, which was what Timothy was
exhorted to do in verse 12. It was a vain life, the life of such a
man as the Lord described in Luke 16.19, but alas, many still live
this kind of life.
1Tim6v20,21
That which was committed to Timothy was "the deposit."
What was
this deposit? Was it (1) the doctrine that he taught? or was it (2)
the work which the Lord entrusted to him and to which he was
called?
It seems to me that it is (2), the work to which he was
called.
But it should at once be definitely stated, that the work
of Timothy and also of Paul could only be accomplished within the
compass of the Faith, which Paul in the end of his life claimed to
have kept (2 Timothy 4.7).
If we compare verse 20 here with 2
Timothy 1.9,12,14 we shall be helped, for there again he writes to
Timothy of the deposit.
Paul and Timothy were saved and called,
not according to their works, but according to God's purpose and
grace whch was given them in Christ Jesus before times eternal.
This purpose was manifested by the appearing of Christ Jesus.
Paul
was appointed a preacher, an apostle and a teacher.
He writes in
verse 12 of "my deposit," what the Lord had committed to him, and
which, being unable to guard himself, he committed to the Lord to
guard for him.
Likewise Timothy was to guard his deposit, not in
his own strength, but "through the Holy Spirit, which," says Paul,
"dwelleth in us."
Only by turning away from babblings and
oppositions of false knowledge, which was no real knowledge, could
Timothy hope to guard his deposit, otherwise he would be
overthrown.
Some had professed this pseudo-knowledge and had erred
from the Faith, and many still err through a false knowledge.
Paul ends his epistle to Timothy, his true chld in faith, with his
usual salutation in all his epistles, "Grace be with you."
NOTES ON THE
TO TIMOTHY
SECOND
EPISTLE
2Tim1v1,2
As in 1 Corinthians 1.1 and Galatians 1.1, Paul here again claims
the divine character of his call to apostleship, and with this he
links that he is an apostle "according to the promise of the life
which is in Christ Jesus."
This was the substance of the message
which he preached, as he says in Romans 6.23; "The free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is the same as the
gospel which was preached by the other apostles, as John says, "The
witness is this, the God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is
in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not
the Son of God hath not the life" (1 John 5.11,12).
Here is a life
which is secure above all the storms and trials through which we may
pass in this earthly life, and Timothy in Ephesus was passing
through storm and tempest, seeking to maintain the testimony of the
Lord in the face of men bent on introducing evil doctrine.
How
tender were the ties that bound Paul and Timothy; he calls him "my
beloved child"!
He called him "my true child" in his first
epistle.
It may be in this Paul's last letter, and in the light of
his early departure, and his leaving Timothy behind, the love of the
apostle's being finds vent in the words "My beloved child."
2Tim1v3,4,5
"I thank God" may be rendered as some do, "I am thankful," as also
in 1 Timothy 1.12. "Whom I serve (Latreuo, a service which must be
rendered to God only - Matthew 4.10) from my forefathers in a pure
conscience": here Paul asserts again what he did before the Jewish
council in Acts 23.1, "I have lived before God in all good
conscience until this day."
Conscience is not in itself the
standard of right and wrong.
A person who has been subject to a
certain form of teaching may do wrong with a perfectly good
conscience.
Paul evidently was one of those referred to in John 16.
2: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour
cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth
service unto God."
Service here is Latreia, the noun form of the
verb Latreuo which Paul uses in verse 3.
In Acts 23, the high
priest, who could not understand how Paul could have a good
conscience in persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ and then
later preaching Jesus Christ, commanded that one should smite him on
the mouth.
The teaching that he received prior to his conversion
was from his forefathers, but what came to him at his conversion,
and later, was by revelation of the Lord.
Hence he claims ever to
have acted with a good and pure conscience.
How unceasing was his remembrance of Timothy! and with this went
those intense prayers for him, his supplications.
Some render
this, as in the A.V., "my supplications night and day," but others,
as in the R.V., "night and day longing to see thee."
Whichever
way is right, one can visualize, or at least try to, Saul in the
Roman prison longing to see Timothy, longing as Jacob did of old to
know about his sons, when he sent Joseph to see how it fared with
them and with the flock.
Any father or mother can understand this
longing, which nothing can satisfy but the one for whom the longing
is.
"Remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy."
Here
is a remarkable contrast.
The tears of Timothy for the joy of
Paul!
Of old it was said, "They that sow in tears shall reap in
joy" (Psalm 126.5).
Many have sowed in tears in this world and
others, sometimes many others, have reaped in joy.
The greatest of
all joys have come from Him who sorrowed and suffered, who wept and
died.
Blessed Lord! Gracious Saviour!
The words in between "I thank God" and "having been reminded" of
verse 5 form a parenthesis.
Paul was thankful as he remembered the
unfeigned faith of Timothy, his strong and immovable confidence in
the word of God and in the God of the word, the one thing that would
enable him to steer a straight course in the tempestuous waters at
Ephesus.
This unfeigned, unwavering faith first dwelt in his
grandmother Lois, then in Eunice his mother, and then in Timothy.
How often the faith of sons may be traced to their mothers or
grandmothers!
Was not the faith of Jochebed later seen in Moses,
and the faith of Hannah in Samuel?
Of old it was asked, "Who is
their father?" (1 Samuel 10.12), but with as much fitness it might
be asked, "Who is their mother?"
Often the names of the mothers of
the kings of Judah are given, perhaps to indicate the kind of kings
they turned out to be.
Let mothers make their sons, and the sons
will make them, but remember this demands a faithful, prayerful,
God-fearing life.
2Tim1v6,7
"The which cause" is the unfeigned faith which Paul was persuaded
was in Timothy.
Paul puts him in mind of this, so that he would
stir to a flame, revive, the gift of God which was in him, which was
the ministry he had received by the laying on of the apostle's hands
(see 1 Timothy 4.14), for which God had eminently suited him by his
upbringing and by his natural ability, which was sanctified by the
gifts given by the Spirit of grace.
Should "spirit," in the words "spirit of fearfulness," be "Spirit,
" that is, the Holy Spirit, or should it be a spirit, a disposition
of mind and heart?
I am of the opinion that it is the same Spirit
as rested upon the Lord.
"The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon
Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel
and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD"
(Isaiah 11.2).
Though spirit in this place is printed with a small
"s", both in the A.V. and R.V., yet without doubt it is the same
Spirit that is referred to in Isaiah 61.1, which is printed with a
capital "S" in the A.V. and with a small "s" in the R.V.; and why
the R.V. should print it Spirit in the quotation of Isaiah 61.1,2,
in Luke 4.18 requires some explaining.
Spirit in 2 Timothy 1.7 is
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, so it seems to me.
The
Holy Spirit is not a Spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and
wise discretion, of power in contrast to weakness, of love, which
leads to a self-sacrificing life in the service of others, and of
discipline, to be of a sound mind, which will lead to the proper
regulation of one's life, resulting in exhorting and instructing
others.
The Spirit which God has given us knows no timidity or
fear of man.
Those in whom He dwells who fear God need not fear
men.
Think of Peter's cowardice in Galatians 2.11-16, when he
feared them which were of the circumcision.
What disastrous
results might have ensued but for Paul's courage in dealing with the
matter!
2Tim1v8
Paul the undaunted old general encourages Timothy, whom he charged
and left at Ephesus and had exhorted him to fight the good fight of
the faith (1 Timothy 6.12), and not to be ashamed of the testimony of
the Lord.
It is remarkable, yet how true it is, that that of which
there is no reason to be ashamed, we are ever liable to be ashamed
of.
The testimony of the Lord is not popular and never was.
The
Lord well knowing this said, "For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me
and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of
Man also shall be ashamed of him, when He cometh in the glory of His
Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8.38).
We cannot read these
words without feeling their weight and solemnity. The boldness
of Paul rings out in his declaration to the saints in Rome, "For I
am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth" (Romans 1.16).
Of old the testimony was the law written on the two tables of stone,
which were put in the ark of the testimony, and which in turn was
put into the tabernacle of the testimony.
This testimony was that
for which Israel stood nationally amongst the nations.
Now the
testimony of the Lord is to Him and His words ("Me and My words").
It was for this that Paul was a prisoner in Rome. Timothy was not
to be ashamed of him as the Lord's prisoner.
This is explained in
Ephesians 4.1, where he calls himself, "the prisoner in the Lord,"
that is, he was a prisoner in Rome according to the Lord's will.
Again in Ephesians 3.1, he calls himself, "the prisoner of Christ
Jesus." Why are we betimes ashamed of the testimony of the Lord?
Is it not because we do not wish to suffer the coldness, the
slighting, and the alienation of worldly companionship, and also,
perchance, the loss of position and profits.
Being ashamed of the
testimony of the Lord is set in contrast to - "but suffer hardship
with the gospel according to the power of God."
Are we willing to
suffer for so great a cause?
Then we shall let our light shine
before men.
If we are unwilling, we shall put our light under the
bushel or the bed, to use the Lord's words; we shall hide the light
and move on with the crowd, with the Christ rejectors and
neglecters.
What power sustains those who speak, who preach and
who suffer?
The answer is, "the power of God," "strengthened with
power through His Spirit in the inward man" (Ephesians 3.16).
2Tim1v9,10,11
There is a call to sinners in the gospel prior to justification.
"He called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2.14).
"Whom He
foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also
justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8.
30).
The vast panorama of divine purpose in salvation is stretched
before us in these words - foreordained, called, justified,
glorified.
But here in this verse in 2 Timothy is a call following
salvation; "Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling."
Sinners are called in the gospel to come to Christ wherever they may
be; saints are called out from amongst unbelievers (and also from
those who hold wrong doctrine - 2 Timothy 2.19-20) by God, who
commands, "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord" (2 Corinthians 6.17).
God does not "call out" without
having a "call in" in view.
Hence we read, "God is faithful,
through whom ye were called into the Fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1.9).
Then we have those who are
called to special service, such as Paul and others.
He describes
himself as "Paul, called an apostle of Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians
1.1).
God's calling is a holy calling, not to common service, but
to holy service.
The call of God is like election, it is not
according to works.
We had no good works to offer so that God
might favour us by calling us, and God's call is not according to
good works as foreseen by God, but His call is according to His own
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before times
eternal.
Note that it is something that is given, which precludes
anything of worth on our part; His call is not a reward, it is a
matter of grace and according to His own purpose.
God's purpose
and grace were given us in Christ Jesus, not in times eternal, but
"before times eternal," or as one has rendered it, "before the
periods of ages."
What God's purpose was in eternity was at length
revealed in time; it "hath now been manifested by the appearing of
our Saviour Christ Jesus."
He is the Revealer of many secrets.
Two things are said to have been done by Christ Jesus through the
gospel.
(1) He abolished death; (2) He brought life and
incorruption to light.
The Greek word Katargeo is used only in the
writings of Paul, save in Luke 13.7, where it is rendered "cumbereth.
"
Paul uses it first in Romans 3.3, where it is translated "shall
make of none effect," and again in verse 31, "Do we make of none
effect?"
He again uses it in Romans 6.6, where we read, "Our old
man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away"
(destroyed, A.V.).
In Hebrews 2.14 we read, "That through death He
might bring to nought (destroy, A.V.), him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil."
Here in this verse in 2 Timothy it is
said that Christ Jesus "abolished death."
In 1 Corinthians 15.26
we read, "The last enemy that shall be abolished is death."
But
this will not take place until the time of the Great White Throne
(Revelation 20.13,14).
It is evident that no single word can be
used to give the sense of Katargeo in the contexts where it is
found, hence various words are used.
In the passages in Romans 6.
6, Hebrews 2.14, and 2 Timothy 1.10, with reference to "the body of
sin," "the devil," and "death," the thought is not annihilating, but
rather of making of none effect, rendering them inactive or
useless.
The believer can sing:"O death, O grave, I do not dread your power,
The ransom's paid."
Not only is death made of none effect to the believer through the
gospel, but life and incorruption are brought to light by it.
The
A.V. wrongly renders "incorruption" as "immortality."
Life is begun
for the believer here and now; at the Lord's coming the mortal body
will put on immortality.
The soul of the believer is not only in
a state of life now, but is also in a state of incorruption.
This
was the good news of which Paul was appointed a herald, an apostle,
and a teacher.
2Tim1v12
In verse 8 he exhorts Timothy to "suffer hardship with the gospel.
"
Here he says that for this cause, that is, the gospel, he was
even now suffering, yet he was not ashamed.
Who is there now, who,
looking back over the centuries, does not admire the man who
suffered so much for the blessing of so many?
He was not ashamed,
for he knew whom he had believed, and he was persuaded in His
ability to keep what Paul called "my deposit" against that day, the
day of Christ, when He will come having His reward with Him
(Revelation 22.12).
Paul's deposit was the ministry which he had
received from the Lord, as indicated in verse 11, who appointed him
a herald, an apostle, and a teacher.
This ministry was too much
for him to guard, so he committed it back to the Lord to keep for
him.
The deposit was not the soul of Paul or himself, nor was it
the truth of God as contained in the faith, but the ministry which
He entrusted to him.
2Tim1v13,14
The word pattern in the Greek means a sketch or outline.
Sound
means healthy; the Greek word is used by Paul only in the epistles
to Timothy and Titus in regard to words, doctrine and the Faith.
Paul had given to Timothy an outline of sound words in which was
traced the doctrine of the Lord; to this he again refers in chapter
2.2 and to this Timothy was ever to hold or hold fast.
Timothy had
heard the outline "in faith and love" (which describes how Timothy
heard and received the words) which is in Christ Jesus.
From Him
this faith and love sprang.
"That good thing," "the good deposit,"
similar in meaning to the deposit of Paul (verse 11), Timothy was to
guard, not in his own strength, but through the Holy Spirit which
dwelt in him.
The deposit was the ministry which he had received
from the Lord.
2Tim1v15
"Turned away from" is the translation of one word which is in the
aorist tense and shows that the turning away was at a definite
time.
It is difficult to decide who are included in "all that are
in Asia."
Timothy was in Ephesus in Asia.
The turning away was
from the person of Paul, but it was symptomatic of something deeper,
even that turning away of their ears from the truth, of which we
read in chapter 4.3,4: "For the time will come when they will not
endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to
themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their
ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables."
To turn away
from Paul, the faithful teacher, was in time to lead to turning away
from the truth he taught.
Timothy was in Ephesus in Asia to seek
to retard the spread of evil teaching.
2Tim1v16,17,18
The actions of those of whom Phygelus and Hermogenes were specimens
stand in contrast to what is said about Onesiphorus.
Paul says
of him that he oft refreshed him, and was not ashamed of his chain.
In Rome he had been at some pains to find Paul.
It seems strange
that the saints in Rome could not have taken Onesiphorus to where
Paul was imprisoned.
Was this neglect on their part? In Ephesus
Onesiphorus had often ministered succour and comfort to Paul.
He
writes of the house of Onesiphorus.
What had happened to this dear
man's household that Paul desired mercy of the Lord for them?
Much
remains to be filled in, though Timothy was well acquainted with this
kind brother's actions.
It has been suggested that Onesiphorus was
dead at the time of the wriitng of this epistle, but that is
uncertain.
Paul refers to Onesiphorus finding mercy of the Lord at
the judgement seat of Christ, some, perhaps many, or even all, will
need mercy of the Lord in that day, not mercy as sinners, but mercy
as servants.
It will be a day of affliction of soul for us all
(Leviticus 16.31).
2Tim2v1,2
The grace of God is manifold (1 Peter 4.10), that is, it is various
(Poikilos, various, of various colours, variegated).
It suits all
the various needs of men, electing, saving, justifying; grace to
help the needy, grace to strengthen, to stand, to speak, to sing, to
preach, to serve, and to suffer, and so forth.
Indeed, there is
grace for every need and every emergency.
There is besides the
throne of grace, and when time for us shall be no more, there is
grace yet to be shown in the ages to come.
Is grace not that love
of God for us broken up in the prism of human need and experience,
whereby we may see the beauty of our God, who is Love, and who is
Light, and in whom is no darkness at all (1 John 4.9, 1.5)?
In the
passage above Timothy was exhorted to be strong ("an abiding state")
in that grace which was available to him in the spiritual battle,
the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
Though others had forsaken
Paul and were turning from the truth he taught, yet Timothy was to
be strong.
What he had heard from Paul, which many witnesses could
attest, that he was to pass on to faithful, trustworthy men, who
would faithfully teach others also.
Thus there was to be a
continuous stream of pure doctrine flowing in the hearts and through
the mouths of the faithful.
Of old the word of God was to be passed
from father to son.
"Give ear, O My people, to My law:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from our children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD"
(Psalm 78.1-4)
In this day the progress of God's work is not amongst people who
have a common natural birth, as in Israel, but the word of God is to
be passed on by faithful men to other faithful men in a line of
spiritual descent, men who hold the sacred trust of divine doctrine
with that steadfastness it demands (Acts 2.42), and shall teach it
to others also.
2Tim2v3,4
One renders this as, "Take thy share in suffering."
There is no
original word for "me," but the verb implies that Timothy was to
suffer hardship with other good soldiers, Paul and all the rest of
the Lord's warriors.
"Good" (Kalos) means beautiful as well as
good.
Here the soldier is not retired, but on active service.
It
is even so now, as in the days of Rome, that soldiers on service
must not be entangled, interwoven, intertwined, in the matters,
doings, businesses, of this life (Bios, "the present state of
existence," "not existence, but the time or course of life").
The
soldier must be free to yield himself in the undivided service of
him who enrolled him.
In this way only can he please him.
2Tim2v5,6
There are no words in the original for "in the games," but the word
Athle shows that the contending or striving is that of an athlete,
consequently, "in the games" is implied.
There are the days of
preparation for the athlete; then comes the time of the contest.
The athlete was not crowned with the laurel wreath of victory, even
though he should be the victor, unless he contended according to the
rules laid down.
If he failed to observe these he was
disqualified.
It is so still.
Here is a needful lesson for
Christian runners in the race that leads to the heavenly goal; the
rules for the runners are clearly laid down in the Scriptures.
Let
us each see that we hold to the course.
Then the labouring
husbandman is the first to partake of the fruit of his labours.
Many may partake later of the harvest of his work, but he is the
first.
2Tim2v7
The Greek word Noeo means more than consider, it means also to
"perceive," "understand."
As the result of perception of the
figures of speech used by Paul regarding the soldier's freedom from
the things of this life which engaged the attention of others, the
athlete who had to equip himself and contend according to the rules
of the game, and the husbandman, that he must labour before he can be
the first to partake of the fruit of his toil, the Lord would give to
Timothy understanding in all things.
2Tim2v8,9
What does Paul wish Timothy to remember?
It is that Jesus Christ
is raised from the dead.
He has been raised from (ek, out of) dead
(persons).
Some translators leave out the comma in the R.V. after
Jesus Christ; this is helpful, as it is not remember Jesus Christ,
but remember Him raised from the dead.
Jesus Christ is also of the
seed of David; thus, according to the gospel which Paul preached,
He is the Messiah who was promised in the Holy Scriptures.
This is
vital.
In this gospel, that is, in the preaching of it, Paul
suffered unto chains or fetters.
See chapter 1.16, where he writes
of "my chain."
It is touching to one's heart to think of this
beloved servant of God as he wrote line upon line of this epistle,
while his chain clanked its mournful dirge.
How much suffering
Satan has caused God's faithful saints through perverted men!
"As
a malefactor"!
It reminds one of Calvary, where the Lord was
numbered with the transgressors: "There they crucified Him, and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left"
(Luke 23.33).
In contrast to the Lord and His saints whom they
bound and imprisoned, the word of God is not bound; it cannot be
fettered.
As in this epistle, it went out from beloved Paul, who
was bound, imprisoned and closely guarded in the Praetorium, to fly
to all lands with its words of grace and glory.
Sometimes where
least expected it alights, like the dove of old upon the ark,
bringing to hearts which welcome it the heavenly olive leaf of life
and hope.
2Tim2v10
This verse contemplates, so it seems to me, the elect who have not
yet been reached by the gospel; this seems clearly to be implied in
the words, "that they also may obtain the salvation which is in
Christ Jesus."
Many of the elect had obtained salvation; "that
they also" shows that they are persons in addition to others.
Paul's words show that divine election and human effort and
endurance are welded together.
It is mere fatalism for a sinner to
suppose that if he is to be saved he will be saved, and it is
fatalism on the part of believers to assume that the elect will be
saved whether they endure in the preaching of the gospel or not.
Fatalism and divine election are as wide apart as the poles; the
one is satanic and the other divine.
Paul well says in Roman 10.14,
15: "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? and how shall they believe in Him whom they have not
heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall
they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How
beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good
things!"
How beautiful indeed are those feet which are shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace! (Ephesians 6.15).
"Preparation" means readiness, inclination, promptness of mind,
alacrity; it shows a person ready at any time to speak the word of
the gospel, in public or private, to speak a word in season to bear
fruit in due time.
Salvation is joined with eternal glory present salvation, future glory.
Could any work be greater or more
important than this, to lend a hand to others that they may share
what we have?
2Tim2v11,12,13
Here is another of Paul's faithful sayings (1 Timothy 1.15; 3.1; 4.9;
Titus 3.8).
If we died, points the believer back to the time when
he was quickened (Ephesians 2.5), at which time he died.
"Ye died
with Christ."
"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in
God" (Colossians 2.20; 3.3); see also Romans 6.8.
Having died
with Him our living with Him is assured.
Reigning with Christ is conditional upon "if we endure."
"Died" in
verse 11 is the aorist tense, pointing back to what happened in the
past, but "endure" in verse 12 is present tense, showing that it is
to be a continuous present experience.
"Shall reign" like "shall
live" is future.
"If we endure" is linked with the words of verse
10, "I endure all things for the elect's sake."
Note that while
the reigning here is conditional upon our enduring with Him, it
should be noted that reigning with Christ as here spoken of is
different from what is said in Romans 5.17, where it says that those
that receive the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through
the One, even Jesus Christ.
This "reigning in life" will be
the portion of all who are justified by faith through grace.
"If we shall deny Him, He also will deny us."
We learn from the
Lord's words in Matthew 10.32,33, that denying the Lord is the
opposite of confessing Him.
He said, "Every one therefore who
shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My
Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny Me before men,
him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."
It is
possible to deny Him by our works as well as by our words.
Paul
said, "They profess that they know God; but by their works they
deny Him" (Titus 1.16).
How sadly Peter failed in his thrice
denial of the Lord!
But would we have done better if we had been
there that night?
He denied Him to the extent of saying with an
oath, "I know not the Man."
Later in denying the Lord he began "to
curse and to swear."
Poor Peter!
(Matthew 26.70,74).
Happily
he repented and was converted and nobly confessed the Lord later.
"If we are faithless, He abideth faithful."
He will not deny His
promises and His purposes.
If we fail Him, He neither can nor will
fail (Psalm 77.7-9).
He cannot deny Himself.
If we confess Him,
we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.
We
must ever deny our old wicked, sinful selves and all the self-love
of the old man.
We have died to ourselves and sin. We must also
die to the world and all the corruptions thereof, as well also to
its politics and plans for human betterment.
God's one hope for
mankind is the gospel.
If this be rejected He has nothing else to
offer.
2Tim2v14
These things are the things of the previous verses.
Timothy was to
cause the saints to remember, testifying earnestly to them before
the Lord, not to dispute about words that are without profit, to the
subverting, ruin, overthrow (Katastrophe, from which the English word
catastrophe is derived) of them that hear.
How often Paul warns
against the vain use of empty words and their harmful effect!
2Tim2v15
Timothy was to endeavour earnestly, or to strive, to present himself
approved unto God, one who had been proved and consequently was
approved, because he had stood the test; a workman not ashamed,
handling aright, cutting straight, and consequently rightly
dividing, the word of truth.
How often in expository works on the
Scriptures lines are drawn where there should be none, dividing what
should be kept together, and in other cases things are joined
together which are different!
Such is the work of bad workmen.
2Tim2v16,17,18
Timothy was to shun the empty babblings to which some were giving
themselves in the church in Ephesus.
He was to stand aloof from
these, to avoid them, for the course of these babblers would lead to
further ungodliness.
Their word, wherever it lighted, would have
a killing effect on the soul, it would spread and pasture, devour,
like gangrene.
Of such people were Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Their
particular error was that they said that the resurrection was past
already.
On what they based their teaching is not revealed.
It
might be on the rising of the bodies of saints at the Lord's death,
and their coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection
(Matthew 27.52).
It is vain to conjecture what we are not told.
The sad thing was that their false teaching was overthrowing the
faith of some.
2Tim2v19
What is the firm (steadfast or strong) foundation of God?
Of old
it was said, "His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The LORD
loveth the gates of Zion" (Psalm 87.1,2).
Here was the ark of the
covenant (which was also the ark of the testimony and the law).
This formed the foundation on which the mercy-seat rested, which was
the place of God's throne in Israel.
In the day to come, "Out of
Zion shall go forth the law" (instruction or doctrine).
From
thence will issue the standard of truth by which the lives and
conduct of mankind will be regulated.
It is said, "Many peoples
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His
ways, and we will walk in His paths" (Isaiah 2.3).
What is the
issue in which verse 19 of 2 Timothy 2 is found regarding "the firm
foundation of God"?
The issue plainly is that of truth and
error.
Timothy was to be a workman handling aright the word of
truth, whilst Hymenaeus and Philetus and others had erred concerning
the truth.
There could be no knowledge of the truth unless there
was some unchanging standard of measurement, some firm foundation on
which men can stand and not be moved by the vagaries of error.
How
were men to know about the resurrection?
Only by God's firm
foundation, His word of truth.
We judge the firm foundation of God
to be the established, and unchanging truth of God.
By it we can
look back to Hymenaeus and his friends and see the seriousness of
their error, for if the resurrection is past, what of the Lord's
coming and all that is connected therewith?
The firm foundation of God has this seal, (1) "the Lord knoweth them
that are His," and (2) "let every one that nameth the name of the
Lord depart from unrighteousness."
The seal has two sides, (1)
divine knowledge, and (2) human responsibility.
In early days, in
times of persecution, it was not difficult to know who belonged to
the Lord, but when times were more easy-going, grievous wolves
entered amongst overseers (Acts 20.29), as well as the flock, and in
2 Peter and Jude it can be seen that a serious state of things
existed.
Men could be deceived in the profession of certain, but
the Lord knew His own.
Those that named the name of the Lord were
to withdraw or stand aloof from unrighteousness.
In this way it
would be manifestly seen who were the Lord's.
2Tim2v20,21
In verse 20 we have the illustration of a great house used by Paul to
force home the application of what he says in verse 21.
The great
house is neither the house of God, nor yet is it Christendom, it is
simply a simile.
In a great house (note the force of the adjective
"great," such vessels as of gold and silver are not usually found in
the houses of common people) there are different kinds of vessels
made of different materials, some unto honourable use and some unto
dishonour; some, indeed many, vessels would never be placed on the
dining table of the master.
Then Paul says, "If a man therefore
purge himself from these (people, such as Hymenaeus, etc.) he shall
be a vessel unto honour."
Purge (Ekkathairo) means "purge out"
and is strengthened by apo from, so that the passage literally
means, "If a man purges himself out and away from these."
The verb
being in the aorist shows that the act being done once does not need
to be repeated.
In 1 Corinthians 5 the church of God in Corinth is told to purge out
the old leaven (that is, the man who had been guilty of
fornication), which was done, but here in Timothy evil doctrine had
gained such a footing in the church in Ephesus that it was no longer
able to deal with the teachers of evil, so that if saints were going
to be able to hold the sound doctrine and to follow the Lord, they
had to come out from the teachers of evil doctrine and their
followers.
The man who purged himself out would be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified (set apart) and serviceable to the Master
(Despotes, a master of slaves).
It is too our responsibility to be
in a state in which we are prepared and ready to be used by the
Lord, whether He chooses to use us or not.
2Tim2v22,23
It is not "fight" youthful lusts, but "flee" them.
This is aptly
illustrated by the conduct of Joseph towards the lustful and
infatuated wife of Potiphar.
After days of attempted seduction,
one day she caught him by the garment, and it says, "He left his
garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out" (Genesis 39).
She lied to her husband to cover her sin; the consequence was that
Joseph was cast into prison.
Better to be in prison with honour,
than to be in sin and ease with dishonour!
Through the prison was
the way to the palace and the throne.
"Flee youthful lusts" and
"pursue righteousness" are correlated ideas.
Failing in the former
there is no hope of the latter.
Timothy and all who purged out
themselves were to pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with
(Meta, which denotes companionship) such as called on the Lord with
a pure heart.
Much is said throughout the Scriptures, from the
time that Seth's son Enosh was born, about calling on the name of
the Lord.
It is said in that distant day, "Then began men to call
upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 4.26).
Many were no doubt
professedly calling on the Lord, perhaps even among those who had
erred from the truth, so that Paul adds "out of a pure heart," a
description which shows those who called upon the Lord sincerely.
Here again in verse 23 Paul warns Timothy about foolish and
undisciplined questionings, of such as followed a course of
self-choosing and self-will.
Strifes were the product of such
minds.
2Tim2v24,25,26
The Lord's servant must not (it is imperative) strive; he must not
be found amongst those who contended in the foolish and
undisciplined questionings of verse 23.
He must be gentle (mild,
placid) towards all, apt, ready to teach such as were teachable,
forbearing, that is, "patient under evils or injuries", in meekness
correcting or disciplining such as oppose themselves, persons of an
opposite opinion or who are decidedly adverse.
This course was to
be followed by Timothy toward such as had been taken in the devil's
snare, which had been set for their feet, by Hymenaeus and Philetus,
and perhaps for others of like sort.
There is a difference between
those that set snares and such as are caught in them.
Timothy's
work of correction was in the light of the possibility that God will
grant such persons repentance.
See the following places where the
knowledge of the truth is mentioned, 1 Timothy 2.4; 2 Timothy 2.25;
3.7; Titus 1.1; Hebrews 10.26.
Hebrews 10.26 shows how serious is
the case of wilful sin against the knowledge of the truth.
If God
granted repentance, those who had been ensnared could recover
themselves, that is, "awake up," out of the snare of the devil unto
the will of God.
See R.V. marg., which, I judge, gives the correct
thought.
It seems to me that what Paul is saying is, that they may
awake up out of the snare of the devil, unto the will of God, having
been taken captive by the devil.
2Tim3v1
Sad and dark as were the days of Timothy and the closing days of
Paul, as the apostasy of those days rolled on dark and foreboding,
the last days which were future to those times were to be more
terrible still.
It may well be that we are merging upon the last
days of this verse.
They were to be grievous times, that is,
fierce, savage, atrocious times, times of great peril and danger.
Let it be noted that it is not the heathen world that is in view
here, as in Romans 1.18-32, but it is the state of things amongst
such as have a form of godliness, but have denied the power
thereof.
Here is a state of things religious in which, no doubt,
many professing children of God will be found.
2Tim3v2,3,4,5
How could days be other than full of peril for godly people in the
light of such a catalogue of evils?
The list begins with that
which is ever the characteristic of fallen, human nature, namely,
self-love, which amounts to selfishness.
In the gratification of
self follows, "lovers of money."
Paul had already said that the
love of money is "a root of all kinds of evil," religious,
political, economic, social evils, and all the others where the
greedy hand of covetousness is stretched out to grab the possessions
of others.
Self is written on the different faces of the
characters that Paul passes in review - empty boasters, haughty,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, profane, without
natural affection, implacable (such as will make no truce),
slanderers, incontinent (of unsubdued passions), inhuman, no lovers
of good, traitors, headlong (rash), puffed up, and then emerges self
life-size, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
Here
stands the flesh in all its native ugliness. Its breath is deadly to
all that fear God, and to all spirituality.
But over such is cast
a form of godliness, but it is but a dead formality, for the power
of godliness is denied.
Timothy is exhorted, "From these also turn
away."
"Also" shows these to be additional to the people from whom
he and others were to purge themselves out, as in Chapter 2.21.
2Tim3v6,7,8,9
These, mentioned in the former verses, are they that sneak into
houses on their proselytizing work and lead captive silly (little
women, that is, trifling, weak, silly) women laden with sins, led
away with various lusts; no doubt coming under the description of
those of whom Peter writes, "Promising them liberty, while they
themselves are bondservants of corruption" (2 Peter 2.19).
How
different was Paul's vigorous public work, and his visiting the
homes of those who had been made disciples! (Acts 16.15,34); and of
his work in Ephesus, he said, "teaching you publicly, and from house
to house" (Acts 20.20).
These evil workers were "ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
It could
not be said of unregenerate persons that they were "ever learning,"
and not coming to the knowledge of the truth.
This is possible for
saved persons only (1 Timothy 2.4).
Those contemplated are
professing believers of the apostasy of the last days.
The
description is true of many believers in these days, that they are
"ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
"
Evangelism is the one thing that fills the minds of many.
Regeneration is but the beginning of the life of a child of
God; the whole truth and will of God lie before him.
How great
hinderers such people who go in for the gospel and little more can
be to a child of God who sets out to learn the will of God and to do
it!
Jannes and Jambres, the magicians of Egypt, are held up as an
example, men who sought to hinder the deliverance of the children of
Israel from Egypt.
They could do wonders as Moses did.
They cast
down their rods and they became serpents like Aaron's rod (Exodus 7.
12).
They turned water into blood like Moses (Exodus 7.20-22).
But in the plague of lice the magicians failed and they said to
Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8.18,19).
In due time
the folly of such as withstand the truth will be seen, as was the
folly of Jannes and Jambres in the past, but how many may be deceived
before the folly is manifest to all!
It is our privilege to come to
the knowledge of the truth, for only by the truth shall we escape
from the devil's lies, snares and pitfalls.
2Tim3v10,11,12
Timothy had closely followed Paul's teaching.
There could be no
doubt that Timothy followed Paul as Paul followed Christ.
Paul was
his spiritual father and pattern.
He had carefully noted all that
went to make up the wonderful life of the apostle, his teaching,
conduct, purpose, longsuffering, and so forth; he knew it all by
heart, not as of a hero long dead, but as of one alive whose life
cast its shadow over the younger man.
He had not descended to the
same measure of suffering as Paul (few men have), but he had
shared his part, as he was fitted to bear it.
As Paul looked back
over life's journey with its sufferings and persecutions he seemed
to heave a sigh of relief, even though he was yet a prisoner, and
said, "Out of them all the Lord delivered me."
By divine power he
had won through all the past stages of the journey home.
Then he
said, "Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution."
It is not all who are godly, but whose wish
is to live godly; this is their aim in life, and to them the word
comes, that they "shall suffer persecution."
They must not think
that some strange thing happened to them (1 Peter 4.12); it follows
as a consequence of living in such a world as we do.
2Tim3v13,14,15
Evil men (Poneroi, bad, the same word is used of the "evil one,"
which describes one who is wholly gone over to badness) and
impostors (jugglers, magicians, like the magicians mentioned in
verse 8: there are various breeds of them today who seek to perform
magical bodily cures and to speak with tongues) were to advance and
become worse and worse, deceiving others whilst they themselves were
deceived.
What systems of evil!
What chaos!
But Timothy, in
contrast to the juggling impostors, was to continue in the things
that he had learned and been convinced of, knowing the kind of
persons they were who had taught him, his grandmother and his
mother, and later, the apostle Paul.
Good doctrine, when acted
upon, produces good living, as it had done in those people.
From a babe Timothy had known the sacred letters.
(This
description is not elsewhere used in the New Testament.
The use of
Gramma here,which literally means a letter, a character of the
alphabet, though it is also used in a secondary sense of a writing,
book, an epistle or letter, an account or bill, appears to me to
indicate that it was the alphabetical characters that Timothy was
acquainted with from babyhood.)
It may be that, as his grandmother
or mother read the Scriptures, Timothy when very young learned the
sacred characters, whether these were the letters of the Hebrew or
Greek Old Testament it may be impossible to say.
Others may think
that Gramma is the equivalent of Grapho, Scripture, of verse 16.
I
simply state my opinion on the matter.
Here in Timothy's case is a
pattern for Christian mothers, if they would see their sons in
front-rank places in the things of God.
An intimate and accurate
knowledge of the Scriptures is a prime necessity.
No time is
wasted that is spent over the word of God.
Here is the only means
whereby men are made wise unto salvation, through faith which is in
Christ Jesus.
Spiritual poverty comes through neglect of the
Scriptures.
2Tim3v16,17
There being no verb "to be" in verse 16, scholars have differed on
where "is" should be placed to give the sense of the original. We
judge the R.V. marginal reading to be better than the text of the R.
V.:
"Every scripture is inspired of God, and profitable."
What
is true regarding the inspiration of the Old Testament from Genesis
to Malachi, is true also of the New, but not of the Apocrypha.
The
latter is not in the canon of Scriptures, though Rome holds it to
be.
The Jews to whom the Old Testament Scriptures were committed
do not place the Apocrypha among the Holy Scriptures.
Peter
classes Paul's writing among the Scriptures (2 Peter 3.16).
Paul
claims that what he wrote was the commandment of the Lord (1
Corinthians 14.37).
The change made in the Levitical law by the
Lord in Mark 7.18,19, and repeated in Acts 10, is said to be the
word of God (1 Timothy 4.5).
The New Testament must not be added
to or taken from (Revelation 22.18,19) equally with the Old
Testament (Deuteronomy 4.2; 12.32; Proverbs 30.5,6).
Because every
Scripture (Grapho, writing, is never found in the New Testament for
any other writing than Holy Scripture) is God-breathed, it is
therefore profitable for teaching.
The persons who read and
meditate in the inspired Scriptures will be taught by them; they
will also convict the reader of wrong done, and they will correct,
that is, put straight, and bring back to a pristine state.
They
will also instruct or discipline in righteousness: all this with a
view to fit or make perfect the man of God, so that he may be one
who is completely furnished, fitted or prepared to every good
work.
Besides the individual reading the Scriptures and applying
its teaching to his life, there is great profit to be derived from
the public reading, exhortation and teaching of the word (1 Timothy
4.13), especially by such as are gifted of God for such work.
2Tim4v1,2
Paul charged (earnestly testified) Timothy before God and Christ
Jesus to preach the word.
Christ Jesus is about to judge the
living and the dead.
It is difficult to decide between the A.V.
"at His appearing," and the R.V. "by His appearing."
This is one
of the places where there is a difference in the Greek text.
It
seems that His appearing and kingdom are connected with the
judgement of the quick and the dead.
This appearing is when the
Lord comes as Son of Man to the earth.
How vitally necessary it is
that those who have the word of God committed to them should preach
it in the light of that day of judgement!
If men do not preach the
word privately and publicly, the blood of other men, not only of
sinners, but also that of erring saints, may lie at their door.
Timothy was to proclaim the word, to be urgent in season, out of
season, to convict, rebuke, exhort, in all long-suffering and
teaching.
The cause for this urgency is shown in what follows.
2Tim4v3,4
The process of apostasy is here clearly indicated.
Men simply
would not have the sound, healthful teaching.
They wanted to
listen, not to the sober truth of God, but, having itching ears,
that is, a longing desire or appetite for something fanciful, they
heaped up teachers suited to their lusts.
Is not this very thing
manifest in this and in all lands?
These are the fewest in number
who have any desire for the plain truth.
Those who gain the ears
of the masses must, generally speaking, coat their message with the
entertainment of song.
It is all so very different from what took
place in the house of Cornelius, in which Cornelius said of those
whom he had gathered together to hear the word of the Lord; "Now
therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all
things that have been commanded thee of the Lord" (Acts 10.33).
The speaker, in this case Peter, not only proclaimed the gospel of
faith in Christ, but he also commanded them when they had believed
to be baptized (Acts 10.43,47,48).
There was no such course
followed by Peter as that of simply preaching salvation by faith in
Christ, and hiding all that the Lord had commanded about baptism and
all else (Matthew 28.18-20).
Many preachers do not even preach
salvation by faith alone; to proclaim, "Ye must be born agian,"
would mean the end of their stipend, and they know it.
For filthy
lucre's sake they are unfaithful to the Lord and His truth, and so
the mischief goes on apace.
Even so it was in the past, They "will
turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables."
2Tim4v5
Paul's work was that of the pioneer to cut his way and make roads
through the forest of men and to bring the gospel and the truth to
them. Timothy's work was to endeavour to keep the roads good so
that there might be the free flow of the divine message.
Both
things were vigorously opposed by Satan.
By persecutions and
sufferings he sought to hinder the hardy pioneer, and through false
teachers he sought to fill the highway with boulders and debris of
all kinds.
It mattered little what it was, so long as the road was
blocked and the work of God hindered.
Timothy's work was
difficult, but he was to suffer hardship, to evangelize, and to
fulfil his ministry.
2Tim4v6,7,8
The Lord said, "The night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9.4).
The day of Paul's service was drawing swiftly to a close; the
shadows of night were gathering round the valiant and scarred
warrior.
Soon that hand to which we are indebted for so much of
divine truth would no longer hold the pen which had traced the
sacred letters upon the papyrus.
Can we picture Timothy, as the
news, with a sledgehammer blow, smites his affectionate heart, that
Paul's end is drawing near?
His spiritual father and the friend
and companion of youth and through life's wanderings will soon sail
for the harbour in the land of fadeless glory.
One thinks one
hears the falling of the great salt tears upon Paul's letter and
sees the bodily frame of Timothy shiver and shake.
Paul gone!
The world for Timothy would be an empty place!
As one thinks of
Paul, the words of the hymn keep ringing in one's mind I've wrestled on toward heaven,
'Gainst storm and wind and tide;
Now, like a weary traveller,
That leaneth on his guide,
Amid the shades of evening,
While sinks life's lingering sand,
I hail the glory dawning
From Immanuel's land.
Deep waters crossed life's pathway;
The hedge of thorns was sharp;
Now these lie all behind me:
Oh for a well-tuned harp!
Oh to join Hallelujah
With yon triumphant band,
Who sing, where glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel's land!
Paul says, "I am already being poured out as a drink-offering" (R.V.
Marg.).
He had written to the Philippians earlier, "Yea, and if I
am poured out as a drink-offering upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all" (Philippians 2.17, R.V.
Marg.).
This was the spirit in which he had lived since the Lord
revealed Himself to him on the Damascus road: pouring himself out
in the service of others.
Was his life misspent in so doing?
No!
it was sure to reap the greatest reward.
"The time of my departure
is come," he says.
He also wrote to the Philippinas, "But I am in
a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with
Christ: for it is very far better" (Philippians 1.23).
Now that
earnest desire is about to be granted.
He writes, striking a note
of triumph, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith."
His task was completed and his
reward sure.
He says, "Henceforth there is laid up for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
give to me at that day." This is "the day of Christ" (Philippians 1.
10), the day of His coming to the air (1 Thessalonians 4.16,17),
when the judgement seat of Christ will be set up, before which
saints of this dispensation of grace will be made manifest (2
Corinthians 5.10).
Few men, if any others there have been, have
known on this earth that theirs would be a crown of reward.
There
are three crowns mentioned in the New Testament which are rewards
for faithfulness, (1) the crown of righteousness, for such as love
the Lord's appearing, (2) the crown of life, for such as endure
temptation, whether from their own flesh (James 1.12-15), or from
tribulation (Revelation 2.9,10), and (3) the crown for the faithful
shepherds of the flock (1 Peter 5.1-4).
2Tim4v9,10,11,12
Demas who is mentioned with Luke in Colossians 4.14, who was
with Paul in Rome, had gone by the time of writing of 2 Timothy.
He forsook Paul.
Perhaps he saw Paul's end approaching and thought
only of himself and the present life - he "loved this present age" and he went off to Thessalonica.
He has left a black mark against
his name in Holy Writ.
Others went off in the Lord's work under
the Spirit's guidance, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, and
Tychicus went to Ephesus, perhaps to relieve Timothy whom Paul
wished to come to Rome.
Mark was to be brought with Timothy.
He
is mentioned in Colossians 4.10,11 as being among Paul's
fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God.
Though he was restored
from his act of departing from the Lord's work earlier, he must have
looked back on that episode in his life with considerable
heart-burning; it was the cause of the cleavage between such great
men as Paul and Barnabas.
How careful the servants of the Lord
need to be that their acts do not make wounds, which, though they
may be healed, may for ever leave their mark!
Let us each humble
ourselves and learn.
The brief facts, as given here, afford us an
insight into the movements of the Lord's servants of those days.
Paul touchingly says, "Only Luke is with me," his faithful medical
attendant, the beloved physician (Colossians 4.14).
Paul who
healed others did not heal himself.
2Tim4v13
Some who have argued against the inspiration of the Scriptures have
inveighed against a statement about a cloke as being too
insignificant a matter to be regarded as inspired.
There are
things of much lesser importance than that, which form part of the
Holy Scriptures.
This verse reminds me of the similarity to what
is contained in a letter written by that noble martyr, William
Tyndale, to whom the English speaking races owe a great debt.
The
letter was written, shortly before his martyrdom, from the castle of
Vilvorde in Belgium.
"If I am to remain here during winter, you will request the
Procureur to be kind enough to send me from my goods which he has in
his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from the cold
in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is
considerably increased in the cell.
A warmer coat also, for that
which I have is very thin: also a piece of cloth to patch my
leggings; my overcoat is also worn out; my shirts are also worn
out.
He has a woollen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to
send it.
I have also with him leggings of thick cloth for putting
on above: he also has warmer caps for wearing at night.
I wish
also to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit in
the dark.
But above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be
urgent with the Procureur that he may kindly permit me to have my
Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend
my time with the study."
Paul's request to Timothy is briefer regarding his cloke, books and
parchments, but it is of the same nature as William Tyndale's.
It
is easy enough for the comfortable infidel, who can toast his toes
at the fire on a cold winter's night and then retire to a warm and
comfortable bed, to criticize men and their writings and the divine
character of the Scriptures, men who suffered so much to bring
untold blessing to untold multitudes.
We can write over the memory
of such men - "of whom the world was not worthy."
All honour, we
say, to these illustrious, yet suffering, servants of God!
They
shall yet shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars
for ever and ever.
2Tim4v14,15
Alexander is perhaps the same as in 1 Timothy 1.20, and if so, he
was still at his former evil work of opposition to the work of Paul,
who says, "He did me much evil."
He withstood the apostle
exceedingly.
We have also an Alexander, a Jew, mentioned in Acts
19.33.
Timothy was warned against Alexander.
He will, like all
else, be rewarded according to his works, possibly here, and
certainly hereafter.
2Tim4v16,17,18
At Paul's first defence before a court (it cannot be dogmatically
held that this was before Nero) all his friends deserted him, but,
says, he, "May it not be laid to their account," or reckoned to
them.
If forsaken by men, the Lord did not forsake His worthy
servant; He stood by him and empowered him.
What a comfort the
Lord's presence must have been to Paul!
Paul set forth his case
before his judge or judges, that the gospel might be fully
proclaimed and that all the Gentiles might hear.
The news of what
Paul said in his defence would stream out throughout the Empire.
Paul said that he was delivered from the lion's mouth.
Ancient
writers understood the lion to be Nero.
It is thought that Paul
being a Roman citizen would be exempted from being thrown to literal
lions.
It may well be left, that what Paul means is that he was
delivered at that time from a martyr's death.
He was confident in
the delivering power of the Lord Jesus from every evil work, who
would also preserve him unto His heavenly kingdom.
This was his
consolation, and is that of us all.
To the blessed Lord be glory
unto the ages of the ages!
2Tim4v19,20,21,22
Prisca and Aquila are better known to us than many saints who are
now alive.
How much Paul owed to them! (Romans 16.3,4).
See
reference to the house of Onesiphorus in chapter 1.16.
Erastus:
an Erastus the treasurer of Corinth sent greetings to Rome (Romans
16.23); these may be the same, or he may be the Erastus who went to
Macedonia with Timothy (Acts 19.22).
We may know better about this
in due time.
Trophimus was an Ephesian (Acts 21.29-36), whose
presence with Paul in Jerusalem caused Jewish rioting.
He is
mentioned with Tychicus in Acts 20.4, one of that party of great men
who accompanied Paul from Macedonia to Asia, and who broke bread on
the first day of the week with the church of God in Troas.
Paul
did not heal all sick people he came across, nor yet did he heal all
the sick among the servants of Christ, if he healed any, for he left
Trophimus at Miletus sick, and Timothy suffered often, yet Paul did
not heal him.
Nowhere else in the new Testament do we read of
these Roman saints, Eubulus, Pudens, Linus and Claudia, who with all
the brethren saluted Timothy.
Timothy was to endeavour to reach
Paul before the winter, bringing Paul's cloak, books and parchments,
and accompanied by Mark.
Then Paul ends this his epistle and his inspired letters, for this
is his last, and, as seems fitting, is written to his beloved child,
Timothy.
He closes with "The Lord be with thy spirit.
Grace be with you."
NOTES
ON
THE
EPISTLE
OF
PAUL
TO
TITUS
Tit1v1,2,3
Paul writes of himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, in Romans 1.
1, of himself and Timothy as bondservants of Christ Jesus in
Philippians 1.1, and here of himself as a bondservant of God.
All
angels, save those who are fallen, and all redeemed men, are
bondservants of God (Revelation 19.10).
Paul was also an apostle
(one who is sent) of Jesus Christ.
He was an apostle "according to
the faith of God's elect."
Is this "faith" or "the Faith"?
We
think that it is the former
There is no definite article before
"faith".
Even though persons are elect before the foundation of
the world, they must exercise faith in the message that Paul was
chosen to bring to them, for salvation is through faith.
To this
end Paul said that he endured all things for the elect's sake, that
they might obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory (2 Timothy 2.10).
Paul the herald of the divine message must
reach the elect, some of whom were in prison and some free, for they
must hear and believe the gospel in order to be saved.
"Belief
cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of (God or) Christ"
(Romans 10.17).
"And the knowledge of the truth which is according
to godliness:" Paul joins two things together here, faith and the
knowledge of the truth.
This he does again in 1 Timothy 2.4, where
he says that it is God's will that "all men should be saved, and
come to the knowledge of the truth."
These two statements cover
the apostle's work among men: (1) faith and salvation, (2) the
knowledge of the truth.
The truth known and acted upon by believers
results in godliness of life.
Paul, as we have seen, was an apostle according to (1) the faith of
God's elect, and (2) the knowledge of the truth.
Then he says that
it was "in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised
before times eternal."
"In" here is in the Greek Epi - "upon"; of
this one has said, "The condition under which the apostolic mission
rests."
How useless would have been Paul's apostleship, if it was
not in the fulfilment of a promise of One who cannot lie, who
promised eternal life to all believers before times eternal, namely,
from eternity!
Though the words "the hope of eternal life" in Titus
1.2 and 3.7 are alike, yet the connexion in which they are found is
different, and consequently their meaning is different.
The
promise of eternal life, which is the same as "His word," was
manifested in the message or proclamation with which Paul was
intrusted.
This messge was to be manifested in His, or its, own
seasons.
All this was according to the commandment of God our
Saviour.
Here is stretched out before us the promise of eternal
life before times eternal and the fulfilment of the promise in time
in the message of the word of God which is received by faith on the
part of God's elect.
Tit1v4
Paul calls Titus his true (genuine) child after a common faith;
he
described Timothy also as his true child in faith (1 Timothy 1.2).
"In faith" and "a common faith" mean the same kind of faith, not
"the Faith."
It is faith common to all believers.
Paul's
salutation is, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus
our Saviour.
God is our Saviour in verse 3.
Tit1v5
Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete.
Each was given
his charge as to the need existing in the churches in those
places.
The work of Titus was to set in order things that were
wanting, and the lack of recognised elders to care for and rule in
the flock must have been outstanding amongst the things that were
wanting in the churches in Crete.
Some have postulated that, since
we have today no apostles to appoint elders, as in Acts 14.21-23.
and no apostles' delegates, as Timothy and Titus, we can have no men
recognised as elders now.
Surely the work of feeding and
shepherding the flock of God still exists, as in the time of the
apostles, and there is the need for men being recognised who are
fitted to do this.
Also, what use would there be today for such
portions of the word of God as 1 Timothy 3.1-7 and Titus 1.6-9?
None at all!
There is no hidden satanic poison in the words
"elder" and "overseer" that we should need to avoid their use, and
substitute some other word coined by men in modern times to
describe elders and overseers, the shepherds of the flock.
We
definitely believe that the Scriptures teach the recognition and
appointment of elders to care for the flock, and that such elders
form an elderhood or presbytery.
These are addressed collectively
in a much wider sphere than the elders of an individual church.
See in proof of this 1 Peter 5.1-11, where the elders of the
churches of God in five provinces in Asia (1 Peter 1.1), which
formed a spiritual house (of God) and a holy and royal priesthood (1
Peter 2.3-5,9,10) are addressed as a whole "The elders therefore
among you I exhort . . . tend the flock of God which is among you,
exercising the oversight."
Tit1v6,7,8,9
Here again is a picture, as in 1 Timothy 3.1-7, of the character and
conduct of an elder or overseer.
Having already, in 1 Timothy 3,
remarked on "the husband of one wife," I suggest that this should be
read.
An elder must be blameless, one against whom no charge can be
laid.
He has to have but one wife.
If he has believing children,
they are not to be loose in behaviour or morals or unruly, that is,
insubordinate.
The overseer, as God's steward in His house, must
be free from any charge.
He must not be selfwilled or headstrong,
not soon angry or passionate when his views and judgements are not
accepted.
He is not to be given to wine, and consequently not a
brawler, not a striker, not greedy of base gain: so much for the
negative side of his life.
As to the positive, he is to be
hospitable, that is, a lover of strangers, a lover of good,
sober-minded, of sound mind, that is, discreet or self-restrained,
just and holy (pious), temperate; holding to, or fast clinging to,
or not letting go, the faithful word, which is according to the
teaching which he had been taught.
In consequence of his holding
to what he had been taught, he would be able to exhort or encourage
others in the sound and healthful doctrine, and also to convict or
refute the gainsayers, such as question or contradict.
Tit1v10,11
Whilst we shall be for ever indebted to men of Jewish race, such as
the apostles and others, for the work they did at the beginning of
this dispensation, and for the New Testament Scriptures which they
left behind, we cannot fail to see in the New Testament how much the
work of God suffered, both from Jews (they of the circumcision) who
were in the churches of God, and also from Jews outside, who
persecuted Paul and his fellow-workers continually.
Here in these
verses they of the circumcision are seen, with others, at their
deadly, damaging work.
They were insubordinate, men who would not
be subject to authority, vain talkers and deceivers; a trio of
badness which would ruin any community.
Paul said that their
mouths must be stopped.
Though their mouths could not well be
stopped in private, their mouths must be stopped in public by a
public statement that such men were not allowed to speak.
They
were to be silenced in all gatherings of God's people.
What
serious work is indicated in the fact that they overthrow whole
houses by teaching things that are not befitting, that is, that they
teach what they ought not to teach, and they do it for the sake of
base gain!
Tit1v12,13,14
The natural state of the Cretans was low; so much so, that their
avarice, ferocity, fraud and begging, were proverbial, of which
several ancient writers have written.
Epimenides, a Cretan, and a
prophet of their own, described them in the words quoted by Paul.
Their ferocity is expressed in the words, "evil wild beasts," one of
the lowest descriptions given of men.
It is God's description of
the coming antichrist, "the wild beast."
Of their fraud, they were
said to be always liars, and of their avarice and begging, they were
lazy gluttons.
One could hardly imagine a more demoralized
people; and the miracle was that the gospel was received by many of
them, and that there were churches of God in every city in Crete.
There was ever the fear that they would slip back to their former
manner of life, and Titus was told to reprove them sharply or
severely, that they may be sound, or healthy, in the faith.
Also,
that they were not to give heed to Jewish fables and the
commandments of men who were turning from the truth, such as those
of the circumcision of verse 10.
Tit1v15,16
Purity of mind is the result of the acting out by believers of
healthful teaching.
The word of God like pure water has a
cleansing effect in the heart where it flows.
Pure minds see pure
things, but corrupt minds things that are corrupt.
Two people may
approach the city, the one with eyes and heart full of lust, to seek
the dens of sin and the haunts of vice, the other with holy
aspirations, to seek the companionship and homes of the godly.
The
bee flies over the field seeking the flower with its scent
and honey.
The blow-fly seeks the stench of the corrupting
carcase.
We ever seek out what we are ourselves, the pure, the
things that are pure, but to the polluted saint and unbelieving
sinner nothing is pure, because their minds and consciences are
polluted.
Profession and practice should agree.
We should eschew what is
implied in the words, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are
the hands of Esau" (Genesis 27.22).
What profit is there in
professing before men that we know God and deny Him by our works?
The one cancels out the other.
Works such as being abominable,
disobedient, and to every good work worthless, reveal a desperate
plight in the conduct of any believer.
Tit2v1,2
How frequently Paul writes of healthy words and teaching!
There
cannot be a healthy spiritual life apart from health-giving
instruction.
Old men are to be temperate or sober; grave, that
is, venerable or serious, not hilarious; discreet or of sound
mind.
They are to be sound or healthy in faith (not in the Faith
here, though it is sound in the Faith in Titus 1.13), and in their
love and patience.
Tit2v3,4,5
Old women, like old men, were to be "in deportment as becomes sacred
ones."
They were not to be slanderers.
Slanderer here is the
feminine of Diabolos, devil.
They were not to be given to much
wine, but to be teachers of what is good, right or beautiful in
conduct.
The object was to school, admonish, counsel, rebuke, the
young women in the holy arts of domestic life; to love their
husbands and their children; to be sober-minded or discreet; to be
chaste, pure, modest; to be keepers at home, that is, "diligent in
homework"; to be kind or good; to be subject to their own
husbands, such is a woman's place in relation to her husband as
assigned to her by God.
The object of all this is, that the word
of God be not blasphemed or evil spoken of.
Tit2v6,7,8
The younger men were to be exhorted to be soberminded or discreet.
One is reminded of what is said of David while a youth, and shortly
after he slew Goliath: "he behaved himself wisely"; "he behaved
himself wisely in all his ways"; "he behaved himself very wisely";
and he "behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul"
(1 Samuel 18.5,14,15,30).
Titus was also to show himself a pattern
in all good works.
He was to be a model of the doctrine he
taught.
What Titus was in his behaviour he was to enjoin upon
others.
He was to manifest uncorruptness in teaching, in gravity,
in sound or healthy speech, which could not be condemned.
The
object of this good behaviour, both in Titus and his hearers, was
that those of the contrary part could say no evil thing of those in
the churches in Crete.
Tit2v9,10
Paul frequently gives instruction to slaves or bondservants, as in
Ephesians 6.5-8; Colossians 3.22-25; 1 Timothy 6.2.
Here again he
returns to the subject.
Christian slaves were to be in subjection
to their masters and to be well-pleasing to them in all things.
They were not to be contradictory when their masters spoke to
them.
They were not to embezzle or steal their masters' goods, but
to show good fidelity, being trustworthy.
In this way, before
their masters and others, the doctrine they held, the doctrine of
God our Saviour, would be adorned and beautified in their eyes.
The excellence of the doctrine would be seen in the changed
behaviour of those who were once liars, evil wild beasts, lazy
gluttons (1.12).
Tit2v11
Appeared (Gk. Epiphaino - to shine upon, give light to): the
epiphany of grace is before the epiphany of glory (verse 13).
The
first is through the incarnation, atonement and resurrection of the
Lord; the second is at His coming again.
There is no original
word for "bringing."
Salvation (Soterios) is an adjective and is
part of the subject "the grace of God."
Dr. Young in his version
renders the verse, "For the saving grace of God was manifested to
all men."
Alford also says that Soterios is part of the subject.
The gospel is like sunshine, the former shines to bring eternal
health to the soul, the latter to give health to the body.
Foolish
people may hide themselves from both and die, both in soul and body.
Tit2v12,13
The saving grace of God becomes the teacher of such as are saved by
grace.
It teaches us to deny, renounce, disown, ungodliness (we
were once ungodly, Romans 5.6, persons in a fearful state, yet it
was for such Christ died), and worldly lusts (see 1 Peter 4.2), and
to live soberly, discreetly (behaviour in regard to ourselves),
righteously (in regard to our neighbours) and godly (in regard to
God's requirements) in this present age; looking for what God's
grace teaches us to expect, even God's glory.
This will be ours
when the blessed hope will be realized in the coming again of the
Lord, who has promised to return, at which time He will appear in
glory to His own.
This is not to be read as though the passage
means two things, (1) the coming of the Lord, as Son of God, for His
own, and (2) His coming, as Son of Man, with His saints.
If it
read the blessed Hope and the appearing of the glory, then there
would be two things indicated, but there is no definite article
before "appearing," hence only the Lord's coming to the air is in
view.
Note how the Deity of the Lord is clearly indicated in verse
13.
Jesus Christ is our great God and Saviour.
The A.V. is not
correct here; it indicates two Persons, the Father and the Son.
Tit2v14
This verse again emphasizes the Deity of the Lord.
Jehovah in a
past dispensation redeemed Israel, so that they should be to Him a
peculiar treasure.
He said, "If ye will obey My voice indeed, and
keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from
among all peoples:
for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be
unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19.5,6).
Similarly today, but on a higher plane, the Lord gave Himself for
us, not merely to redeem us from past sins, but from present
lawlessness, that is, from doing our own will and being a law
unto ourselves, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar (that is,
excellent) people.
The character and conduct of this people is to
be, "zealous of good works."
To many saved folk the thought of God
having a people is not in their thoughts.
To many, evangelism
fills entirely their thoughts and time, but God's will is that He
should have a peculiar people, a subject people under the authority
of the Lord, who is our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Tit2v15
In these instructions already given we have Paul authorizing Titus
by the words of an inspired epistle to speak, exhort and reprove the
disciples who were in the churches of God in Crete.
In the
carrying out of the apostle's commands no man was to despise him.
Tit3v1,2
Subjection is one of the basic truths of the Scriptures, subjection
to rulers and authorities (Romans 13.1), subjection of younger
elders to older elders in the flock of God (1 Peter 5.5), of wives
to husbands (Colossians 3.18; Titus 2.5; 1 Peter 3.1), servants to
masters (Titus 2.9; 1 Peter 2.18), to those that help in the work
and labour (1 Corinthians 16.16), to one another (Ephesians 5.21).
Also the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; God
has not taken the control of man out of his own hand (1 Corinthians
14.32).
In contrast, "The mind of the flesh ... is not subject to
the law of God," and it is evident in these days that it is not
subject to any other law, save the law of sin and death (Romans 8.
2); the lawless are increasing like locusts in the earth, devouring
peace with an insatiable appetite.
Believers are also to be
obedient, save in such a matter as where the will of God and of men
clash (Acts 4.16-21). They are also to be ready towards every good
work, to speak evil of no one, not to be quarrelsome, to be gentle
or mild, and to show meekness to all.
These are all excellent
Christian virtues.
Tit3v3
Who are the "we also"?
It seems to me that there is here a
contrast between "we" and "them" of verse 1.
"Put them in mind,"
that is the Cretans.
The Cretans were always liars (1.12), their
state before conversion.
Then Paul gives us an insight into the
state of the Jews, that is, those who are described as "we also."
The Cretans, a pagan people, were degraded in their habits, but the
Jews were really no better, for beneath a cloke of religion was a
totally corrupted society.
The Jews were without intelligence,
disobedient (ever rebelling against God's law and that of the
Romans), led astray, and serving various lusts and pleasures.
As
to their social life, that also was in rags; the Jews were living
in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
The conduct of
each was hateful to others and consequently they hated each other.
An external religion is but a mask, a guise to cover the natural
wickedness of the human heart.
Tit3v4,5,6,7
God is our Saviour; He is the Source whence salvation comes.
Jesus Christ is our Saviour; He is the One by whom salvation was
wrought.
Kindness means first of all utility, usefulness.
To
give a millionaire a shilling would be no kindness, but it would be
to a hungry beggar.
To give a man a suit of clothes who has twenty
suits would be no kindness, but it would be to a man clothed in
rags.
How well suited to the need of those whose righteousness is
as filthy rags is the kindness of God!
God's kindness is born of
His love toward men (Philanthropia, philanthropy, only twice used in
the New Testament, in Acts 28.2, of the kindness of the pagans in
Melita to Paul, and here of God's love toward mankind).
God's
philanthropy was manifested in the incarnation, atonement and
resurrection of the Lord.
This reaches us not through any good
quality in ourselves or our works, for there is none that doeth good
(Romans 3.10-12).
It is according to His mercy He saved us.
We
have been saved through or by means of the washing or laver of
regeneration [Laver, Loutron, is a noun here, not a verb; it is a
laver or bath, though the use of the bath is implied, and may
legitimately be rendered bathing or washing in a bath, whereby the
whole person and not a part is washed or bathed.
Note the
distinction the Lord makes, in John 13.10, between the washing of the
feet in a basin and being bathed all over.
"He that is bathed (in
a Loutron, laver) needeth not save to wash (in a Nipter, basin) his
feet, but is clean every whit"].
Regeneration (Paliggenesia)
literally means, being born again, and is equivalent to "born again"
(Gennao anothen) in John 3.3,7.
The laver of regeneration is the
word of God, through which, when received by faith, through the
message of the gospel in the power of the Spirit, the sinner is born
again or regenerated (see John 3.3,7; 1.12,13; 1 Peter 1.23; 1 John
5.1), and is made clean every whit (John 13.10; 15.3; Hebrews 10.22;
Ephesians 5.26), and in that state of purity he remains for ever,
though his feet need to be washed, which means that the word of God
needs to be applied to his ways and walk.
Palingenesia is found
again only once in the New Testament, in Matthew 19.28, where it
is used in a different sense, not in connexion with the regeneration
of the individual soul, but in the regeneratin of human society at
the coming of the Son of Man to earth, when a fountain shall be
opened for sin and uncleanness (Zecheriah 13.1).
"Renewing of the
Holy Spirit": renewing (Anakainosis, found only here and in Romans
12.2, but see cognate verbs in 2 Corinthians 4.16; Colossians 3.10;
Hebrews 6.6) describes the complete renewal of the individual by the
Holy Spirit.
These two statements regarding regeneration and
renewing are complementary, and describe the operation of the word
and Spirit of God on the soul, as spoken of by the Lord to Nicodemus,
when He said, "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3.5).
This act of God
in grace is, Paul says, "poured out upon us richly, through Jesus
Christ our Saviour."
Having been justified by grace (Romans 3.24),
we have become heirs (of God and joint-heirs with Christ - Romans 8.
17) according to the hope of eternal life.
This is not the hope of
having eternal life sometime in the future, but the hope that
springs from and belongs to eternal life, in which state we were
saved (Romans 8.16,17,24,25), in which hope we rejoice that one day
we shall enter upon the inheritance of the saints in light, for
which God has made us meet (Colossians 1.12,13).
Tit3v8,9
The "faithful saying" here is what Paul has been writing about,
salvation, regeneration, and so forth.
Such things were to be
affirmed confidently.
The present object of this is, that those so
graced of God as to be saved, regenerated, renewed, justified, and
to enjoy for ever a glorious inheritance, should maintain good works
consistent with the grace they have received.
Good works wrought
by Christian people are both good and profitable to men.
But what
could be more inconsistent than that the heirs of heaven should be
moving heavenward wrangling about what they have in the flesh, such
as the Judaizers were doing, continually rhyming off their
genealogies, as though to be children of sinners was to be compared
with being children of God?
The Lord said, "That which is born of
the flesh is flesh," and flesh it remains with all its sin and
troubles.
But many Jewish believers never seemed to enter into the
meaning of the Lord's words and the teaching of the apostles, and
were a continual menace to peace and a hindrance to the progress of
the Lord's work.
Such questionings and genealogies and legal
contentions begat strifes and fightings and were unprofitable and
vain.
Tit3v10,11
A heretical man is a self-chooser, a party man who by his practice
and doctrine would make a sect, "a self-chosen and divergent form of
religious belief and practice."
He is sectarian in out-look and
intent, "one who creates a faction."
It can be seen how dangerous
such a person would be to the Fellowship.
He is to be given a
first and second admonition publicly before the church, and if he
is obdurate, he is to be refused or rejected by the church; they
are to decline fellowship with him, not simply to close his mouth,
as in chapter 1.11.
See 1 Timothy 5.11, where we have the same
word.
The younger widows were to be refused enrolment as widows to
be supported by the church.
See also 1 Timothy 4.7; 2 Timothy 2.
23; Hebews 12.25 for the same word.
The heretical man is perverted
(Ekstrepho, from Ek, out of, and Strepho, to twist or turn round).
It means "to turn inside out," "to change for the worse," "to become
corrupt."
Such a one sinneth, is living in sin; it is his habit.
He condemns himself.
Tit3v12,13
Artemas is not elsewhere mentioned, but Tychicus is mentioned
several times.
Paul hoped to send either of these brethren to
Crete to relieve Titus, whom Paul wished to come to him to Nicopolis
(supposed to be Nicopolis in Thrace) where Paul had decided to
winter.
Zenas and Apollos had been in Crete, and Titus was
exhorted to send them on their journey diligently and to see that
nothing be lacking to them for the journey.
The epistle was
evidently written when Paul was at liberty, between his first and
secnd imprisonment.
It may have been written from Macedonia about
the time of the writing of 1 Timothy.
Tit3v14
It is profitable here to note the importance of the word "also."
Titus was to set forward Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their
journey diligently, and that nothing be wanting to them, and the
saints also were to maintain good works for necessary uses.
Why
does Paul say this after he has spoken about the journey of these
two servants of the Lord?
It seems to me that if the saints did
not give of their substance, then there would be meagre supplies for
the Lord's servants on their journey.
Saints were to give, and
Titus was to see that the Lord's servants' needs were met.
Tit3v15
Those who were with Paul at the time of his writing, who are not
mentioned by name, saluted Titus, and Titus was to salute those who
loved (Phileo) Paul and his co-workers in faith.
Some translators
think, though there is no definite article before faith, that it is
implied in the grammatical construction, and that it should read,
"Salute them that love us in (the) Faith."
Paul closes with his usual salutation in all his epistles - "Grace
be with you all."
NOTES
ON
THE
EPISTLE
OF
PAUL
TO
PHILEMON
Philv1,2,3
This epistle was written, it is supposed, with those to the
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Hebrews, from Rome during
Paul's first imprisonment.
Here Paul states again that he is a
prisoner of Christ Jesus, as he does in Ephesians 3.1, and in the
Lord, in 4.1, and in Philippians 1.13 he alludes to his bonds.
In
Philemon he associates Timothy with himself in verse 1.
It may be
that Timothy was also a prisoner with him, for, probably some little
time later, he wrote to the Hebrews and said, "Know ye that our
brother Timothy hath been set at liberty" (Hebrews 13.23).
The
epistle was written by Paul concerning Onesimus, who, as we learn
from Colossians 4.9, belonged to Colossae.
Then the references to
Archippus in Colossians 4.17 and Philemon 2 strengthen the view that
Philemon also belonged to Colossae.
Paul writes endearingly when
he calls Philemon "the brother" and "our beloved," and commends also
his labours as a fellow-worker, labours wrought with the apostle
perhaps in Colossae or elsewhere.
Some think that Apphia was the
wife of Philemon, but this is conjecture, also that Archippus was
one of the family or household; but whilst such are possibilities
there is no proof.
A church met at the house of Philemon, possibly
part of the church of God in Colossae.
Paul's salutation is common
to his epistles.
Philv4,5,6
There is a difference amongst translators, whether "always" belongs
to "thank" or to "making mention."
Hence, in contrast to R.V.
above, some punctuate thus: "I thank my God, always making mention
of thee in my prayers."
It is a technical point in Greek grammar
about which the learned may differ.
Whichever way the verse is
read, it shows the regularity of the intercession of Paul in his
prayers for Philemon, a worthy example for us all!
We can
understand the love of Philemon toward the Lord Jesus and toward all
the saints, and we can also understand his faith toward the Lord
Jesus, but what does it mean when Paul refers to his faith toward
the saints?
The text of the R.V. in Ephesians 1.15 is somewhat
similar, though there is some doubt whether the text or the margin
of the R.V. is correct.
If we consider James 2.15-20, it seems
clear enough that we can show faith as well as love toward the
saints.
To see a brother in want and not minister to his need
manifests a complete lack of faith as well as love for faith without
works is both barren and dead.
So Paul wrote to Philemon of his
faith and love toward all the saints as well as toward the Lord
Jesus.
Then Paul continues and writes "that the fellowship
(fellowship, Koinonia, has various meanings: community, fellowship,
society, participation, communion, communications, alms, charity,
and so forth) of thy faith may become effectual," which I take to
mean, as one has put it, "the communication of thy faith may become
effectual," that is, that it may be operative.
Fellowship is not
static; it is living and operative.
It means sharing in common.
Paul was touching a chord in this good man's being which had been
working for long, when he wrote of the full knowledge he had of what
he called "of every good thing which is in you, unto Christ."
This
is the regulator of Christian conduct; if saints are right toward
or unto Christ, they will not fail to be right toward each other.
Philemon had not only provided a meeting place for the church that
met at his house, but quite evidently he was a large and
good-hearted man who loved the Lord and His people and sought to
care for them.
Philv7
Here we have the work of Philemon laid open by Paul,in that the
hearts (bowels, which describe the tenderest feelings) of the saints
had been refreshed (given rest, quiet, refreshment) by him. This
was undoubtedly a joy and comfort to the saints, as the knowledge of
it was to Paul the prisoner.
Paul ever rejoiced when it was well
with the saints.
He was like a good shepherd whose flock feeds
quietly in the lush grass beside the still waters.
Philv8,9,10
The aged father, Paul, pleads with Philemon concerning his child,
Onesimus.
One day, perhaps, the whole story will be told, and it
will be a touching tale.
Who and what was Onesimus?
He was a
brother in the flesh of Philemon (verse 16), and it appears that he
was also a bondman or slave to his brother.
Hereon may hang a tale
of waywardness on the part of Onesimus in his unconverted days.
Paul says, "Who was aforetime unprofitable to thee."
He left
Philemon and Colossae, possibly ran away and turned up in Rome.
How did he come into contact with Paul in prison?
Had he joined
the Praetorian guard? (Philippians 1.13).
Or was he one of the
soldiers that guarded Paul? (Acts 28.16).
Or was it worse than
that: had he committed some crime which resulted in imprisonment,
and thus he met Paul the prisoner?
We cannot say.
But we
can picture to ourselves their meeting and think that we can follow
the course of the conversation which led to Onesimus being led to
Christ, "begotten," as Paul says, "in my bonds."
Both knew
Colossae and both knew Philemon.
They met on common ground here,
and soon they both stood on the common ground of being in Christ.
Later Onesimus was added to the church in Rome, for Paul writes of
him being in the Lord (verse 16).
Paul could have enjoined upon
Philemon the right Christian course to be followed by him towards
Onesimus, but he took the better course of beseeching him for
love's sake.
Philv11,12,13
There is perchance a long story of waywardness on the part of
Onesimus in the statement, "Who was aforetime unprofitable to thee.
"
Philemon may have lifted his brother and slave out of many
troubles.
Is this not true of many sinners, that their life is
entirely unprofitable? "Destruction and misery are in their ways"
(Romans 3.16), but they are not beyond the power of God in the
gospel to save them from a vain manner of life and entirely to
transform them.
There have been many such trophies of grace.
Paul says that since Onesimus was converted he "now is profitable to
thee and to me."
(Possibly we have here a play on the name of
Onesimus, which means Helpful.)
This is what is to be expected
from the transforming power of divine grace, and where it is not in
evidence, it makes one wonder whether the grace of God has indeed
reached the heart, and the regenerating power of the Spirit has been
known.
Paul would have kept Onesimus at Rome to minister unto him in the
bonds of the gospel, but true conversion leads to rectification, as
far as possible, of past wrongs.
This is seen in the case of
Zacchaeus, who said, after he had known the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully
exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold" (Luke 19.8).
So
grace taught Paul to send Onesimus to Colossae to Philemon his
brother, so that past wrongs might be put right.
In parting with
Onesimus Paul parted with what he called "my very heart," so dear
had Onesimus become to him.
Philv14,15,16
Paul would do nothing regarding Onesimus without having the mind of
Philemon, that is, his decision or judgement.
Paul wished to do
nothing apart from this.
Brethren should ever be careful that,
where the interests and responsibilities of others are involved,
there should be no action taken without having their mind or
judgement.
Often much trouble has been caused where the mind of
others has not been sought.
Paul also says that the goodness of
Philemon should not be shown towards Onesimus out of necessity, but
of free will.
Paul lays the case before him in a masterly fashion,
but brings no pressure to bear upon him.
Philemon must be a free
agent in what he does.
Who knows the manifold working of God?
Paul says that perhaps Onesimus was parted from Philemon for a
season, that he might have him for ever, eternally, for during
the interval Christ had reached and saved him.
Now he returns to
Philemon, not as a slave but much more, a brother beloved, to Paul
especially, but much rather to Philemon, "both in the flesh and in
the Lord."
Thus we see that Onesimus was a brother in a double
sense, a natural brother of Philemon, and now also a brother in the
Lord.
Philv17,18,19
Those who are in the Fellowship or Partnership (Acts 2.42; 1
Corinthians 1.9) are fellows or partners. See Luke 5.10: "James and
John, sons of Zebedee, ... were partners with Simon."
Paul and
Philemon were in the same Fellowship, for the churches of God are
one, in one Fellowship; and the saints received one another when
they moved about carrying letters of commendation from church to
church.
See Romans 16.1,2; 2 Corinthians 3.1.
Paul asks
Philemon, and also the church at his house (note verses 1,2), to
receive Onesimus as he would have received Paul himself.
If there
was anything which would hinder fellowship, such as past wrongs
committed by Onesimus, whereby Philemon had suffered loss, he was to
put that to Paul's account, who would repay him.
It is dangerous
doctrine to think and to say that because God forgives the sinner
for all past wrongs, because of the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, who has in His death paid the sinner's debts to God, that
therefore all debts to men have to be regarded as repaid and
forgiven.
This is not so, as the story concerning Onesimus clearly
teaches.
Though Christ restored to God what He took not away
(Psalm 69.4), there may still be restoration to men to be
considered.
Paul then touches lightly upon the point of the debt
that Philemon owed to him, "I say not unto thee how that thou owest
to me even thine own self besides."
Here was a debt that Philemon
had not paid and never could.
Philv20,21
Paul hoped for joy and refreshment in the matter of Onesimus.
As
he committed this letter to Onesimus, so it is thought, he sent him
forth on the long journey (in those days) back to Colossae; his
arrival there would be like the return of the prodigal in Luke 15.
We can well believe, though the sequel of the story is hid from us,
that the joy in Colossae would be similar to the joy in the father's
heart and home, where the best robe, the ring and the sandals were
brought for the long-lost son, and the fatted calf was killed.
The
joy that divine grace brings, the like of which there is not on the
earth besides, would, we think, be in the home of Philemon when
Onesimus arrived.
Paul said that he had confidence in the
obedience of Philemon, not to Paul, but to the teaching of divine
grace, that he would do even beyond what Paul said.
This letter
shows a taste and touch in handling a domestic difficulty, where
estrangement had, no doubt, existed, of the most exquisite kind.
Such matters are often the most difficult to handle, where family
love has been flouted.
Divine grace must be poured in in large
measure to heal wounds that have been made.
Philv22
"Prepare me also a lodging."
"Also" shows that Paul anticipated
that Onesimus had found lodging with his brother.
If this were so,
Paul's arrival in Colossae would fill the cup of each to
overflowing.
Here was the result of the Lord's work as the Peace
Offering.
In the peace offering in the past the LORD had His
portion of the fat and the blood, the offering priest had his, the
priestly family theirs, the offerer had the major portion of the
sacrifice, and of this everyone who was clean could eat.
It was
the fellowship offering, the offering which reconciled men to God
and to one another.
In our time it speaks of the hearts of saints
being refreshed in Christ whose death has brought them together and
given each a portion in Himself to enjoy together.
Here the eyes
and faces of each participant may glow with the love of Christ.
For the liberation and coming of Paul Philemon was to pray, and we
are of the opinion that Paul gained his liberty for a time.
Philv23,24,25
Epaphras is referred to in Colossians 1.7 and 4.12.
The Colossians
had become disciples by the ministry of this faithful man.
It
says, "Even as ye learned (as disciples) of (from) Epaphras."
He
strove much in prayer for the saints in Colossae, and for those in
the contiguous churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis.
It is sad to
think that by the time of the wiriting of the book of the
Revelation, perhaps some thirty years afterwards, the churches in
Colossae and Hierapolis no longer existed as churches owned by the
Lord; ony seven churches existed in Asia by that time, and even
Laodicea was in a woeful condition of lukewarmness.
When Paul
wrote to Philemon, Epaphras was in prison, a fellow-prisoner of
Paul: it might be that he was a prisoner when Paul wrote to the
Colossians, though that is not stated.
Paul evidently was quite
near to Epaphras when he could write of the intensity of his prayers
for the Colossians.
Paul closes with his usual salutation of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen."
"The grace of our
This is one of the finest letters, probably the finest, that was
ever written to reconcile those involved in a domestic difficulty.
NOTES
ON
THE
EPISTLE
TO
THE HEBREWS
Heb1v1,2
God is the speaker in both the Old and New Covenants:
the channel of
communication of old was the prophets - He spoke "in the prophets,"
but now He speaks "in Son," that is, in one who is Son.
The
absence of the definite article "more emphatically and definitely
expresses the exclusive character of His Sonship."
His manner and
method of speaking of old time was varied; He spoke "in many parts"
and "in many ways," in inspiration as varied as His material
universe.
Variety is the law of the universe: neither men nor
beasts (of the same species), nor trees, nor leaves, nor blades of
grass are exactly similar; so is the variety and beauty of His
word.
The Psalms are different from the Proverbs, though they are
the writings of father and son, and the Canticles diverse from
Ecclesiastes, the writings of the same man.
"The fathers" were they to whom His words were spoken, but now He
has spoken to "us," and happy are they who so view God's word as His
message to them.
God appointed (Tithemi, to place, set or appoint) the Son to be His
Heir, a fact which the Aorist shows to be in the past, but when we
are not told.
Abraham's appointment of Isaac to be his heir is a
beautiful type of this.
All things have been given by the Father
to the Son.
He, the Heir, washed the disciples' feet, though He
knew "that the Father had given all things into His hands" (John 13.
3).
The Heir was killed by the Jews - "This is the Heir, come let
us kill Him and take His inheritance."
His inheritance is wider
than Israel - "I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance"
(Psalm 2.8), and it is wider than that still.
The Son was the Master Workman who carried out the Father's designs
(Proverbs 8.30; John 1.3).
The word "worlds" is "ages," usually
translated "ages" in the R.V.Marg.
The LORD is "the Father of
Eternity" (Isaiah 9.6, R.V.M.).
Age, Aion, duration, finite or
infinite, in its plural form indicates periods of duration past or
future in what is called eternity; it is also used of periods of
duration in time not bounded by the ordinary fixed limits by which
time is reckoned, such as years and so forth.
We read of "the
course (age) of this world (Cosmos)" (Ephesians 2.2), and of "this
present evil world (age)" (Galatians 1.4).
It seems that more is involved in Hebrews 1.2 than periods of
duration, and more, too, than the material universe; it may be that
to each of the rolling ages He gave a character and content diverse
and beautiful, and as the ages roll along there will be fresh
unfolding of His mind and purpose.
Our present limitation should
make us careful not to dogmatize in so profound a matter.
"Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning," not merely those
which have existed or do exist, but such as shall yet be.
Heb1v3
"Who being" describes what He is (not what He became) and what He
can never cease to be.
"The effulgence": He is the radiation of
the glory of Deity, not partially, but absolutely.
This is no
transient glory as was seen in the face of Moses, who carried in his
hands the law which revealed God's Holiness.
Every attribute of
Deity is to be seen in the Son, who is the Revealer of God - His
justice and holiness, His truth, grace, goodness, gentleness,
meekness, love, compassion, and so forth, and every beauty of the
splendour which is called the Glory (Tes Doxes), which of old the
Hebrews called "the Shekinah," radiates in the person of the Son.
He is also "the very Image" (Charakter, from Charagma, to cut in,
engrave, impress or stamp) or "exact impress" of the substance or
subsistence of God (Hupostasis, to place under, substance, "something
of which we can say it is, opposed to He Phantasia, mere appearance,
Hebrews 1.3").
We can say truly "God is" and He has expressed
Himself in His "exact impress" His Son, His "very image."
We may
help ourselves to grasp what is meant by such similitudes as
the impress of a seal on soft wax, as a stamp on paper, a penny from
the die in the mint, or as the image in marble, chiselled by the
sculptor, who has cut with precision the delineations of his subject
in the stone.
Upholding (Phero, to bear); the weight of all things
spoken word (Rhema, what is spoken), and His word has
(Dunamis) or ability that it will never fail or break
creative word, when He spoke and it stood fast, still
He brought into existence.
hangs upon His
so great power
down.
His
maintains what
"By Himself" and "our" are omitted by the most of the great textual
critics, as having no sufficient authority to be inserted.
Here we
have the antitype of the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, but He
needed not first to offer for His own sins, only for the sins of the
people.
The high priest of old went in to sprinkle, to cleanse and
to retire, but He, the great High Priest, went in to sit down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high.
He sits with perfect right on
the throne of Deity, because he is God.
Heb1v4
He has become better because He is better.
He who in incarnation
became "a little lower than angels," has in His ascension on high
become better than they, because of the inherited name He bears that of Son, a name which describes His true and eternal
relationship to God the Father.
This name was His before His
incarnation: "For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the
world, but that the world should be saved through Him."
Note the
words "into the world" (Eis ton Cosmon); He was the Son before He
was sent into the world (John 3.17).
The name Son was His whilst
on earth, and it always will be His.
Heb1v5
The answers to these questions are, that at no time and to none of
the angels did He ever so speak.
They are creatures, but He the
Increate - begotten, not made, the Only Begotten.
One who is
immutable in essence and attributes as the Father; One who remains
the same "Yesterday and today, yea and for ever."
from Psalm 2 is stated to be a "decree,"
This quotation
"I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said unto Me, Thou art My Son."
This "decree" is a statute to be observed, believed and owned by all
created intelligences, a fact which is the very core of the gospel;
faith in the Son of God is necessary to salvation.
"This day have I begotten Thee"; was this the resurrection morn?
Nay! for He was the Son of God on earth, and before He came to
earth.
This text is quoted thrice in the New Testament, I, in
association with His birth (Acts 13.33) (compare the raising up
(Anistemi) of Jesus, in verse 33, with the raising up (Egeiro) of
David, in verse 22, - contrast the uses of Anistemi and Egeiro in
verses 16 and 30 - and contrast these with His being raised up from
the dead, in verse 34); II, in association with His being raised
from the dead in Hebrews 1.5; and III, in association with His
priesthood, in Hebrews 5.5.
"This day" (Semeron, today) is not a
point in time, nor yet any point in eternity which is past.
God is
the ever present "I am," to Him there is no past or future.
He
dwells in one ever-present "today" that had no yesterday and will
have no tomorrow.
It is what Peter calls "the day of eternity" (2
Peter 3.18, R.V. marg.).
Here we may quote the weighty words of J.
H. in N.T., Vol. 31, pages 140-141:"Some may create difficulty by associating the 'To-day' of the
oracle with the event expressed in the words, 'In that He raised up
Jesus.'
There is no warrant for this.
'To-day' expresses neither
past nor future; it is a day that was not born out of yesterday,
and never shall pass into tomorrow.
The term here indicates an
eternal age, an eternal now; surely, no simpler words can be found
to express more effectively perpetual and eternal generation, for
'To-day' is associated with the words 'I have begotten Thee,' and
corresponds in duration to the verb expressed in the words 'Thou ART
My Son'; and during future millenniums untold will His oracle be as
appropriately and absolutely true as at the first moment in which it
was uttered.
Note carefully, God does not say, 'I have adopted,
declared or constituted,' but 'I have begotten Thee'; by which we
understand the communication of His own divine essence and nature,
by a method altogether beyond human conception.
How surely and
clearly the beloved apostle entered into the deep thoughts of the
eternal Father's bosom when he designated His co-equal and well
beloved Son, 'THE ONLY BEGOTTEN FROM THE FATHER, FULL OF GRACE AND
TRUTH'!"
"Thou art" and "to-day" stand co-related in an indivisible union.
The Lord neither became Son of God by incarnation nor yet by
resurrection; He is Son by being begotten, and is the Only
Begotten.
If human generation is a deep mystery, how deep is
the mystery of the Divine Sonship of our blessed Lord!
"These
things are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name"
(John 20.31).
"To Him," "To Me," describe the mutual obligations which devolve
upon each because of the relationship indicated in the previous
statement - "I have begotten Thee."
Compare this with 2
Corinthians 6.18, where it is said to God's obedient children, "(I)
will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me for sons and
daughters."
This does not describe how they became the children of
God, but what the LORD Almighty will be to them if they are obedient
to Him.
This second quotation of Hebrews 1.5 is taken from 2 Samuel 7.14,
where Jehovah promises to David that He would be a Father to his son
Solomon, to whom, if he committed iniquity, He would act a father's
part and chastise him with the rod of men.
But He who is Son of
God needed no such stripes as wayward Solomon received.
Heb1v6
Just as "Only Begotten" shows that unique relationship in which He
alone stands to God the Father (for though both unfallen angels and
redeemed men are called sons of God and are sons by creation, the
Son knows no creation), "First-born" shows Him in the premier place
as being before, over, and pre-eminent above all things, "that in
all things He might have the pre-eminence" (Colossians 1.18).
First-born is a title of pre-eminence, sometimes used where
relationshp exists, as in the case of the first-born of a family,
and sometimes where no relationship exists, as in the case of David,
whom God calls His first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth
(Psalm 89.27).
Christ is God's First-born, the One who is
pre-eminent over all.
(See Needed Truth, Vol. 19, page 244, J.H.
on "First-born").
"Again bringeth" shows that He was in the
inhabited earth before.
At His second advent the angels of God
shall worship, or bow before Him doing Him the honour which the
rebellious earth refused, though some bowed in mockery.
This
quotation is the LXX. rendering of Deuteronomy 32.43, "Let all the
angels of God worship Him."
Heb1v7
Only twice in the New Testament (R.V.) is Pneuma rendered "wind," in
John 3.8 and Hebrews 1 .7.
The marg. of R.V. may in both cases be
the better rendering, "The Spirit breatheth" and "spirits."
See
Hebrews 1.14, where angels are called "spirits."
The Seraphim of Isaiah 6.2,6, are "burning ones," so that "a flame
of fire" is not a figure of speech.
These mighty beings are
completely under His control, who is called God in verse 8.
Heb1v8,9
This is a quotation from Psalm 45.6,7.
The R.V. marginal reading
of the Psalm, "Thy throne is the throne of God," is without
justification.
God addresses His Son as "O God," and any weakening
of words which present Him as being truly God ("The Word was God,"
John 1.1) should be eschewed by all who have learned to love Him.
Psalm 45 is Messianic and consequently we have both the Divine and
human natures of the Lord touched upon.
Thy
The
Thy
Thy
throne.
sceptre.
kingdon.
fellows.
Here beyond doubt it is His human fellows (Metochos, a partner or
partaker); this involves His incarnation, for it could never be
said that He was anointed with the oil of gladness above the Father
and the Holy Spirit, His Fellows of the Trinity.
See Zechariah 13.
7 - "the Man that is My Fellow, saith the LORD of Hosts."
Because He loved righteousness and hated iniquity, God has anointed
Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows, Peter, James, John,
and myriads besides, over whom He is enthroned, and who gladly
acknowledged His enthronement and His place of authority over them.
Heb1v10,11,12
In the previous quotation from Psalm 45 we have a description of the
King, the Divine Ruler; in this quotation He is set forth as the
Creator and Maker of all, and though His material universe in the
heavens and earth shall wax old and perish, He abides the same and
His years fail not.
What a stay it was to the Hebrew Christian,
who might be wavering on the matter of the Deity of Jesus of
Nazareth, to know and be assured that that Man was truly God, the
Creator of the ends of the earth!
How comforting too to the
afflicted in Psalm 102, from which this quotation is taken, that
though his days were like a declining shadow (verse 11), His God was
Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not
neither is weary (Isaiah 40.28,29), whose years fail not!
The
Child born and the Son given is the Mighty God (Isaiah 9.6).
Surely no further proofs are needed of the Lord's Deity!
Some hold that the material universe will be purified and restored
as the new heaven and earth, but the opposite is stated here.
It
is said that "they shall perish."
The heavens and earth shall "wax
old," be "rolled up" and "be changed," not into something new, but
will give place to something new; for we are told that the earth
and the heaven shall flee away from the face of Him that shall sit
on the great white throne, and no place shall be found for them
(Revelation 20.11).
The new heaven and earth that shall be are not renewed but new.
The present earth (Ge, land or earth) and its works shall be burned
up (2 Peter 3.10).
Heb1v13
No angel was ever invited to sit upon the throne of God, yet the Son
of David, who is also David's Lord, has been so addressed.
"The LORD (Jehovah) saith unto my Lord (Adon), Sit Thou at My right
hand" (Psalm 110.1).
Heb1v14
Verse 7 says that He maketh His angels spirits, and here we are told
that they are ministering spirits.
This ministry is on behalf of
those who shall inherit salvation; this salvation is yet future;
the heirs are viewed as in the place of trial and temptation, and
need angelic ministration.
The Lord in His temptations was the
subject of such ministry (Mark 1.13; Luke 22.43), and so may those
be who endure temptation now, who shall shortly inherit salvation.
Heb2v1
To drift means to glide or flow along like a river.
It is not the
thought of rapid movement, but something that glides away almost
imperceptibly.
Because of the importance of the matter - that God
has spoken to us in His Son - we ought to give heed with more
abundant zeal to the things that were heard.
How much depended
upon those whom the Lord entrusted with His word at the first!
If
they had proved unfaithful to the trust, like many in the later days
of the New Testament, how should men have fared afterwards? and if
we are unfaithful what of the Lord's work in time to come?
Heb2v2
"Stedfast" shows the stability of the word in contrast to the word
"drift" (or "slip," A.V.) of the previous verse.
The law was given
"through" (Dia, by means of) angels.
Acts 7.53 says that Israel
received it by disposition (Diatagas rendered "arrangement" by Dr.
Young, by others as "promulgation" or "the act of promulgating") of
angels.
God's stedfast law imposed just penalties on all acts of
transgression and disobedience.
Heb2v3,4
"How shall we (the people of God, those to whom God has spoken, in
contrast to those who received the law in the past dispensation)
escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"
The sinner may reject
what is offered him, but saints may neglect (Ameleo, not to care
for.
See 1 Timothy 4.14) what they have.
There is only one means
of escape from losing one's life for God in this scene and that is
by giving the most earnest heed to the great salvation which was at
the first spoken by the Lord.
This great salvation covers the
whole of the doctrine of Christ, the faith once for all delivered to
the saints (Jude 3), the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ which saints
are to hold (James 2.1).
The writer of the Hebrews was not one who
had himself heard the Lord, for he says that it "was confirmed unto
us by them that heard."
With those who heard, God bore witness by
miraculous evidence, attesting the divine character of the
message.
The Holy Spirit and the apostles were to bear dual
testimony - "The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
He shall bear witness of Me; and ye also bear witness, because ye
have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15.26,27).
God having
confirmed the great salvation by miracles, these have been
withdrawn, God leaving the reception of His word to faith unassisted
by sight.
The working of miracles never occurred according to the
whims of men, but "according to His (God's) own will."
Heb2v5,6,7,8
In this quotation there seems to be an allusion to both Adam and
Christ.
In Psalm 8.4-7 man, in "what is man," is Enosh, mortal or
frail man, and Christ was never a mortal man.
He was not subject
to the frailty and mortality of the race.
He died because He
willed to do so, laying down His life of Himself (John 10.17,18).
He is the Son of Man (Man here is Adam), the Son of him whom God
formed of the dust of the earth who was made in the image of God.
Adam became an "Enosh" through sin, and in consequence much that God
put into his hand got beyond his control and beyond the control of
his sons, but He who is Son of Man, the Heir to his inheritance, who
was made a little lower than angels, will deliver creation from the
present bondage of corruption in which it languishes into the
liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8.18-22).
Christ the Son of Man was crowned on earth in perfect manhood with
glory and honour; all was given into His hand and put under His
feet.
Whilst angels seem in some way to have to do with the government of
the inhabited earth - and this was probably rendered necessary
because of Satanic interference in earth's government from the days
of Adam (see Daniel 10.13,20; 12.1; Ephesians 6.12) - the time will
come when God's original purpose in the subjection of earth to man
shall be fulfilled in all being subjected, and manifestly seen to be
subject, to the Son of Adam.
God wherein men failed.
Christ shall fulfil the purposes of
All things have been subjected to Him, but the words "not yet" show
that the time for the manifestation of this fact has not yet
arrived, which will be in the coming of the Son of Man, which is yet
future.
Heb2v9
Does this verse say that the crowning with glory and honour was
before or after His death?
The usual interpretation is that he was
crowned with glory and honour after death.
This is true of the
Lord's glorification in another sense, but here as the Son of Man He
was crowned with glory and honour to suffer.
His crowning was
because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, He,
and He only, of all the sons of men, should taste death for every
man.
To accomplish the work of redemption He had to become the
Son of Man, so that as Kinsman-Redeemer He might have the right of
redemption.
He was the one perfect, holy Man who could effect
salvation for men of the human race with which He had associated
Himself in incarnation.
To "taste death" is simply to experience
death or to die, and "for every man" shows the vicarious nature of
that death.
A twofold glorification of Christ is spoken of by Himself in John 13.
31: "Now is (was or has been) the Son of Man glorified, and God is
glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself and
straightway (immediately) shall He glorify Him."
Heb2v10
It was a becoming thing for God, the great End as well as the
original Cause of all things, to make the Author (Archegos, chief,
leader, prince, or efficient cause), the One who was the Cause of
their salvation, who is also the Leader (both thoughts are in the
word Archegos) of the ransomed band, perfect through sufferings.
If of old time it was said of Jehovah, the Author of Israel's
salvation and their Leader, "In all their affliction He was
afflicted," it cannot be less true of Him who leads the ransomed
host to glory in our day.
He would be greatly deficient as Leader
of God's sons, who had themselves sufferd, if He had not Himself
suffered.
But He, the great Sufferer, the pattern of all sufferers,
has acquired perfection through His sufferings - His sufferings in
life which were brought to a climax by His sufferings on the cross,
for He could never have been the Author of salvation but for His
crucifixion.
Heb2v11
He that sanctifieth is the Lord.
This sanctifying One and the
sanctified ones are all (Ek, out of) of One (the Father), and
consequently there is kinship existing between the Sanctifier and
the sanctified.
In consequence of this kinship He calls them
"brethren."
This word "brethren" has been misapplied and used to
describe an ecclesiastical position or those in an ecclesiastical
position, whereas it is used to dscribe those who have sprung from a
common fatherhood.
He is not ashamed to describe those who are born of God as
"brethren" (see John 1.13 "which were born ... of (Ek, out of)
God").
Note the distinction between this and Hebrews 11.16, where
God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
and such like, because their conduct as pilgrims and strangers on
earth had His approval.
In Hebrews 11.16 it is conduct, but in
Hebrews 2.11 it is relationship.
It is possible for God to be
ashamed of many who are called "brethren," because their conduct is
not that of pilgrims and strangers, who have not been separated from
the world, and who know practically nothing of what it is to have a
God to worship and serve.
Heb2v12
"Thy name": What name?
It must be a name co-related to the name
"brethren," a name which describes Him out of whom all brethren
are. What name can describe this relationship like the name
"Father"?
To the patriarchs He revealed Himself as the "Lord
Almighty," to Israel He made known somewhat of the mysteries of His
name Jehovah - "I am Jehovah your God," but to all who are brethren
the Lord reveals to such His Father as their Father.
"I ascend to
My Father and your Father" (John 20.17).
The disciples were taught
to address Him as "Our Father which art in heaven," and the Spirit
of adoption has come into our hearts whereby we cry, "Abba, Father.
"
The Hebrew word "Abba," the Greek word Pater, the English word
"Father" and whatever word may be used in any language to express
"Father," such is the name by which God is addressed by those who
are begotten of Him.
We have in the former statement the co-related terms of the name
(Father) and "brethren," but here we have those previously viewed as
brethren now seen in a separaed position as having been called out
and called together (Ecclesia comes from Ek, out of, and Kaleo, to
call).
The Lord cannot be in the midst of a scattered people.
The Revisers in rendering Ecclesia by the word congregation had no
doubt the thought of a people together, and also a wider thing is
contemplated than a local church, for in this epistle the writer
does not limit his view of God's people to those resident in a
single city, but the whole are contemplated.
Of old God separated His people from Egypt and gathered them unto
Himself and around Himself in the wilderness.
He dwelt in their
midst in the Tabernacle which was His Sanctuary.
In Psalm 50.5 He
says, "Gather My saints together unto Me: Those that have made a
covenant with Me by sacrifice."
Today, as truly as ever, God wants
a together-folk, called out and separated, in the midst of whom the
Lord is the Leader of the praise.
He says that here He will sing
(Humneso, hymn) God's praise.
We on our part, as part of that
gathered-together people, are in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
(Ephesians 5.19,20) to be singing (Adontes, singing), and making
melody (Psallontes, psalming, from the word Psalm), not with the
accompaniment of a musical instrument, when together as the people
of God to praise Him, but as the next words show, "with your heart"
(Te kardia).
Neither wind instruments nor stringed instruments,
etc., are allowed by God to find a place in His service today
amongst His gathered people.
If the Lord sings, who shall play
with an instrument?
Let us also sing under His leadership with
hearts tuned to His praise in holy melody.
These words will, no doubt, have a wider meaning when the Lord at
His coming stands in the midst of His own and rejoices over them with
singing.
Heb2v13
The Lord as perfectly trusts (Peitho, to persuade, to be persuaded)
His Father as He sits on the throne as He did in the days of His
flesh on earth, for there He carries on the work with reference to
God's people which He began on earth.
He is still associated with
them, for He says, "Behold, I and the children which God hath given
Me."
It is "I and the children" in a blessed unity.
This
quotation is from Isaiah 8.18 where the Lord is seen, during the time
of Israel's rejection, associated with children that God has given
Him.
In John 17.6 He says, "I manifested Thy name unto the men whom
Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were and Thou gavest
them to Me; and they have kept Thy word."
These are undoubtedly
those referred to as "My disciples" (Isaiah 8.16) amongst whom the
testimony was to be bound and the law sealed, the children God gave
Him who were for signs and wonders in Israel.
These are God's
people during the time that Israel, God's Old Testament people, are
set aside.
Heb2v14
The children were common sharers (from Koinoneo, which in turn comes
from Koinos, common) of blood and flesh (R.V. marg., is correct), but
the Lord partook (Metecho, from Meta, with, Echo, hold possession
of, to have) of what others shared in common.
Flesh and blood
speaks of man in his natural state, but the Lord partook of blood
and flesh, for though He is Man who was made of a woman, "in like
manner" as the children, yet it must ever be remembered that it was
in the likeness of sinful flesh He came (Romans 8.3).
He was no
co-partaker of a fallen nature.
He was born holy and was ever
separated from sinners.
In temptation He ever repelled and resisted the devil by the power
of the word of God, saying, "It is written."
How perfect is His
example and how encouraging to us to follow His steps!
"Through death" - His death on the tree - the Son of Man has
annulled the devil, who had the power of death, in a crushing
defeat.
The word Katargeo, rendered "bring to nought" (R.V.),
"destroy" (A.V.), which is the same word as in 2 Timothy 1.10, means
to render inactive or to make of none effect. It does not mean to
cause to cease to be or to exist, but to render useless or
ineffective.
See Luke 13.7 where the ground was rendered useless
by the barren fig tree;
word.
also see Romans 6.6, etc., for the same
Heb2v15
Here we have saints of a by-gone day alluded to; those who lived in
fear of death during their lifetime, who had not the bright hope of
believers today, to whom the words come - "absent from the body" "at home with the Lord."
Saints of Old Testament times prior to
the Lord's death and resurrection went down to Sheol (not to the
place of torment in Sheol beneath).
See Genesis 37.35; 42.38; 44.
29,31 ("grave" here is "Sheol," not the place of burial); Psalm 16.
10; Acts 2.27,31.
Compare the liberation of Hebrews 2.15 with the
leading of "captivity captive" (Ephesians 4.8).
Heb2v16
When the Lord became incarnate, by partaking of blood and flesh, it
was with the object of helping men, not angels.
He came to lay
hold of, with a view to assisting, the seed of Abraham.
"In Isaac
shall thy seed be called."
That is, it is not the children of the
flesh that are the children of God; but the children of promise are
reckoned for a seed" (Romans 9.7,8).
Here we view, not Abraham's
natural descendants, but the children of faith.
The faithless Jew
did not want Messiah's help, but those who are sons of Abraham
through faith are such as the Lord lays His hands upon to help.
"He giveth help to the seed of Abraham" (American Revision). The R.
V. rendering of the passage is better, in our judgement, than the A.
V.
Heb2v17
The propitiatory work of the Lord is viewed from three points of
view in the New Testament, in regard to three distinct kinds of
need:(1) Christ is the propitiation for the whole world (1 John 2.2).
He
gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2.6).
Men may approach to
God through the one Mediator between God and men, "Whom God set
forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by His blood" (Romans 3.
25).
The word propitiation here is Hilasterios, one who makes
expiation or propitiation (Hilasterion, the propitiatory or
mercy-seat: Hebrews 9.5).
(2) Christ's propitiatory work has in it not only that which meets
the sinner's need, but there is in it that which meets the need of
the child of God, for "if any man (one) sin" (1 John 2.1) - any of
the children of God - Christ "is the propitiation for our sins"
(verse 2).
He who is an Advocate (and we have two Advocates, the
Lord and the Holy Spirit) on behalf of the children of God, pleads
the merits of His propitiatory work, so that forgiveness might be
theirs.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins" (1 John 1.9).
Forgiveness here is with a view
to fellowship with God and with one another, not in order that we
may be saved, for believers are forgiven all and saved eternally.
Salvation was an assured matter when we came as sinners to God,
through Christ, who is the propitiation for the whole world.
(3) In Hebrews 2 we have something further than being children of
God, here we have "the people."
Firstly: Chri st the Mediator and propitiation meets the sinner's
need that he may be saved.
Secondly: Christ an Advocate and propitiation meets the need of the
child of God, so that he may live in fellowship with God and with
the children of God.
Thirdly: Christ is the High Priest who meets the need of the people
of God so that they may serve Him in the house of God.
His work of propitiation has in view (1) Salvation: (2)
Fellowship: (3) Service; having in view (1) all Men; (2) God's
children; (3) God's people.
In "the people" we see a collective folk, a nation, which, in the
work of God, has many faults and failings.
"In things pertaining
to God," God's people are a sinful people.
Do we not seek our own
pleasure rather than His will?
Do we give to Him of our strength,
time and substance as we ought?
Are we devoted to Him?
Do we
love Him with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind?
Have we
not acted as though in our service the lame and the blind of our
offerings would do for our God? indeed the carnal mind says that
anything will do for Him.
Have we not done the things we ought
not, and left undone the things we ought to have done?
How much of
our work is fulfilled before our God?
(Revelation 3.2).
Who
meets such a need of His people and gives to God satisfaction for
the many deficiencies of their unworthy service so that they may
continue to be His people in His house?
It is the High Priest who
is in God's presence, who having offered Himself a propitiatory
sacrifice has gone in through (Dia) His own blood to make
propitiation for the sins of the people.
God is getting
satisfaction in the priestly work of the Lord, who is the Surety of
the covenant (Hebrews 7.22), for the ignorances and deficiencies,
even the sins of His people.
The need is continuous and so also is
the provision to meet it.
Heb2v18
He who was made in all points like unto His brethren (not our elder
Brother) suffered in temptation as a man.
He, as God, never was or
could be tempted of evil things.
Divine nature is above all
temptation.
But He who hungered felt in His weak and dependent
humanity the sting of the evil one's suggestion that He should turn
stones into loaves.
He was the Son of God truly, but as a man He
bore hunger and temptation.
His answer was, "Man doth not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God."
Strange that He, the eternal Logos, should live by every
single word (Rhema, a saying) that proceedeth out of God's mouth!
This remarkable Person - of indivisible personality, yet of two
natures, Divine and human, in the form of God, yet in the form of a
bond-servant - who fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes
would not feed Himself with loaves made of stones.
He would depend
and suffer, till He was succoured when the temptation was past.
This is He who is able to succour with a Dunamis (power or ability),
that no one need fail in the hour of temptation, and those who come
through victorious may return in the power of the Spirit to their
divinely-appointed work (Luke 4.14).
Heb3v1
These holy brethren are the brethren indicated in Hebrews 2.12,17.
"Holy" shows that they are brethren of a holier order than the sons
of Israel, of whom David wrote, "Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133.1).
They are not only brethren, but they are also sharers or have a part
(Metochos, see Hebrews 1.9; 3.14; 12.8: see also the verbal form of
the word in Hebrews 2.14) in a heavenly calling.
Israel's calling
was earthly, to the wilderness where they built God's house, which
was a sanctuary of this world, though it was a copy of things in the
heavens, and to the land of Canaan their inheritance.
Ours is
heavenly, first of all to separation from the world, with the object
of building and being built up a spiritual house, even the house of
God (see verse 6, and 1 Peter 2.3-5; 1 Corinthians 3.9-17), and we
also have a heavenly country in view.
As brethren and partakers we are exhorted to consider the Apostle
and High Priest of our confession - the Apostle who came from God
with God's word, and the High Priest who has gone to God to meet the
need of His people who hold and keep the word He committed to them,
their confession.
Israel had their confession in "the law," their
apostle in Moses, and their high priest in Aaron; we have our
confession in "the Faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude
3), and our Apostle and High Priest is the Lord Himself, who fills
both offices.
Heb3v2
"Appointed" is "made" (see R.V. Marg. Poiesanti).
The word is used
in the same way as in Acts 2.36: "God hath made Him both Lord and
Christ."
Christ was the faithful Apostle and He is also the
faithful High Priest.
Of Moses God said, "My servant Moses ... is
faithful in all Mine House" (Numbers 12.7).
Heb3v3
In this illustration of a builder and a house we have a principle
indicative of why the Lord is worthy of more glory than Moses,
because the builder is ever more honourable than what he builds.
We may admire the building, but we admire more the mind that
conceived the plan and fabricated the structure.
God, too, is ever
greater than His work, and Christ is greater than what He
accomplished, wondrous as that work is.
Heb3v4
How true! when we see a house we know that there has been a builder
there.
Houses are not rained from the skies, nor do they grow from
seed. So we conclude in regard to the material universe, in all its
marvellous design, that there must have been a Divine Builder at
work.
"He that built all things is God."
See Acts 7.44-50.
Heb3v5
Here we have reference to one of the most remarkable houses ever
built by man - the Tabernacle in the wilderness - the pattern of
which was divinely given.
This house was built by some one.
It
did not descend complete from the heavens.
In the Tabernacle Moses
was a faithful minister (Therapon, servant, minister, used of Moses
in the LXX in Exodus 14.31.
From this word comes Therapeia,
service, attendance, aid, help, and Therapeuo, to serve, to
minister).
Moses' faithfulness in the house of God was typical of
the Lord's faithfulness, who is the One in authority over the house
of God.
Heb 3v6
Moses was a servant in (En), but Christ is a son over (Epi), the
house of God.
The house of God today is not made of curtains,
boards, and bars and so forth, but of persons - "whose house are
we" - and these persons are not in heaven, but on earth.
But who
are included in "we"?
Many answer, "all born-again persons on
earth who are members of the Church, the Body of Christ, are the
house of God: the Church which is Christ's Body and the house of
God are one and the same - the same thing under different figures.
"
We know that the most of the members of Christ are in heaven,
yet believers will confuse the Body with the house of God.
What
saith the Scripture on the point?
Whose house are we, if we hold
fast."
Are we born-again persons if we hold fast? or members of
Christ if we hold fast?
Surely if holding fast is a vital
necessity to the new birth, then those who hold the falling away
doctrine - that saved persons may be lost eternally - have truth on
their side.
The fact of the matter is, that the house of God does
not signify all born-again people on earth, nor does it mean the
Body of Christ under another figure.
The conjunction "if" is Eanper (or Ean in the Revised Greek Text)
and means "if indeed" or "if truly", for Ean with the subjunctive
mood Kataschomen shows beyond question that "if" here is the "if" of
condition, and that continuance in the house of God is conditional
upon those therein holding fast.
This passage does not show how
those therein came to be in the house of God.
But a comparison of
1 Peter 2.3-5 with Acts 2.41,42, 2 Corinthians 6.14-18, etc., shows
how disciples came to find a place in the house of God.
They
tasted that the Lord was gracious, by receiving the Word, and having
been baptized, they saved (or separated themselves) themselves from
a crooked generation by going forth to Him who is the rejected
Stone, the Stone that was rejected by the Jewish elders (Matthew 21.
40-46); coming to Him they were built up a spiritual house, or were
added as in Acts 2.41, etc., or were received as in 2 Corinthians 6.
17, but this being built, added, or received was not final, for what
they did in going forth to Him they must continue to do; thus we
have the exhortation - "Let us therefore go forth unto Him without
the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13.13).
For such a
separated, added or built together people the Lord has gone into
God's presence as High Priest and they are and will continue to be
God's house if they hold fast their boldness and the glorying of
their hope firm unto the end.
The coming again of the Lord is also
the hope of God's saints, but Hebrews 3.6 is the "going in" hope,
not the hope of His "coming out."
The hope of the Lord in the
presence of God is called "a better hope" and such a hope is an
"anchor of the soul" (Hebrews 7.19; 6.18,19).
Heb3v7,8,9,10,11
This is a citation from Psalm 95.7-11 which shows the unique
opportunity given to Israel in the days of David, in the revival in
the early part of His reign, when Israel brought up the Ark of the
Covenant from the house of Abinadab in the Hill (1 Chronicles 13.
1-14; 15.1-29), where it had been for many years (1 Samuel 7.1),
subsequent to the disastrous days of Eli when the Ark was taken by
the Philistines.
The day of forward movement in David's time is
contrasted with the backsliding of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea (Numbers
14), when Israel refused to go into the land of Canaan and turned
back in heart into Egypt.
These same men from twenty years old and
upwards, who had been numbered, had said, "All that the LORD hath
spoken we will do" (Exodus 19.8; 24.3), but they disbelieved in the
LORD, disobeyed His word, and perished in the wilderness.
This
erring people who never learned God's ways, and in consequence
failed to enter God's rest in the land (Deuteronomy 12.9), is held
up by David as a solemn warning and example of the results of
disobedience, and if Israel heard God's voice in his time he
exhorted them not to repeat the folly of that past day.
Happily
Israel in David's day heard God's voice, obeyed, and went forward
into times of prosperity and greatness during the reigns of David
and Solomon, times which were never equalled in the history of
Israel.
Such are some of the fruits of obedience.
This quotation is the voice of the Holy Spirit to God's people and
is used as His message to such as were in His house.
If they
should harden their hearts against the voice of God then disaster
would overtake them, as it did Israel in the wilderness, but if they
went forward as in the days of David then God's rest and its blessed
possibilities would be theirs.
Heb3v12
Unbelief has dogged the footsteps of mankind since Eden's garden,
and is the root cause of all disasters which have overwhelmed the
race and individual men thereof.
In the case of Israel in the
wilderness the cause of their disobedience was that they judged
things by the sight of their eyes and not by the hearing of faith.
Giants and fenced cities filled their minds with fear and they
disbelieved in Jehovah their God and in His power to bring them into
the promised land; in Him who had with a mighty hand and
outsretched arm saved them from the power of Pharaoh, and had fed
them with Manna, and turned the flinty rock into a pool of water.
Their present trial shut out the remembrance of past deliverances.
We too need to take heed lest we also fall away from the living God,
the God of the house of God (1 Timothy 3.15).
A living God is ever
the object of a living faith; He is the God of such as live by
faith.
If our faith becomes a dead faith (James 2.14-26), we shall
surely, as dead leaves fall from a living tree, fall away from the
living God, yet we may have a name that we are alive, though we are
dead (Revelation 3.1).
Heb3v13
How blessed is the ministry of a day-by-day exhortation or
encouragement!
Happy is it, too, where it is mutual - "one
another" - and not one continually exhorting the rest.
It is to go
on so long as it is called "today," which is the present day of our
life's opportunity, and the object of it is "lest any one be
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
Sin deceives men so
thoroughly that they believe that their best interest is served and
their happiness lies in its service.
Sin hardens the heart against
the word of God in its commands, its warnings and pleadings.
Heb3v14
Partakers (Metochoi) is the same word as "fellows" in Hebrews 1.9
and "partakers" (3.1).
They would cease to be the fellows of
Christ if they failed to hold fast the beginning of their confidence
to the end, for in the beginning their confidence was such that they
took joyfully the spoiling of their possessions, knowing that they
had a better possession and an abiding one (Hebrews 10.34).
Heb3v15
Here the present opportunity of "today" is again emphasized and the
seriousness of hardening the heart against God's voice.
Heb3v16
Rebellion against God's word is the worst of offences.
The word
provoke is from the word Parapikraino which means "to render bitter,
" which comes from Para, beside and Pikros, bitter, and shows the
embittered state of the hearts of the men of Israel against the word
of God; their bitterness and rebellion God could never forget.
He
had not forgotten His experience with Israel even in David's time.
Heb3v17
Throughout the whole of the forty years of their wilderness journey
God was displeased with His people.
He was displeased
(Prosochthizo, grieved or disgusted with, detested or abhorred) with
all the men of Israel who were numbered and sinned, save Caleb and
Joshua, who only (the tribe of Levi to which Moses and Aaron
belonged was not numbered with these) of all the vast number of 603,
550 (Exodus 38.25-28; Numbers 2.32) entered God's rest in the land
of Canaan.
All the rest knew not God's ways.
Heb3v18
The A.V. says, "to them that believed not."
The word is
Apeithesasin, which comes from A, not, Peitho, to persuade, and
shows that despite all that the LORD and His servants said to Israel
they refused all persuasion; the word of God fell on deaf ears, and
rebellious and bitter hearts, and in consequence God in His wrath
swore that they should not enter His rest.
Heb3v19
Israel's disobedience arose from their lack of faith (Apistian,
unbelief, from A, no, or without, Pistis, faith); they disbelieved
God and His word, hence their failure to enter the land.
THE
REST
OF
GOD
In Matthew 11.28,29 we have two different aspects of Rest:(1) "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heaven laden, and I
will give you rest."
(2) "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
The first rest is rest from labour, the second is for the soul
through labour.
The LORD gives to the believer rest from his
burden of sin, and then gives Him a burden to bear in His service.
His is a light burden and an easy yoke.
In verse 28 it is the verb
Anapauo, which, according to Dr. Strong, means: "to repose, to
refresh, take ease, refresh (give, take) rest."
In verse 29 it is
the noun Anapausis, which comes from the verb Anapauo, and the
meaning given by Dr. Strong is: "intermission, rest."
In Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 we have a third aspect of rest:
(3) "We which have believed do enter into that rest" (Hebrews 4.3).
Rest here is Katapausis, which Dr. Strong describes as: "resting
down, i.e. (by Hebrew) abode, rest."
The verb Katapauo means "to settle down."
(restrained), Hebrews 4.4,8,10.
See Acts 14.18
The only other mention of the noun Katapausis in the New Testament,
besides its frequent use in Hebrews 3 and 4, is in Acts 7.49, where
it is associated with God's place of rest, when the Lord said, "Your
house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23.38), and Stephen truly
said that now the most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands"
(Acts 7.48).
Then where is the place of His rest now?
It is in
the house that is described in Hebrews 3.6, over which Christ is as
Son - "Whose house are we, if we hold fast."
What is said of God's
rest in Hebrews 3 and 4 is all in association with God's rest in His
house.
Heb4v1
Here it is anticipated that though the numbered men of Israel failed
to enter in through unbelief, the promise is left so that others by
faith may enter God's rest.
The promise is here brought up to date
- "lest haply ... any one of you should seem to have come short of
it."
The very appearance of having come short is to be dreaded.
To have come short signifies abiding failure, even as in the
sinner's case with reference to salvation: "All have sinned, and
fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3.23).
Faith is necessary
to salvation and faith is necessary so that the people of God may
enter God's rest.
Heb4v2
This is not the good tidings of the gospel for the sinner, but the
good tidings of the rest of God for the saint.
They had the good
tidings of the land of Canaan, God's rest for Israel, preached to
them by Joshua and Caleb, but that "word of hearing" did not profit
them, and the reason given was because "it was" not united or mixed
with faith in the hearers.
Though "it was" may not be so well
attested by authorities as "they were," it seems to convey the
correct meaning.
The preachers were Joshua and Caleb, the hearers
the men of Israel, but there was no fusion, no union formed, in the
hearers' hearts between the message and their faith.
God's word
must mix with faith in the hearer's heart if it is to become an
integral part of his being, as, for instance, in the parable in
Matthew 13 the Lord speaks of "he that was sown among thorns" verse
22), "he that was sown upon good ground" (verse 23), where the plain
meaning is - the word of God which was sown in individual hearts in
which it took root and grew.
The Israelites exercised no faith in the good tidings, hence the
word did not profit them.
Heb4v3
"We ... do enter," not "did enter."
The entrance into God's rest
is never a completed thing, that we need never fear lest we fall
away.
That is true of salvation; we can rejoice that we have been
saved and that we shall never perish, but it is not so with God's
rest, which is dependent on a continuous faith in the promise that
is left, which comes to us in the ever present "Today" in which the
living God speaks to us - "Today if ye shall hear His voice, harden
not your hearts."
True, the works were finished then, for God had wrought six days and
finished the work.
He had created and made, and then rested the
seventh day; but unbelief entered and then disobedience, and so
God's rest was disturbed, which necessitated His beginning to work
again.
Just as the rest of creation was lost through the sin of
unbelief, so also was the rest of the land lost to the men of Israel
through unbelief, for God sware in His wrath that they should not
enter.
Heb4v4,5
Here we see a portion of time (the seventh day) united with a
portion of land (Canaan, God's rest).
After the work of six days,
the sabbath day is entered, and after the afflictions of Egypt and
the trials of the wilderness, they were to enter the land.
Wherein
lay the difference between that day and land and other days and
lands?
The sun shone on other days as it did on the sabbath; all
nature acted on the seventh day as it did on the other six, and
other lands were beautiful and fertile like the land of Canaan.
The distinction was in the choice of God and His hallowing a day and
a land.
The seventh day was a holy day, and the land of Canaan a
holy land.
In each they were by faith to rest with God in His rest.
"If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the
holy of the LORD honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thine
own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own
words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD" (Isaiah 58.13,
14).
Sabbatic rest was to be enjoyed by the land as well as by the
people, and when the sabbatic rest was broken the people were
carried to Babylon till the land had enjoyed her sabbaths.
No human labour could turn another land into a Canaan and make it
the place of God's rest, and men must not change the calendar and
substitute another day for the seventh.
By divine choice this day
and this land were God's rest.
Heb4v6,7
God did not penalize all because of the disobedience of certain,
though many may suffer through the disobedience of others.
God
does grant times of revival, though there may be long intervals
between.
"After so long a time" covers a period of fully five
hundred years, from the time of the rejection of the land till the
time of the bringing up of the Ark.
Psalm 95, though not stated to
be a psalm of David, is nevertheless shown here to be his.
Israel,
on their knees before God, are caused to look back to the disastrous
failure in the wilderness, and to think of the present opportunity
of bringing up the Ark to the place of God's rest in Zion (Psalm 132.
8,13,14).
They heard God's voice and entered into God's rest, now
seen to be associated with His house, the place of His rest (Isaiah
66.1,2; Acts 7.49).
It is ever "today" however often men may have heard God speak in the
past; His word like an ever-flowing stream is with us today.
However many may have looked into the clear waters of the river of
God's word and have been blessed, yet, though they have gone, His
word flows on, ever murmuring its sweet lay, "To-day, as it hath
been before said, To-day, if ye shall hear His voice."
Heb4v8
The R.V. helpfully substitutes Joshua for Jesus, which is the Greek
form of his name.
See R.V. marg.
How did Joshua fail to give the
people rest though they were in the land?
The answer is that they
disobeyed God, as shown in the beginning of Judges.
"And it came
to pass, when Israel was waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites
to task work, and did not utterly drive them out" (Judges 1.28).
And God said to them, "I will not drive them out from before you;
but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a
snare unto you" (Judges 2.3).
From Joshua to Saul the record of
Israel is an exceedingly chequered one.
Even the brightest spots,
when deliverance was granted from oppressing foes, reveal little
acknowledgement of God or praise to Him for His goodness.
The sin
of unbelief wrought havoc amongst God's people, and again and again
they rebelled against Him.
But God had another and better day in
view, a day when He would speak to them in David.
Heb4v9
This sabbatic rest or sabbatism remains, and note it is for a people
- the people of God.
It was presented and refused by the people of
God in the wilderness: the people of God after Joshua's time failed
to enjoy it through their wilful disobedience, but the people of God
in David's time heard, believed and obeyed, and brought up the Ark
to God's rest in Zion, and began to go up on the highways to Zion to
praise Him in His holy hill.
The sabbatic rest remains for us, for
God's gathered people.
It is not a rest for the isolated
individual, but for a together-folk, for those who are the house of
God - "whose house are we" (Hebrews 3.6).
This rest is not contemplated as primarily relating to the Milennium
or Heaven, but is associated with "Today if ye shall hear His voice,
" and with our responsibility not to harden our hearts.
Heb4v10
To be in God's rest, God's house, is a matter of faith and not of
works.
Our works do not make that in which we are.
When men
reached the sabbath day they ceased work, they saw that that day was
different, not that it was different because the sun was brighter,
or that all animated nature rested, but because God had hallowed
it.
They believed God, and so they ceased from toil and rested.
The true Israelite believed Canaan was God's land and rest, and he
also believed that Zion was the place of God's choice, His
resting-place.
So also those who are in God's house, if they would
continue to be in the place of God's choice, must continue to hold
the beginning of their confidence.
From the day that doubts and
unbelief enter the heart and those in God's house begin to question
whether they are in the place God would have them be, they are found
standing in slippery places.
No amount of filling their hands with
work, so that they may not be occupied with doctrine, and with what
may be regarded by some to be the dry bones of a divine position,
can maintain them in such a position.
Faith alone can maintain a
person in God's house.
Many have never seen the place of God's
rest, and others have despised it, but happy are those who by
revelation have seen it and who are able to say, "How lovely are Thy
tabernacles O LORD of Hosts!" (Psalm 84.1), and again, "One thing
have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell
in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27.4).
Heb4v11
Those who are in God's kingdom must through many tribulations
continue to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14.22).
Those who have
gone forth to be with the Lord in His rejection must continue to go
forth - "Let us go ... forth" (Hebrews 13.13).
Those who are in
God's house must continue coming to the living Stone to be built up
a spiritual house (1 Peter 2.5).
And those who have known God's
rest must give diligence to enter His rest.
There is no standing
still.
Those who stand still will be left behind.
God ever
advances, and His people must follow on.
We must hold fast the
beginning of our confidence and the boldness and glorying of the
hope firm unto the end.
We must hear His voice today, and be
diligent in faith to enter His rest.
The disobedience and failure
of Israel is ever held up by the Spirit as a warning to us.
Heb4v12
The Speaker is the living God, and His word a living word; it is
charged with divine life.
It is not only living, but full of
untiring activity; ceaseless in its energy.
It is sharper than
the keen edges of a two-edged sword.
It is so sharp and piercing
that it can divide what no human intellect can ever divide between the soul and the spirit of man.
Men say that the soul and spirit
are but one, but the word of God distinguishes the one from the
other and divides them.
It can also divide betwen the joints and
the marrows.
Men may divide the joints, but God's work is keener
than men's knives and lances. It is a discerner also of the
thoughts of men and what they intend to do.
How keen is its
criticism!
How just its judgement!
Heb4v13
The word of God by an over-mastering and irresistible power lays
open the inner secrets of the heart before God.
It enters into the
inner recesses of the heart.
No bars or bolts can withstand its
penetrating power, and, after discerning our state exactly, it
brings us into the light of day before Him to whom our account must
be made.
The word of God truly finds us out, and we know it.
We
are stripped and the mask of unreality is torn away.
Happy are
those who have ceased to criticise the word of God and who allow the
word to criticise them.
Heb4v14
Having shown in chapter 2.18 that we have a High Priest to succour
us in temptation, and shown too in chapters 3 and 4 the dangers of
unbelief, of falling away from the living God, the God of the house
of God, and also from His house, His rest, the writer brings us
back again to the High Priest.
Despite our weakness and the
proneness of our hearts to unbelief, and despite the fact that our
inmost thoughts are known to God, which we realise through the
piercing criticism of His word, we have the strong and kindly
succour of Jesus the Son of God, a Divine-human High Priest, One
whose power as God is mingled with the sympathy of Man.
Having
such a great High Priest let us pick up courage, and "let us hold
fast our confession."
Such an One has passed through the Heavens
and penetrated right "into heaven itself, now to appear before the
face of God for us" (Hebrews 9.24).
Our need as a failing, feeble
people is adequately met in Him.
Heb4v15
The exaltation of the Lord to glory has not cut the tender ties of
His sympathy for His own.
He can never forget them, nor can He
forget the days of His own temptations in the days of His flesh.
He remembers how in the days of hunger He was tempted to make stones
into loaves of bread; with a path of suffering before Him He was
tempted to take a short and easy (but disastrous) way to the seat of
power.
Even the daring Peter, used by Satan and speaking his
words, sought to turn Him aside from the paths of suffering and
faithfulness to the Father's will; "Be it far from Thee, Lord: this
shall never be unto Thee" (Matthew 16.22).
He was tempted to give up the path of faithfulness, from hearing the
word of God from day to day - "Today if ye shall hear His voice."
"In all points," there is no point in obedience to God upon which
Satan did not challenge the Lord and on which he will not challenge
us.
The Lord knows our weakness, our infirmity to doubt God ("This
is my infirmity," said Asaph of old, Psalm 77.10), and He is touched
upon the throne of heaven. In His case there was no traitorous,
unbelieving heart in the camp to deal with, no depravity in His holy
flesh.
No temptation in His case ever issued in sin; this seems
to be the meaning of "without sin," though some may prefer to think
of these words as indicating that He was never tempted from sin in
His nature, as we are, for He was sinless.
"In Him is no sin" (1
John 3.5), and He was the only man "who did no sin" (1 Peter 2.22).
Heb4v16
Because we have One so powerful and so sympathetic towards such as
suffer from so great and many infirmities, let us draw near with
boldness unto the throne of grace.
This is not a throne set as a
judgement-seat from which justice is dispensed, but one where the
failing may receive mercy for failure and grace to help them to
overcome in times of need and trial.
This is God's Mercy Seat in
the present dispensation.
Here the High Priest pleads the merits
of His own great sacrifice to meet the need of all who in faith
would maintain His truth and hold fast their confession.
Heb5v1
This clearly indicates the position and work of a high priest.
He
was once among men, one of them, and then he is taken from among
those men by God and appointed for them in things that are towards
or that relate to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Heb5v2
Every high priest of Aaron's line could bear gently or exercise
forbearance, not that they always did so, with the ignorant and
erring (not with the rebellious or the presumptuous; wilful sin
could not be atoned for), for they were themselves men of like
passions and compassed with infirmity or weakness as the people were
on whose behalf they served God.
Heb5v3
Being liable to sin, the priest was provided for by God in the
priestly sin-offering.
He had to offer for himself as well as for
the people.
This is clearly seen on the day of atonement
(Leviticus 16).
Heb5v4
No high priest took such honour or appointed himself, to the
priesthood, no one was ever self-elected to the honour of being high
priest.
Their appointment was by a Divine call.
This comes out
in the case of Korah's rebellion and is seen in Aaron's rod that
budded (Numbers 16 and 17).
Heb5v5,6
Here are the words of Divine appointment.
Christ is not
self-appointed as High Priest, but God-appointed.
But we must
distinguish between His Sonship and His Priesthood.
He was born a
Son, but He was made a priest.
He was a Son from all eternity, but
He was made a priest by the word of the oath in resurrection in the
power of an endless life.
Heb5v7
Christ attained perfection to fit Him for the High Priest's office
through His suffering in the days of His flesh.
The high priests
of Israel bore with the ignorant and erring because they found in
themselves the same weaknesses and tendencies to sin, but the Lord
can bear gently because of His experience in the scene of His
suffering.
Here He offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears.
He, the Man Christ Jesus, did not receive
special consideration because He was the eternal Son.
God heard
His prayer because of His godly fear.
His prayer to God was that
God would save Him "out of" death, not from going to death.
"Not
My will, but Thine be done" was the true spirit of His whole life.
Heb5v8
The Son was ever one who rendered perfect obedience to the Father.
But though still the Son, yet as Man, He learned in a scene of
disobedience what obedience meant, and how great was the cost of
obedience to God on earth.
It is not that He learned to be
obedient; to be obedient was His very nature, but He who is perfect
in knowledge, learned what obedience meant in this scene of
rebellion, and it cost Him many a sorrow and many a tear.
Even
when yielding to God in the last great act of obedience to God, for
He was obedient unto death, He was reproached by His foes, and
reproach broke His heart, but He had learned all there is to know in
the meaning of the word "obedience."
He learned by the things that
He suffered.
Heb5v9
The perfect Sufferer was made perfect through His sufferings.
"Author" here is not the same as "Author" in chapter 2.10.
There
it is Archegos, "chief leader, author, captain, prince."
Here it
is Aitios, "author or causer."
To all who obey Him with the
"obedience of faith" (Romans 1.5), Christ is the Cause of eternal
salvation.
Heb5v10
He has not only been "called of God," but He has been "named" or
saluted.
He has been spoken to by God.
In Psalm 110 we have two
statements associated with the LORD's resurrection, the first
relating to authority, the second to His priesthood.
"The LORD
saith unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand" (verse 1), "Thou art
a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
What a moment
that must have been in the glory when the Father so addressed the
Son, when He was made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2.36) and saluted
and so constituted High Priest!
Heb5v11
The things were concerning Melchizedek and consequently related to
Christ who was after Melchizedek's order.
The great mysteries of
His priesthood require quick hearing and lively faith.
The writer
found it difficult to explain what he wanted to say owing to their
dullness or sluggishness.
Heb5v12
Things pertaining to Christ's priesthood are for advanced scholars,
which they ought to have been considering while they had been under
Divine instruction.
Indeed they should not have been merely
scholars, they should have advanced to being teachers of others.
They had so squandered their time that they even needed someone to
teach them the rudiments, the most elementary things of the
Christian faith, the rudiments of the first principles.
The first
principles are mentioned in chapter 6.1,2.
The oracles of God are
New Testament oracles, the word spoken in the Son, the great
salvation.
Their infantile state is clearly indicated in the fact
that they were in need of milk and not of solid food.
They were as
mere "sucklings."
Heb5v13
A babe is without experience in the word of righteousness; he is
unskilled to divide rightly the word of truth.
How much havoc has
been wrought by spiritual babes presuming to handle matters for
which they have no competence!
Many have been drowned by wading
beyond their depth.
Let the babes have milk by all means, but
they ought not always to be kept in that state; they should have
food of the word of righteousness as they can bear it.
Heb5v14
Full growth or perfection is attained by exercise: it is so
physically, and so too in the exercise of the faculties of spiritual
intelligence.
Continual training enables a person to discard the
evil and select the good.
This perception is never more needed
than in reading men's writings.
How much that is read is like the
clay from the diamond mine, it has to be dumped, and for all our
labour how infrequently we get a gem!
Babes would be well advised
to stick to the pure fountain of Divine truth in the Scriptures for
some time, before they read much from the pens of men.
Learn truth
and then you will easily discard error, having had your senses
exercised.
Heb6v1
Because he had begun to speak of the more advanced things of the
word of Christ, he would not have them to return to the beginning,
but rather to press on to perfection, or full growth, to a perfect
spiritual understanding of His word and doctrine.
They had already
laid a foundation of repentance which could never make alive
(Galatians 3.21), ordinances which were in themselves weak and
beggarly (Hebrews 9.14; Galatians 4.9); they had turned from these
to faith in the living God.
The bondage of legalism of the past
was an unbearable burden (Acts 15.10) and men of faith must have
longed for the day of Christ's appearing.
Now that Christ had
come, faith in God shook itself free of the rites and ceremonies of
the law.
Heb6v2
Baptisms: Such baptisms are mentioned in the New Testament as
John's baptism, the baptism of the Lord's disciples, the Lord's
baptism on the Cross, baptism in the Holy Spirit, besides the
"baptisings (or washings) of cups and pots and brazen vessels" (Mark
7.4) by the Pharisees.
We have also reference made to the baptism
of Israel in the Red Sea, and of Noah being saved through water,
which is a true likeness of baptism.
Baptism, which comes from
Bapto, to dip, ever signifies a dipping or immersing, never
sprinkling.
Baptism in water is a figure of death and resurrection
and should take place in the case of disciples at the beginning of
their spiritual life.
It is one of the plainest of the Lord's
commands (Matthew 28.18-20; Acts 2.37-42; 10.44-48).
Laying on of hands: In Leviticus 16.21 Aaron was commanded to lay
both his hands on the head of the scapegoat, and the elders were to
lay their hands on the head of the sin offering for the people
(Leviticus 4.15), and thus they became identified with these
offerings.
In the New Testament men who laid their hands on others
(Acts 8.18; 13.3; 19.6; 1 Timothy 4.14) identified themselves with
them, whether in the matter of the gift of the Holy Spirit or in
connexion with the service of God.
Resurrection of the dead: The resurrection of the dead is
definitely one of the first principles of Christ.
He taught both
resurrection from the dead (Luke 20.35), of those that are His (1
Corinthians 15.13), and then after the thousand years of His reign
on earth (Revelation 20.6) the resurrection of all the dead (John 5.
28,29).
Eternal judgement: Eternal judgement is also one of the fundamental
principles of the Lord's teaching, for speaking of Himself as the
King who shall judge the nations of the earth, He said, "These shall
go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal
life" (Matthew 25.46).
Heb6v3
The writer was not for the present, in view of the danger of falling
away that seemed to exist in certain cases, going to relay the
foundation already laid, but at some future time, if necessity
existed, and if God permitted, he was willing to do so; for when
men have fallen away it is impossible to renew them again unto
repentance.
Heb6v4,5
Those who are here described were not mere professors; they had
been definitely enlightened.
Words could not make the reality of
the new birth more certain.
Who but true believers are made
partakers of the Holy Spirit and taste of the good word of God?
Theirs was no fleeting ecstasy of passing emotion.
Heb6v6
The falling away here was not from relationship to Christ, which can
never take place, but from a position of responsibility in testimony
for Him.
These believers had once taken their stand for Him in the
house of God, but, alas, they fell away from the living God (Hebrews
3.12), the God of the house of God (1 Timothy 3.15), and ceased to
be partakers of Christ (Hebrews 3.14).
To themselves they
crucified the Son of God afresh; they did what the world did once,
which refused God's chosen Ruler and crucified the King; they
turned their back on Him who rules over the house of God (Hebrews 3.
5,6), who fills a similar place in our day relative to God's house
to that of faithful Moses in the past (though we need to observe the
force of the prepositions "in" and "over" of verses 5 and 6).
They
despised His authority and exposed Him to shame in their life,
habits and conversation, the One whom they ought to have sanctified
in their hearts as Lord.
Each one who falls away does this in his
measure, but the Jewish believer did so more especially, having
regard to the awful depths of unbelief into which the Jewish nation
had fallen and from which faith in the word of God brought him.
Help will be derived if reference is made to Judas Iscariot. Judas
was ever "a devil" (John 6.70); he was never other than an
unregenerate man, but Peter said of him that he had a "place in this
ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away."
He fell away
from a place of service and testimony, but never from relation to
Christ, for Judas Iscariot never was one of Christ's.
So also the
apostle Paul said of his place as a servant - "lest by any means,
after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected"
(1 Corinthians 9.27).
"The while" of the R.V. marg. may seem to hold out hope of the
restoration of those who fall away, but the text of the R.V. more
correctly explains the meaning of the original - "seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh."
Alford reinforces
this when he renders the meaning here by the words - "crucifying as
they do."
No hope of restoration is held out in the passage.
Heb6v7,8
Those who fell away are illustrated here by unfruitful land which is
irresponsive and unproductive despite the tillage of man and the
blessing of God in plenteous rainfall.
After all the toil and
blessing it has received it bears only thorns and thistles; what
can be done to such land? - "it is rejected"!
The word "rejected"
here (Adokimos) is exactly the same word as the apostle uses in 1
Corinthians 9.27 to which we have already alluded, "lest ... I
myself should be rejected."
Note that it is said to be "nigh unto
a curse," but it is not accursed, "whose end is to be burned."
Land itself is never burned, it is ever the weeds it produces that
are burned, such things as are indicated here by thorns and
thistles.
Note how the believer's carnal works are burned in 1
Corinthians 3.15 - "If any man's works shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved: yet so as through fire.
"
So is it in Hebrews 6, where it is not the eternal security of
the believer that is dealt with, but his falling away and his
unfaithfulness in Divine service.
Heb6v9
How gracious is the apostle's spirit, that though he writes in a
warning tone he thinks better of them, though he has alluded to
certain who had fallen away!
Note how he writes not of salvation,
but of things that accompany, are next to, or are bordering on,
salvation.
it is not of the eternal security of the believer he
writes, but of such things as service and fruit-bearing which
accompany salvation, things that should not be divorced from
salvation and accounted of little importance.
Heb6v10
God is not unrighteous to forget, like the butler in the story of
Joseph (Genesis 40.23), the work of His saints, nor their love in
ministering to the needs of others.
Such love is declared to be
toward His name.
God has a book of remembrance and He will
recompense His saints. Such service is amongst the things that
accompany salvation.
Heb6v11,12
The apostle earnestly desires a continuance of the work and loving
ministry of the saints to which he refers in the previous verse.
Their diligence in this service was not to be one sided, but mutual
- "that each one of you may show the same diligence."
"Unto the fulness of hope" shows the place that the promises of God
have in relation to the ministry of the saints.
Paul writes to the
Colossian saints of their love toward each other: "Having heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all
the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in the
heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel."
The more brightly this hope burns within us the more will
we give ourselves to ministry to others, and the more we are taken
up with earthly and worldly things the less will we serve others, and
we shall become like the man with the muck-rake in Bunyan's allegory.
Faith and hope eliminate sluggishness from the believer, for it is
through faith and patience the heirs inherit the promises.
Heb6v13,14
God having promised to Abraham a son, even Isaac, and also that He
would give him innumerable seed by that son (who is a type of Christ
the promised Seed), He reinforced the promise by the word of the
oath.
He could not swear by one greater so He sware by Himself for
the encouragement to patient endurance on the part of His friend
Abraham, whom He would bless and multiply.
Heb6v15
The promise that he obtained was in the birth of Isaac, his promised
son, in whom his seed was called.
Note the contrast between this
and Hebrews 11.13, where it is said, "These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them
from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth."
Here the promises are associated with "a
country of their own," but in Hebrews 6.15 the promise was obtained
by Abraham in the birth of Isaac, through whom Abraham would obtain
seed as numerous as the stars of heaven, the sand upon the sea
shore, and the dust of the earth.
Heb6v16
"The greater" is one greater than man and refers to God Himself.
The oath is the end of all strife or disputation or gainsaying of
men, for the purpose of confirmation to which all disputants
consent.
Human disagreement should end when men swear by the
Greater.
Heb6v17
If men find the end of gainsaying in the word of the oath,
how much more should the heirs of the promise be settled in mind;
the word of the oath should silence for ever the disturbing voice of
unbelief, for God has put Himself under oath; he interposed
(mediated R.V.marg.), that is, came in as a middle person, as it
were, between Himself and Abraham.
God previously made promise to
Abraham, then He sware to what He had before promised. He promised
Abraham seed by Isaac, but when Isaac had passed through death (as
in a figure) and had been raised again on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22.
16-18), he interposed with an oath.
KLA24
Heb6v18
The two immutable things are the promise and the oath.
The promise
was made prior to the death and resurrection (in figure) of Isaac,
and the oath subsequent to his figurative death and resurrection.
In these things, the promise and the oath, it is impossible for God
to lie.
Not only had the heirs, the men of faith, of past days
strong encouragement, but we also have strong encouragement in the
immutability of Divine counsel, we who in the present storms of
unbelief have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before
us.
"The hope" here is what we may call "the going in" hope, and
refers to the Lord entering as a priest into God's presence for His
people.
It is the same hope as Hebrews 3.6 and Hebrews 7.19 - "a
better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God."
God, who had
promised much in Christ, swore, after His Son had gone through death
and had been raised again, saying,
"The Lord sware and will not repent Himself,
Thou art a priest for ever"
(Hebrews 7.21).
From the disputes of men and from every stormy wind that blows the
heirs should find refuge through God's immutable counsel in the High
Priest who has gone into God's presence for them.
To Him they
should hold fast.
Heb6v19
The High Priest, who is the hope of God's people, is an anchor of
the soul.
A ship in a storm does not cast anchor, it flees for
refuge, and when it reaches calmer waters then it drops its
anchor.
So the saint who is compared here to a vessel finds in
Christ an anchor of the soul.
The ship's anchor when cast is
unseen; it is veiled from the sailor's eyes; it is far below in the
deep waters beneath; but the anchor of the soul is far above in the
heights of heaven at God's right hand.
Though He is out of sight,
He is not out of reach by faith; faith can make contact, it can lay
hold of Him, and can know by real experience His power to keep.
The
Lord is within the veil and we are without, but our anchor cannot
drag, so we are safe, and safe so long as we hold fast.
He who
saved us once for all from eternal destruction saves us day by day
as His people.
Heb6v20
"Whither" signifies "within the veil."
There Jesus entered as
forerunner.
The word forerunner was used of old of "scouts who
were sent out before an army" and "also of any others sent before.
"
As forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf.
He has become
High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
There He represents us
as is indicated in the words "for us" and he is "forerunner" as
showing that we are to follow.
Heb7v1
Melchizedek was a king-priest (Zechariah 6.13).
He was a king;
his authority had to be owned by those on whose behalf he ministered
as priest.
Just as in Israel, such as knew the value of Aaron's
priestly ministry had to obey the law of Moses.
"A man that hath
set at naught Moses' law dieth without compasssion on the word of
two or three witnesses" (Hebrews 10.28).
Aaron's priestly work at
the alter could never avail for the presumptuous and rebellious
sinner.
Even so is it today, the Lord must be sanctified in the
heart (1 Peter 3.15; Acts 2.36) and His authority owned (Matthew 28.
18-20), and His word obeyed (John 14.21-24), if the priestly work of
the Lord is to be known and enjoyed.
The fact that the Lord is
King as well as Priest carries with it very weighty responsibility
for us in regard to obedience to His word.
A king is God's
representative among men; a priest is men's representative before
God.
Melchizedek met Abraham at a unique time - when he was returning
from the slaughter of the kings, when he was weary with fighting and
marching, and when he was about to be tempted by the king of
Sodom.
In Genesis 14.17 we read that "the king of Sodom went out
to meet him," but ere he reached him, verses 18, 19 say, "And
Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine ... and he
blessed him."
Abraham was strengthened and blessed, and so
fortified to meet the temptation of the king of Sodom.
What a
picture of the Lord's work, He who is able to succour them that are
tempted (Hebrews 2.18)!
Heb7v2
The priest's work is seen in that (1) he succoured Abraham with
bread and wine; (2) he blessed Abraham of God Most High, Possessor
of heaven and earth; (3) he received a tenth of the chief spoils,
an offering to his God.
Such is also the work of our great High
Priest; He succours, He blesses, and He received the offerings of
His people to give to His God and Father.
The apostle interprets to us the meaning of Melchizedek's name King of righteousness; he was a righteous king; his name describes
his character.
Names were given as descriptive of persons and
things.
His sphere of rule was Salem, which means peace, therefore
peace was characteristic of his realm.
We need not enquire where
Salem was situated, whether it was Jerusalem or some other city.
The Holy Spirit wishes us to know the interpretation of his name and
his place.
He was king of righteousness and king of peace.
Heb7v3
In a book (Genesis) wherein we have fatherhoods and motherhoods, in
a book of generations and genealogies, this great person has none.
We need not try to get round to the back of the picture that God has
given us in Genesis 14 and ask whence he came and whither he went.
Where can we search for the genealogy of his father, or the pedigree
of his mother, nowhere but in the Scriptures and there he has
none.
He did not derive his priesthood from his father as the sons
of Aaron did from theirs; they had to be able to produce their
genealogy or they were deemed polluted and put from the priesthood
(Ezra 2.61-63).
As God, the Son has a Father but no mother, and as Man He had a
mother but no father.
Melchizedek has neither beginning of days nor end of life and is
made like unto the Son of God.
He is not declared to be the Son of
God; he is made like Him.
The term "made like unto the Son of
God" is associated with having neither beginning of days nor end of
life.
The Son of God has a Father.
He is the only begotten Son
of God.
But the Son of God has neither beginning nor end.
He is
the beginning and end, the first and the last, the Alpha and the
Omega (Revelation 22.13), as truly as His Father is (Revelation 1.8).
"This Melchizedek ... abideth a priest continually."
He comes into
view a priest in the full exercise of his office and passes from
view still a priest.
As long as we see him he is a priest and so
the Holy Spirit says that "he abideth a priest continually."
It is quite beside the mark to say that Melchizedek as a priest had
no father or mother in his office, but as a man he had both;
parents are ever the father and mother of a man, of a person, not of
an office; besides, it is a person who has, or has not, beginning
of days or end of life.
It should be remembered, too, that the omissions of Scripture are
important, as are also what God has inserted, and what God has
of purpose omitted, let no man supply.
Heb7v4
Abraham gave a tenth, this is the first mention of the tithe in
Scripture (Genesis 14.20).
There is no word for "man" (this man)
in the Greek.
The word Houtos refers back to the priest of the
previous verse.
It is the greatness and dignity of this priest
that the writer would emphasize who is above Aaronic priesthood.
Heb7v5
Of old the people brought the tithe to the sons of Levi and the
Levites gave a tithe of the tithe unto the priests (Numbers 18.
21-28), so that what Abraham gave, perhaps, voluntarily, the people
and the Levites were commanded in the law to give.
Heb7v6
A man, if he were of the Levitical family, because of his genealogy
could claim legally his share of the tithe, but here was
Melchizedek, receiving tithes of Abraham though he was not of the
Levitical line, and blessing Abraham to whom God had promised much,
for He had said "I will bless thee ... I will bless them that bless
the, and him that curseth thee will I curse" (Genesis 12.2,3).
Heb7v7
Melchizedek was in a position in which he could bestow blessing, for
he was priest of God Most High.
In his official position he was
"the better," and Abraham, who was already blessed with Divine
promises, was "the less."
Heb7v8
Here we are thrown back on verse 3 where it is stated that
Melchzedek is without end of life.
The Levites received tithes and
died, but Melchizedek received tithes but he liveth.
Hence the
conclusion of the following two verses:
Heb7v9,10
Just as we all were involved in the fall of Adam (we who have sprung
from him) though as yet unborn; so Levi, who was yet in Abraham's
loins, is involved in the giving of tithes to Melchizedek.
The
apostle here points out the exalted dignity of Melchizedek as a
priest in that Israel paid tithes to the Levites (who were dying
men), but the Levites paid tithes through Abraham (they paid tithes
of the tithe to Aaron or other high priest, but they also paid
tithes to a higher priest, a priest who lives) even to Melchizedek.
Heb7v11
Was there perfection under the Levitical priesthood?
The answer
is, no!
The sacrifices of the law could not take away sins or make
the worshipper perfect (Hebrews 10.1-4), and the ceremonials were
weak and beggarly (Galatians 4.9), "for the law made nothing
perfect" (Hebrews 7.19); hence the need for another priest to arise
of another order.
God can never be satsfied with anything that is
imperfect.
"It shall be perfect to be accepted" (Leviticus 22.
21).
Christ's one offering hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified (Hebrews 10.14).
Heb7v12
The priesthood of Aaron and his sons forms an integral part of the
law of Moses and the service of God involved in that law.
A new
order of priesthood requires a new law.
The law of Moses gives
place to the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9.21), otherwise called
the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ which was once for all given to
the saints (James 2.1; Jude 3).
Heb7v13,14
The Lord was precluded from priesthood on earth, being of Judah, the
royal tribe, and not of Levi, the priestly tribe.
The case of King
Uzziah is a striking proof of this, whom God smote with leprosy
because he dared to enter the sanctuary to burn incense on the
golden altar (2 Chronicles 26.16-21).
To Aaron and his sons, only,
pertained the right of priesthood and not to any man of Judah, even
though he were of David's royal line.
The transference of the priesthood from Levi and from the family of
Aaron to some other tribe and family in Israel would have availed
nothing.
There is a complete change in the priesthood and law.
Heb7v15
The fundamental change in things is clear, if a priest should arise
outside of the Aaronic line, a priest who is better than the priests
of Aaron's line, who will bring in a better order of things.
Heb7v16,17
Priests are made, not born.
The Lord is not begotten a priest,
whether we view Him either as the only begotten Son or as Man in
Bethlehem.
Aaron was made a priest, as were also his sons, after
the law of a carnal commandment.
Carnal is used here not in its
bad sense, as indicative of a fleshly, corrupt state of mind, but
it is used in the sense that the commandment was of force during the
tenure of the earthly life of a man in the flesh.
When life in the
flesh was over for a high priest then his place was taken by
another, who in turn was made priest after the same carnal
commandment.
In contrast to this the Lord is made a Priest "after
the power of an indissoluble (R.V.Marg.) life."
What a power such
a life is, over which death has no power!
Of old God silenced
rebellion in the camp of Israel concerning the priesthood of Aaron
by the fact that Aaron's rod budded.
His rod came to life amidst
eleven dead rods, typically foreshadowing what is indicated here,
that the Lord is priest in the power of an endless life.
This
clearly indicates that the Lord was made a priest after His death
and resurrection.
A priest of Melchizedek's order cannot die, for
it is witnessed of Melchidezek that he liveth (Hebrews 7.8).
Heb7v18
"Disannulling" means a putting away or aside.
A carnal commandment
must in its nature be a weak and useless thing, as all that pertains
to man's brief life in the flesh is.
Thus God has set aside the
law, His commandment which pertained to the appointment and service
of priests of the Aaronic order.
Heb7v19
The carnal commandment (the law which made nothing perfect), by
which priests were made, is put aside and the priest after
Melchizedek's order is appointed.
He is the better hope through
whom we draw nigh unto God.
The high priest of old was the one
through whom God's people Israel approached, for he carried them on
his shoulders and on his breast - written on the onyx stones and on
the stones of the breast plate (Exodus 28.6-30), but now as
Melchizedek is called "the better" as contrasted with Abraham and
Levi who was in his loins, so the hope in our great High Priest is
better.
This is the same "hope" as Hebrews 3.6; and 6.18,19, and
is the Priest who has been made and who has entered the presence of
God for us through whom we draw nigh unto God.
Christ has drawn
nigh to God through sacrifice and we draw nigh through Him and
through His sacrifice.
Heb7v20,21
We have here a striking distinction drawn between the Aaronic
priests and the Lord, who is after the order of Melchizedek. They
were made priests by law, but He is a priest by the word of the
oath.
The law made many men high priests, each being consecrated
to the priest's office as the first had been, but the word of the
oath makes one priest who had no predecessor and has no successor.
The Lord does not follow Melchizedek in his priestly office, for it
is witnessed of Melchizedek that he liveth (Hebrews 7.8).
If
Melchizedek had died and the Lord had taken his office then we
should have had what was true of the house of Aaron, but the Lord is
a priest after the order of Melchizedek of whom it is said that he
"abideth a priest continually."
The Lord was made a priest for
ever and God will never repent nor will He have any need to do so in
regard to what He has done.
We need no rods to be laid up before
the LORD, for the word of the oath is final (Hebrews 6.16), and the
Lord is the first to rise from the dead in immortality and He enters
His priesthood in the power of an indissoluble life.
Heb7v22
In the past economy God held the priest responsible for the carrying
out of the terms of the covenant.
He acted as the Trustee of a
will.
He was taken from among men and appointed for men in things
pertaining to God.
In the carrying out of his duties he had to be
faithful to the terms of the covenant.
In the covenant there was
gracious provision for the exercise of mercy in regard to those who
were defaulters, who had not rebelliously set aside the covenant.
God took him out from men as a surety: he bore the iniquity of the
holy things (Exodus 28.38) and the judgement of the children of
Israel (Exodus 28.30).
Even so is it with the Lord who is the
Surety of a better covenant.
How excellent is the change-over from
the past order of things, for in our High Priest we have "a better
hope" and He ministers according to "a better covenant" of which He
is the Surety!
How great is His suretiship!
The Aaronic priests
are only sureties for a time, but He is Surety for ever.
The Lord
is also the Mediator of the New Covenant.
Heb7v23,24
With the Aaronic priests in their earthly life in the flesh there
was no abiding, as David said when he gave to Solomon the pattern of
the house of God and the wealth he had prepared for the building of
it.
"For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as all our
fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is
no abiding" (1 Chronicles 29.15), but He who is a Priest for ever
abideth for ever.
There can be no death in the office of this
Melchizedek-Priest, hence, as the R.V.Marg. puts it, He "hath a
priesthood that doth not pass to another."
It is "inviolable" (R.V.
marg.).
Heb7v25
The R.V. marg. gives a better view of what is meant to be conveyed
by the word "uttermost" where it says "Gk. completely."
The
thought is of completeness rather than duration of time.
Christ
has a competence, ability, or power, to save, to rescue or deliver
everyone that is coming to God through Him.
Just as the Lord cannot
save a sinner who refuses to come at His invitation, so also the
saint cannot be saved by this High Priest unless he comes to God by
Him.
A prayerless saint is in a perilous position, but if he draws
near to God in prayer then there is one who makes intercession for
him and who ever lives to make intercession, the Priest, our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is before God's face.
Then let His people come
and continue coming for salvation and complete salvation will be
theirs.
Heb7v26
"Became us," that is, was fitting, suitable or right.
Then follows
the reasons why the Lord is so befitting in His Priesthood.
He is
holy.
In Acts 2.27 the same word is used, where He is called God's
"Holy One."
He is harmless; in Him is no bad quality or
disposition; He has no mischievous or harmful propensities.
He is
perfectly simple and sincere.
He is also undefiled; He is
unstained.
The word means not to be tinged, dyed or stained.
In
thought and word and deed He is undefiled and unsullied.
He was
separated "from the whole race and category of sinners."
He was so
different from all priests of Aaron's order who were sinful men
(some, alas, very sinful) who were sanctified or separated to the
priest's office.
These men had to offer a sin offering for
themselves first before they offered the offering for the people.
Sinful men were placed in a holy office by a law of a carnal
commandment, and with that state of things God found fault (Hebrews
8.7,8).
Our High Priest has become higher than the heavens, for He
has gone into the presence, and sat down on the right hand, of the
Majesty on high.
Heb7v27
There is no need for Him to offer a sacrifice for Himself, for the
simple reason that He was Himself the Sacrifice for others.
Had He
not been holy, harmless, undefiled, He could not have been the Lamb
of God, the Sin Bearer.
Some would make the shadows of the law the
exact resemblance of the antitypes.
But it is well to remember the
apostle's words - "The law having a shadow of the good things to
come, not the very image of the things," and it is fitting to apply
such a statement here in the answering of such a question.
Did the
Lord minister as a priest at His own sacrifice?
The answer is, no!
for the simple reason that the following verse and the previous
verses show that He was made a Priest by the word of the oath, when
He rose from the dead.
The Lord was the sacrifice and He offered
Himself as a sacrifice.
His sacrifice is once for all and needs not to be repeated, as the
Levitical offerings were.
Heb7v28
In this verse we have a summing up of what is given before in the
chapter.
The law, the carnal commandment, appointed men liable to
sin and death with all attendant infirmity, but the word of the oath
which God hath sworn hath appointed One who is a Son, not simply a
man or a servant, but one who is truly the Son of God, who has
passed through this earthly life and learned obedience by the things
that He suffered, and is by this perfected to become a Priest on
behalf of others.
Note how it says that the word of the oath is after the law, which
does not mean that it was spoken prophetically in David in Psalm 110
after the giving of the law by Moses.
The law obtained until the
Lord's death on Calvary.
The law finds its fulfilment and end in
Him.
In resurrection God swears and makes the Son a priest for
ever.
His priestly functions in this dispensation are associated
with the heavenly sanctuary and with God's people in His house.
Heb8v1
In the mass of spiritual argument which the apostle is setting
before his readers, he indicates that the chief point or sum of all,
is the fact that we have a High Priest who has sat down on the
throne of God.
Of old in the Tabernacle and the Temple there was
no seat for the high priest of Israel in the holy or most holy
place, but this High Priest, who is shown to be the Son (Hebrews 7.
28), has sat down in a place of equality with God.
The apostle
evidently joins verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 110 together and shows that
what is true of Him as Lord - "Jehovah saith unto my Adon (Lord),
sit Thou at My right hand" - is true equally of Him as Priest.
Heb8v2
He is a minister (Leitourgos - a public minister from Leitos,
public) of the Sanctuary or Holies (see Hebrews 9.8,12,24,25; 10.19;
13.11).
The Holies are described to be the true Tabernacle, not
that the Tabernacle in the wilderness in Moses' time was a false
one, but that the heavenly Tabernacle which the Lord pitches is the
ideal one, and that of Moses was but a copy and a shadow (Hebrews 8.
5).
The Holies of Moses' Tabernacle were like in pattern to the
true (Hebrews 9.24).
Heb8v3
Note how the words "for sins" (Hebrews 5.1) are omitted here.
In
His offering the gifts and sacrifices of God's people, the Lord
Jesus Christ does not offer sacrifices for sins.
His offering for
sin was done once for all (Hebrews 7.27; 9.12; 10.10). It is
fitting, nevertheless, that, as with the priest in the past, so with
the Lord our Priest today, He should have somewhat to offer.
See
Hebrews 13.15; 1 Peter 2.5, where the offering of the sacrifice of
praise is "through Him."
Heb8v4
As God never had two houses of God at one time, even so He had not
two orders of priesthood at one and the same time, nor had He two
forms of divine service going on concurrently.
Whilst the Lord was
on earth He went to the temple, but only to the Hieron, the temple,
including the whole buildings and courts, but He never entered the
Naos, the temple, the holy place and holy of holies, into which the
priests alone entered.
He never gave attendance at the altar.
The Lord did not commence His priestly service till He had
pronounced sentence on the temple in Jerusalem - "Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23.38) - and had died and been
raised from the dead, and entered the Holies of the true Tabernacle
(Hebrews 8.2; 9.11,12).
The apostle is most emphatic.
"If He were on earth, He would not
be a priest at all."
His priestly functions are associated with
the true Tabernacle, not with a copy, and thus we have the following
statement of those who offer according to the law.
Heb8v5
The Tabernacle that Moses made was a representation or delineation,
and a shadow of heavenly things, even of the things that pertain to
the sanctuary in the heavens.
What care Moses had to exercise, and
what faithfulness he exhibited in connexion with the building and
service of that earthly sanctuary!
God said of him, "He is
faithful in all Mine house" (Numbers 12.7; Hebrews 3.5).
That
Tabernacle is a parable for the time now present (Hebrews 9.9),
hence how careful the builders in the house of God today should be
that they build according to the pattern!
Many, alas, build, who
have never, we fear, seen the pattern, and what they build is not
God's house.
Heb8v6
"But now" is in contrast to "if He were on earth" of verse 4.
The
Lord has obtained a ministry (Leitourgia, public miistry, see verse
2) more excellent than that of the priests of the Aaronic order, and
as the ministry is more excellent so also is the covenant better of
which He is the Mediator.
The covenant is enacted upon better
promises, and the New Covenant contains such promises as that every
man shall "know the Lord ... from the least to the greatest of them,
" and again, "I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins
will I remember no more" (Hebrews 8.11,12).
Heb8v7
God made promise of a New Covenant in the dark days of apostasy in
the times of Jeremiah.
Complete failue had overwhelmed the nation
of Israel.
The ten tribes had been carried away by Shalmaneser
during the reign of Hezekiah to Assyria (2 Kings 18.9-12), and Judah
and Benjamin were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.
Midst the
prevailing darkness shines the gleam of hope of a New Covenant being
made with both houses of Israel.
It is like God who gives
oftentimes His brightest promises in darkest days.
He has sought
and found a place in the present dispensation and in the future
millennium for that new economy of things.
Heb8v8
The first covenant presented God's perfect standard of holiness and
righteousness with which man in the flesh was not able to comply;
by law came the knowledge of sin and when the law entered sin became
exceeding sinful, but God could not present to man less than a
perfect standard.
Coupled with this was a system of sacrifices
which could never take away sins and make the worshippers perfect,
and which could only exist until a time of reformation.
The New Covenant will yet be made with Israel and Judah, but it is
also made with us, as witness what is said in Hebrews 10.14-18: "And
the Holy Spirit also beareth witness to us ..." "This is the
covenant that I will make with them."
What is true relative to the
Covenant is true of other things, such as the gift of the Holy
Spirit (Acts 2.16,17).
The use of Old Testament Scriptures in the
New Testament is an important and helpful study.
Heb8v9
At the time of the promise of a New Covenant Judah (and before that
Israel, the ten tribes) brought that part of their national history
to a close with all manner of abominable idolatry.
Josiah's short
reign was as a brief ray of sunshine between the darkness of
Manasseh's reign which preceded it (Amon's brief two years' reign
was like his father's) and the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah
which came after.
The words, "Thou shalt have none other gods
before Me" (Exodus 20.3) was as an idle tale.
"Thou shalt do no
murder" was also unheeded, for children who would naturally look to
their parents for love and kindness were cruelly butchered and burnt
in honour of the god Molech (2 Chronicles 28.3; 33.6).
Their last
act of callous treachery was to murder God's Holy Child (or servant)
Jesus.
God had drawn up a covenant which Israel agreed to keep,
but alas, from the very beginning, in the matter of the golden calf,
they continued not in His covenant.
In the New Covenant not only
will the terms be new, but also the whole nation, with whom the
covenant will be made, shall all know the Lord from the least to the
greatest, a fact which was not true of Israel under the law.
God disregarded that law-breaking nation; that is, he neglected or
did not care for them.
Since that time He has been carrying out
His purposes amongst the Gentiles.
But they are still beloved not for their own - but for the fathers' sake (Acts 15.14; Romans 11.
28).
Heb8v10
Under the New Covenant the repository of the law is not an acacia
ark overlaid with gold, now it is the hearts and minds of His
people.
Note how the heart and the mind are transposed in Hebrews
10.16, indicating that to write, or inscribe, the law on the heart
is the same as to put it there.
The Lord puts His laws into the
seat of intelligence - the mind, and into the seat of affection the heart, so that His people may serve Him intelligently and
lovingly.
God will only be the God of men (or of a people) who
receive His laws and obey them.
Note how in the case of obedient
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that God is not ashamed to be called their
God (Hebrews 11.16), and also how, at the second giving of the Law
(as well as at the first, Exodus 19 to 24) on the plains of Moab,
the LORD avouched Israel to be His people, and they avouched Him to
be their God, and this would only be true if they walked in His
ways, kept His statutes, His commandments, His judgements and
hearkened to His voice (Deuteronomy 26.16-19).
Many of God's
children understand something of God as a Father, but few know what
is meant by - "I will be to them a God", God who is the Object of
their worship because they obey His word which is written on the
heart.
See 2 Corinthians 3.1-11, where the church of God in
Corinth is spoken of as an epistle of Christ, because the word of
God was written by the Spirit of God upon hearts of flesh.
Each
church of God was to express in its own locality what was true of
God's people as a whole.
Heb8v11
This will be a happy day for Israel.
Every Israelite shall in that
day know the meaning of what Abraham their great forefather knew that a man is justified by faith apart from works (Genesis 15.6;
Romans 4.1-5); for it is said, "Thy people also shall be
all righteous" (Isaiah 60.21), and, not only so, but they shall go
on to know the LORD more fully, for it is also said of them: "All
thy children shall be taught of the LORD" (disciples, R.V. marg.)
(Isaiah 54.13).
The wicked amongst God's people of old persecuted
the righteous - "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to
slay him" (Psalm 37.32), but that day for Israel will be for ever
past.
Sectarianism today is much like the condition of things in Judaism
of old in the days of the Old Covenant, when those who knew God had
to teach their brother and fellow-citizen, "Know the Lord"; but
that state of things is not proper to the New Covenant, for under it
all know (by Divine revelation at the time of the new birth) the
Lord; this is one of the conditions of the New Covenant.
Alas,
what bondage believers are in who are joined with dead sinners in
church communion!
Let them come out from among them and be
separate, whether they have to leave other believers behind or
not.
Each one is responsible to hear and heed the word for
himself.
Believers know God as Samuel did - "by the word of the
LORD" (1 Samuel 3.21).
Two words are used in this passage for know.
"Know (Ginosko) the
Lord," and "All shall know (Oida) Me."
Of Ginosko and Oida it is
said, "The former signifies objective knowledge, what a man has
acquired."
"Oida conveys the thought of what is inward, the inward
consciousness of the mind, intuitive knowledge not immediately
derived from what is extrnal."
In the case of the knowledge of the
Lord (Oida) in this passage, that comes by the revelation of the
Lord to the heart of the believer, it is immediate, unlike the
thought in Ginosko, that which is learned over a period of time.
Heb8v12
How sweet is Divine forgiveness!
Everyone who is in relationship
with God in terms of the New Covenant is in the enjoyment of
forgiveness of sins.
In Israel the question of sin was ever
recurring, with the individual and with the nation. With the nation
there was a remembrance of sins year by year, on the day of
atonement (Hebrews 10.3), and the individual had to come as often as
he sinned, but now the sin question is settled once for all (Hebrews
10.9-18).
The believer is in the enjoyment of full and free
forgiveness (Acts 10.43; 13.38,39; Romans 4.1-8).
God has forgiven
and also blotted out the remembrance of the sinner's sins (Acts 3.
19).
Heb8v13
It is ever the new that makes another thing old.
God, by His word,
when He said, "A new" covenant, has enacted that the first is "the
old" covenant and so we too may rightly so speak of them.
Following on the entrance of the new into the activity of human life
the old began to show how true were the words of God.
It seemed
like old age in the presence of virile youth. It "is becoming old,"
"waxeth aged," and "is nigh unto vanishing away."
Such is the view
of the writer as he sees the Old Covenant in his day, for soon
after, the Temple, with its priests and its ritual of the past
economy, passed away in the destruction of the Temple by Titus, and
has never been restored.
Heb9v1
The first covenant, as well as the New Covenant, had ordinances
(things righteously appointed by God) of divine service (latreia).
The sanctuary wherein this divine service was performed was of this
world (in contrast to the heavenly sanctuary of chapter 8.5).
Heb9v2
Though the writer speaks of the Holy place as the first tabernacle
and the Holy of holies as the second, the book of Exodus speaks of
one tabernacle.
"Thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and couple
the curtains one to another with the clasps: and the tabernacle
shall be one" (Exodus 26.6). The writer makes no allusion to the
altar of incense being in the Holy place, only to the fact that the
lampstand and the table with the shewbread were there.
To describe the lampstand as a candlestick is entirely wrong, and
why the Revisers should perpetuate the error of the A.V. is hard to
understand.
The lampstand in the tabernacle upheld with its six
branches and central stem the seven lamps; there were no candles
either in the tabernacle or temple.
Heb9v3,4
The Holy Spirit, instead of using the word "wherein," as in verse 2
when He describes the furniture of the Holy place, uses the word
"having."
This may explain the difficulty in connexion with the
censer (or altar of incense, R.V.Marg.) being associated with the
ark of the covenant and the Holy of holies, and not with the Holy
place.
The altar of incense was placed in front of the veil in the Holy
place, and the word "having" shows that it belonged to the Holy of
holies.
This view of the use of the word "having" is strengthened
by what is said of the altar of incense in the Solomonic temple:
"And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was
finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he
overlaid with gold" (1 Kings 6.22).
A close connexion between the
ark and the altar of incense is also indicated by Exodus 30.6.
If the altar of incense had been placed in the Holy of holies the
priests would not have had access to it to burn incense when the
morning and evening sacrifices were offered at the time of prayer,
the high priest alone having access to the Holy of holies once in
the year.
Thus it was that though the altar belonged to the Holy
of holies, it was placed in the Holy place.
This seems to be the
explantion of what appears at first sight to be an apparent
discrepancy.
The ark of the covenant which belonged to the Holy of holies had its
place therein, "wherein" were the golden pot with the manna, Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.
Both the manna
and Aaron's rod were at the first laid up before the Testimony (the
tables of the covenant) (Exodus 16.34; Numbers 17.10), but it seems
that they were at length placed in the ark beside the tables of
stone.
In the days of Solomon we are told that "There was nothing
in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at
Horeb" (1 Kings 8.9).
This statement seems to indicate that there
had been at one time other things in the ark besides the tables of
the covenant.
The ark with its contents typically foreshadowed the Lord; the
tables of the law typified Him as the Word of God, the manna as the
Bread of God, and Aaron's rod as the Priest of God.
We have
everything in Him, so that we may obey God, live for Him, and serve
Him.
Heb9v5
The cherubim, as it were, fenced and guarded the holiness, and
maintained the glory of God.
Between the cherubim dwelt the
Shekinah or glory of God.
This was God's throne - the seat of
mercy - in the midst of His people.
Here mercy and truth met
together, as seen in the mercy-seat and the ark with the tables of
the law, and righteousness and peace kissed each other (Psalm 85.
10), a beautiful type of Him that was to come.
The mercy-seat was
never to be separated from the ark; the law without mercy would be
unbearable to man, and mercy, apart from God's requirements in the
law being met, would have been intolerable to God.
The blood of
the atoning sacrifice had to be sprinkled upon the mercy-seat.
Into the teaching of the several vessels of the tabernacle the
apostle found it inopportune to enter, having before him in
particular the priestly work of the Lord as typified in the work of
Aaron.
Heb9v6
The tabernacle having been made and erected, and the furniture set
in order, the priests went into the Holy place continually, day
after day, in their service for God according to the Levitical law.
Heb9v7
One priest - the high priest - once in the year on the day of
Atonement entered the Holy of holies, the second tabernacle.
He
dare not approach without blood, and this he offered for himself, he
being a sinful man, and for the pepole of Israel whom he
represented.
This blood was offered for sins of ignorance; for if
any one in Israel sinned, whether priest, ruler, or one of the
common people, when they became aware of it, they had to bring their
sin offering which atoned for their acknowledged sin.
Sin is sin
in God's sight, whether done in ignorance or not.
Sins unknown to
the people were atoned for by the sin offering on the day of
atonement.
Heb9v8
The first tabernacle is that of verses 2 and 6, the Holy place, and,
so long as it stood, the way into the Holies (or the way of the
Holies) was hid from the people.
They could see the high priest
enter the first veil or door of the tabernacle, but they never saw
the second veil, which typically speaks of the flesh of the Son of
Man (Hebrews 10.19,20).
All the service of the priests under the
law was performed in connexion with the first tabernacle, they were
not allowed to enter the presence of God in the Holy of holies, save
the high priest once in the year.
So long as the first tabernacle
stood and the service in connexion with it continued, the people
remained blind to the way of the Holies, in that they saw not the
veil (the incarnation and atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ),
the way to God, on the day of atonement.
Heb9v9
The first tabernacle with its gifts and sacrifices is a simile or
parable to teach us in the present time, and many lessons with
reference to divine service we could not have learned but for the
parabolic teachings of the tabernacle.
The things which were
offered could not clear the conscience and make the worshipper
perfect, as one having no more conscience of sin (Hebrews 10.1,2).
Heb9v10
They were carnal ordinances, ritualistic and outward, dealing only
with man's outward condition, and never touching the inward
spiritual state of the conscience.
With such a state of affairs
God could not be well pleased, so it was only imposed upon Israel
after the flesh until the time of reformation or of setting things
right, when He would make a New Covenant with His people, based upon
the death of Christ, whose blood is the blood of the eternal
covenant, the fulfilment and substance of the shadows of the law.
Heb9v11
Christ has come or appeared or approached as a High Priest; this is
not at His birth in Bethlehem, nor yet at His entrance upon His
public ministry at His baptism in Jordan, but at His entrance into
the presence of God as a High Priest of the coming good things.
He
has approached through the greater and more perfect tabernacle which
is not made by hands, nor yet is it of this creation.
It is not
made of acacia wood, fine linen, ram's skins dyed red, and so
forth; this heavenly tabernacle is not of this earthly creation
from which come all materials for building houses built by human
hands.
Heb9v12
As the high priest of Israel approached to God to the mercy-seat
through the tabernacle and through the blood of bulls and goats, so
has Christ our High Priest approached through (dia) the more perfect
tabernacle and through (dia) or by means of His own blood.
Dia,
through, shows that the blood was instrumental as supplying the
means of approach to God.
He did not approach with His own blood,
as carrying His own literal blood into heaven, but His blood, that
is His death, was the means by which He entered the Holies of that
heavenly tabernacle, and all the infinite value of His
blood-shedding is present with Him in heaven, for He entered in,
having obtained or having found eternal redemption.
Heb9v13
This was the length to which the sacrifices of the law went, they
sanctified those that were defiled unto the cleanness of the flesh.
Heb9v14
Great is the contrast between this verse and the former one, between
the flesh and the conscience, between sacrifices which ceremonially
sanctified and cleansed the flesh, and a sacrifice which cleanses
the conscience.
The Israelite was unclean by contact with the
unclean or with the dead body of a man, even so those who engage in
dead ritualistic works are unclean, and require, if they would serve
the living God, to have their conscience cleansed by the blood of
Christ.
Christ as an offering was without spot, there was no flaw, no fault
in Him.
The eternal Spirit is like the fire which consumed the
sacrifices of old; it was through Him that Christ offered Himself
to God.
There is no exhausting of the value of the sacrifice which
is offered in the eternal Spirit.
The Trinity are thus seen in the
sacrifice of Calvary.
Christ, the Son of God, offered Himself
through the eternal Spirit to God.
Heb9v15
"For this cause," because the Lord offered Himself and obtained
eternal redemption by His atoning death, He is the Mediator of a new
covenant.
This is also repeated by Paul in 1 Timothy 2.5,6:
"There is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, Himself
Man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all."
There was an accumulation of transgressions under the first
covenant, "because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime,
in the forbearance of God" (Romans 3.25), for it was impossible that
the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins, hence it was
necessary that the death of Christ should redeem those
transgressions, so that those who were called might receive the
promise of the eternal inheritance, which means that they were not
to receive a promise merely, but the thing promised, namely, the
eternal inheritance.
It is said of Abraham in Hebrews 6.15 that
"having patiently endured, he obtained the promise," that is, he
obtained what God had promised him, his son Isaac.
Under the old
economy those who were redeemed and called out of Egypt had the
inheritance of the promised land of Canaan before them, but the New
Covenant, through the death of Him that made it, has the eternal
inheritance of saints in view.
Thus, through the death of Christ,
Old Testament saints obtain the eternal inheritance here spoken of.
Heb9v16
Of old, the covenant was the testimony, and God's covenant today has
also a testamentary sense, both thoughts of covenant and testament
being in the word Diatheke.
In the illustration in this verse a
testament requires the death of the testator, the testator makes his
testament in view of his death and the document is of no particular
value until his death, it is a deed waiting to come into force at the
death of the testator.
Heb9v17
When he that makes his last will and testament dies, then it becomes
a legal instrument or disposition, by which the will of the testator
is carried out.
Such an illustration is used to show how God's
covenants came into force through death.
Heb9v18
The Sinaitic covenant was not dedicated or inaugurated without
blood, it became operative as the law of God, the legal instrument to
control the heirs under that covenant, through the sprinkling of the
blood of the covenant. The perfect tense in the word inaugurated
would show that what was done in the past was to remain effective in
the present life of the Israelites ever after, throughout all their
generations.
Heb9v19,20
When God's representative, the Mediator Moses, had spoken every
commandment, and the Israelites were aware what they were agreeing
to, and when they confessed their agreement therewith, then Moses
took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and here,
in Hebrews, we are told that he also sprinkled the book of the
covenant and the terms of the covenant became binding; the covenant
became law.
It was to them the law of God, the Magna Charta of
Israel's national life and vital to their existence as a people.
We too have come to the blood of sprinkling who like Israel have
come to God's holy mountain (Hebrews 12.18-24; 1 Peter 1.2).
Note
how Peter associates obedience with the sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, having evidently before his mind what took place at
Sinai, when God covenanted with His people who professed obedience
to His will.
Heb9v21
As the book of the covenant, which revealed the conditions of their
service, and the people, who were to serve God, were sprinkled with
blood, so also were the tabernacle, wherein God's service was
carried out, and the vessels, by which the service was done.
Only
on the ground of the sprinkling of blood could a sinful people serve
God.
Heb9v22
Cleansing by blood was almost the invariable rule in connexion with
the Old Covenant, and there is no remission apart from the shedding
of blood.
The Lord's words in the night of His betrayal are
helpful, when He said, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is
shed for many unto remission of sins" (Matthew 26.28).
The shedding of blood signifies the taking of life, and the pouring
out of blood or the death of a sacrificial victim was essential to
the remission of sins.
The offering of the tenth part of an ephah
of fine flour for a sin-offering by a poor person (Leviticus 5.
11-13) in no way affects the law's requirements of old regarding
blood shedding or the still wider demand in that declaration which
finds its answer in the death of Christ - "apart from the shedding
of blood there is no remission."
Heb9v23
Here we have a contast between the copies and the originals; the
earthly things of the Mosaic tabernacle and the heavenly things of
the greater and more perfect tabernacle.
If the copies have been
cleansed by the blood of the Old Covenant sacrifices, the heavenly
things need also to be cleansed.
The plural in the words "better
sacrifices" has been a difficulty, for these evidently speak of one
sacrifice, even that of Christ.
Of the use of the plural here, a
scholar writes: "Categoric plural of an abstract proposition; not
therefore implying that the sacrifice was repeated: applicable in
its reality, only to the one Sacrifice of the body of Christ once
for all, and most emphatically designating that as a sacrifice."
As the tabernacle and its vessels had to be cleansed by blood, so
that the priests who were sinful men might serve God, so the heavenly
things had to be cleansed by Christ's sacrifice in order that God's
people of this dispensation might draw near to Him to serve Him in
the Holies of the heavenly tabernacle.
But for the death of Christ
and all the infinte value of that death being known in its cleansing
power in heaven no one could approach to God; but by Christ's
cleansing blood those who have known its cleansing power have
through that blood boldness to draw near.
It should be clearly understood that on the day of Atonement the
high priest of Israel was acting on behalf of God's people
collectively.
So in this dispensation also the Lord approached into
the Holies in heaven on behalf of a people in a collective sense.
Thus the Holies in heaven were cleansed so that God's people (a
description which should not be confused with God's children, who
are His children simply on the ground of the new birth) might be
able to draw nigh to God thereinto.
It should be clearly seen that
the drawing nigh of Hebrews 10.19-22 is a collective drawing nigh of
God's gathered together people.
Heb9v24
The Lord entered not such Holies as those into which the high
priests of Israel entered, which were figures or copies of the true
Holies in heaven, but He entered heaven itself into the heaven of the
very presence of God, there and now to appear before the face of God
for us.
In the value of the sacrifice He offered once for all, and
which abides in perpetual efficacy, the Lord appears to intercede
for God's people whom He represents.
There is no need of the
renewal of His offering which was offered in the eternal Spirit.
Heb9v25
The offering of Himself is compared to the high priest's offering of
the blood of the sin offering in the Holy of holies, and whilst the
high priest appeared again and again with blood in God's presence,
the Lord offered Himself but once.
The high priest entered in
blood, that is, as though covered by blood not His own, but the Lord
entered in the value of His own person and His death on Golgotha.
Heb9v26
Repeated entrance, as in the case of the Levitical high priests,
required repeated suffering on the part of the victims which were
sin offerings; even so, had Christ often offered Himself before God
then He would have suffered as often as He offered Himself, but now
once, and only once, at the end of the ages (the foundation of the
world saw the beginning and Christ's cross-work the end) hath He
been manifested to put away sin.
Here we see Christ displacing (or
abrogating) sin which formed an obstruction between man and God, so
that man was shut out from having fellowship with, and from being a
worshipper of, God.
Heb9v27
Death is laid up for or apportioned to men
"We must needs die" (2
Samuel 14.14).
Christ suffered and offered Himself to God once,
but men are appointed once to die, and after death, judgement.
Why
judgement?
Because men are not as Christ, who died without spot.
Each man must give account of himself unto God.
Heb9v28
Men die and so Christ also died, but He was offered to bear the sin
of many.
Men die because of the power of death which they cannot
resist, however much they might wish to rebel against it.
Christ
was offered, and thus we see the perfect submission of the Lord to
God's will, of which He said "I am come ... to do Thy will, O God.
"
The writer has evidently before his mind, as he writes, the sin
offering, and in particular what Leviticus 16 teaches as to
atonement: also, Isaiah 53 is plainly before his mind.
Christ at His first coming put away sins, but He shall appear a
second time without or apart from sin.
The offering of Himself has
eternally settled the sin question.
"To them that wait for Him" does not signify that only the saints in
an expectant, waiting attitude will be caught up at His coming.
"In Christ" is a wide and inclusive term as descriptive of all who
are redeemed in this dispensation, and all "in Christ" shall hear
His voice and respond (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18).
Waiting for the
Lord is (or should be) the normal attitude of those who know the
value of Christ's sacrifice, as waiting for the high priest to come
out of the Holy of holies was the proper attitude of Israel on the
day of Atonement.
"Salvation" is the salvation of His people from the presence of sin,
a salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein
we greatly rejoice (1 Peter 1.5,6).
saints will be complete.
Then salvation for God's
Heb10v1
"For" connects chapter 10 to the last paragraph of the previous
chapter.
The apostle lays down a principle of interpretation in
the typical teaching of the Old Testament; it had a shadow of
coming good things, but was not the very image.
Already we have
tasted of those good things in association with which Christ is High
Priest (Hebrews 9.11), and we are destined to enter more fully into
their enjoyment.
The sacrifices which were offered continually (or
in perpetuity; see verse 12 where the Lord's one sacrifice is for
ever, or in perpetuity, and also verse 14, where it is said that He
hath perfected for ever, or in perpetuity, them that are
sanctified), could never make perfect those who approached to God
thereby.
Heb10v2
The sacrifices would have ceased had they been able to remove the
guilt of sin from the conscience, but the sacrifices of the law
sanctified to the cleanness of the flesh only; they never reached
the conscience (Hebrews 9.13).
Heb10v3
Year by year, as the day of Atonement came round, there was a
calling to mind of sins.
The high priest confessed before God the
sins of Israel, which were ceremonially sent away upon the head of
the scapegoat; a truly wonderful shadow of the Lord's death when He
put away sin!
Heb10v4
Here the atoning sacrifices of the law are shown to be ineffectual
in dealing with sin.
They were merely shadows of the Lord's
propitiatory sacrifice by which alone sins could be put away for
ever.
God in His forbearance passed over sins and forgave the
sinner because He would receive full satisfaction in the death of
His Son.
The shadows of the law were intended to teach the
Israelite the heinousness of sin, and referred to the great
Sacrifice that was coming.
Heb10v5,6,7,8
"Wherefore," because of the inadequate character of the sacrifices
of the law, the Son came to do the will of God.
"When He cometh into the world, He saith"; this shows the
pre-existence of the Son of God.
No mere human child could so
speak of knowing the purposes of God.
were true -
But of Him alone the words
Thou didst make Me trust when I was upon My mother's breasts.
I was cast upon Thee from the womb:
Thou art My God from My mother's belly.
(Psalm 22.9,10).
The citation from Psalm 40 shows how fully the Lord entered into
the reason for His coming, and shows too His devotion to His God.
The four great sacrifices of the law are indicated here - peace
offering, meal offering, burnt offering and sin offering.
God had
no pleasure in these.
The quotation from Psalm 40 is from the
LXX; this accounts for the variation between Psalm 40 and Hebrews
10.
The former, following the Hebrew, gives, "Mine ears hast Thou
opened" (which I judge, has been wrongly taken to be an allusion to
the boring of the Hebrew servant's ear: Exodus 21.6), whereas the
Greek translation gives "A body didst Thou prepare for Me."
The
Hebrew emphasizes the importance of having opened ears, the first
necessity of a servant, and the Greek shows that in a divinely
prepared body Jehovah's Servant would obey His God in all He
commanded Him in the roll of the book.
It seems to the present
writer that underlying the fact that He had opened ears is the
greater fact of the incarnation.
He had taken the form of a
bondservant to obey His Divine Master, and His obedience was unto
death, the death of the cross.
Heb10v9
He taketh away the first - the will of God in the sacrifices of the
law, which could only be of a temporary character, that He might
establish the second - His will relative to the sacrifice of
Christ.
In the first He had no pleasure, but in the second he has
found eternal satisfaction and pleasure.
Heb10v10
The believer has been sanctified by the will of God, fulfilled in
the Lord's perfect offering and finished work.
The offering of
Christ's body was once for all and so is the sanctification which
results from it.
Heb10v11
Such was the divine requirement of the law.
Because of the nature
and character of the sacrifices, the Aaronic priests had to minister
daily in the priest's office in offering the same sacrifices which
could never (how strong is the word "never"!) take away sins.
Heb10v12
"For ever" (see note on verse 1) means "in perpetuity" and shows the
enduring state and value of the Lord's one offering of Himself for
sins.
When He had offered Himself He sat down on God's right
hand.
No priest of the house of Aaron ever sat down in the
sanctuary, there were no seats for them there; but the Lord went
into God's presence and sat down on His right hand and will never
again rise to deal with the question of sins.
He has dealt with
sins once for all.
Heb10v13
He is seated at God's right hand and is waiting, according to Psalm
110, the time when He will put all His enemies beneath His feet.
The Father has subjected all to the Son, as Son of Man, but the Lord
waits the Father's time when He will take His great power and reign
manifestly.
Heb10v14
Those who are sanctified (as verse 10 shows) by the will of God are
perfected for ever (in perpetuity) by that same one offering.
They
are set apart in a state of perfection.
The believer is perfect in
Christ through the perfection of His offering; he is for ever free
from the guilt of His sins.
In himself, because of the old Adamic
nature in his flesh, there are manifold imperfections:
Heb10v15,16,17
Note that here the voice of the Spirit is to us, though God will
also make this New Covenant with Judah and Israel (Hebrews 8.8).
Israel rejected Christ and so He turned and covenanted with us, but
after those days He will turn toward Israel and they will accept Him
and He will covenant with them.
The New Covenant has two
outstanding characteristics.
I. The remission of sins of the
believer; II. the putting of God's laws into the mind and the
heart.
The first in order is the remission of sins, though it is
the last of the terms of the covenant mentioned; we begin where God
leaves off.
Heb10v18
Remission of sins is the result of offering for sin.
Remission Aphesis means "to dismiss," from Aphiemi, to send away; the
believer's sins are dismissed or forgiven; they are removed from
him as far as the east is from the west, as David wrote in Psalm 103.
12.
God will never remember them or bring them up against him for
ever; he enjoys eternal redemption.
Heb10v19
"Therefore," because the Lord, our great High Priest, entered the
Holies by His own blood, having made complete atonement and having
cleansed the Holies by His sacrifice, we have boldness (which
literally means freedom of speech, but it goes beyond such liberty
of utterance to that freedom of conscience which we enjoy from the
guilt of sin) or confidence to enter the Holies by the blood of
Jesus - the blood of the great Sin Offering, for our confidence
rests upon His shed blood.
Whilst the presence of God is open to the child of God at all times
and in all places, the drawing near indicated here is that of a
people entering in.
Of old the high priest of Israel drew nigh in
a collective sense, that is, he drew nigh representatively on behalf
of the people.
Even so has the Lord drawn nigh, and because of His
perfect sacrifice God's people have boldness to enter in by Him who
has gone into the Holies.
In the past the high priest alone went
in, but today the High Priest has drawn nigh and the people also may
enter in.
Heb10v20
The way which He dedicated or initiated was never open to man
before.
It is described as being "new and living"; it is new,
that is, the way is Prosphatos, newly slain. As God's people enter
in, the sacrifice is seen as slain immediately prior to their
entrance; the victim is as if it had been freshly killed.
The
Lord in His sacrificial work will ever so appear.
John saw in the
throne a young Lamb standing as though it had been slain, wondrous
sight! (Revelation 5.6).
The way is also living, for the slain
Lamb is alive, and alive in the body in which He was slain.
It is
a melting sight to see One alive, yet with the wounds of His
sacrifice and passion.
The shadows of the past, however moving
they might be to the Israelite with a tender heart, as he saw the
victim of the sin offering die for him, could never move the heart
like a sight of the Lamb alive, yet bearing the wounds of His cross
still fresh upon His holy flesh, as when they pierced Him on the
tree.
"Through the veil, that is to say His flesh."
The veil of the
tabernacle was the first covering of the ark and mercy-seat when
they were carried from place to place in the wilderness.
That veil
was typical of the holy flesh of the Son of Man.
When the
tabernacle was erected the veil divided the Holy place from the Holy
of Holies and through it the high priest entered the Holy of Holies
year after year.
Access to the Holies now is through the veil of
His flesh.
Man can only reach God mediately, and that through the
incarnate Son of God, who died and rose again from the dead, never
immediately or in his own right.
Heb10v21
He is Son over (Epi) (Hebrews 3.6) and Great Priest over (Epi) the
house of God.
The house of God is not the Holies or heavenly
sanctuary, but is the same house as is indicated in Hebrews 3.6 "whose house are we, if we hold fast."
The house of God is the
people of God who are builded together (1 Peter 2.5) at which
judgement first begins (1 Peter 4.17).
In Hebrews 3 where He is typified by Moses, the Son is seen in
authority as the One by whom God speaks - "Wherefore, even as the
Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye shall hear His voice" (verse 7), but
in Hebrews 10.21 He is the Great Priest whose entrance into the
presence of God is vital to those in the house of God in their
drawing near to God.
He is the Great Priest, not the greater nor
the greatest; He is above all comparison, in nature, being, and
position.
Heb10v22
What an introduction!
What an array of facts relative to God's
provision in Priest and Sacrifice, in Sanctuary and Covenant, ere we
come to these vital words of exhortation - "Let us draw near."
We
are to approach with a heart that is sincere, without hypocrisy or
insincerity.
"In full assurance of faith": the revelation God has
made to us of His will, and His provision so that we might have
access into the Holies, should leave no dark, lurking doubt in
our minds.
"Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience";
our conscience was once defiled by the guilt of sin, but our hearts
were sprinkled, and so they were cleansed from such defilement.
Thus it is that the worshipper who is once cleansed has no more
conscience of sins.
This is the once for all cleansing of the
conscience by the sacrifice of Christ and that cleansing abides for
ever.
"Having our body washed with pure water."
It seems beyond question
that the writer has before his mind, as he writes, the consecration
of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood and their being cleansed by
the sprinkling of blood, and washed by Moses at the laver.
(See
Exodus 29.4,21).
The Lord referred to such washing done by Him
once for all in John 13.10: "He that is bathed needeth not save to
wash his feet, but is clean every whit," and in John 15.3: "Already
ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you."
This washing is called the washing of regeneration in Titus 3.5.
Heb10v23
Allusion is made to the same hope as that which is spoken of in
Hebrews 3.6 and 6.18, the "better hope" of Hebrews 7.19, which is
Christ as Priest in the prsence of God on behalf of God's people.
What a confession for the Hebrew Christian who at one time
acknowledged the divine appointment of a high priest of the house of
Aaron!
Now He confesses that his High Priest is after the order of
Melchizedek.
If his confession wavers he is on slippery ground and
liable to return to the old covenant order of things and to deny the
Lord in His sacrificial and priestly work.
Heb10v24
First let us consider ourselves and let us hold fast, then let us
consider one another.
How much there is in the consideration of
each other!
What propensities we have and what inherited
tendencies!
Some are strong and some are weak; some harsh, some
mild; some avaricious, some liberal; some over-estimate their own
importance, some depreciate themselves; some are autocratic and
overbearing, some humble, and between such extremities we have all
grades.
The question is, How can we get the best out of each
other?
How can we provoke (not to evil) to love and good works?
Next to the affectionate consideration of Deity is the
consideratin of man, for the divine commandments were, "Thou shalt
love the LORD thy God" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Heb10v25
If we cease to hold fast we shall not be amongst those who assemble
themselves together, and if we do not consider one another our
coming together may be far from a joy to us.
But where there is
the due acknowledgement of our responsibility to God, and an
affectionate regard for God's people, our souls shall greatly desire
the assemblings of the saints.
Some had fallen into the custom of
neglecting such assembling of themselves together, it had become
their habit, their usual practice.
This gives us an insight into
what transpired even in apostolic times; there was in some the
habitual neglect of what God had arranged for as necessary to the
well-being of His people.
The asssembling of themselves together
was vital to their position in the house of God, and their exhorting
one another was essential to the proper condition of soul, relative
to this divine position.
All this had in view the approaching
day of the Lord's return.
Heb10v26
"For" joins this verse to the previous one (verse 25), and shows
possiblities of the utmost gravity which may follow in the train of
the custom of saints forsaking the assembling of themselves
together.
The loss of fellowship and exhortation to those who
absent themselves may result in disregard of the Lord's will and
claims and may lead to one of the worst of all forms of sin, the sin
of wilful disobedience, which in essence is rebellion.
It was that
of which Saul the king of Israel was guilty and because of which he
lost the throne.
He continued as king for many a day afterwards,
but his course was disastrous; its one outstanding feature was his
persecution of God's chosen king, David. "Rebellion," Samuel told
Saul, "is as the sin of witchcraft." There was no sacrifice that
could meet the sin of a witch or a rebel (a presumptuous sinner);
even so it is now with those who wilfully sin against the knowledge
of the truth.
The knowledge of the truth is the knowledge of the
revealed will of God for God's people.
The sin of apostasy is so
serious that when one takes one's stand intelligently in the will of
God, to go back wilfully from the will of God, there is no sacrifice
for the rebellious person.
God "willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge
of the truth" (1 Timothy 2.4).
The Lord's servant must be gentle: "In meekness correcting them
that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them
repentance unto the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2.25).
Certain may be "ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3.7).
"The faith of God's elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is
according to godliness" (Titus 1.1).
In Hebrews 10.26 it is wilful sin after the person has come to the
knowledge of the truth.
It is like Saul's in his rebellion
relative to God's plain command in regard to the destruction of
Amalek.
Israel's attitude to Amalek was one of the fundamental
things associated with their national life (Exodus 17.8-16;
Deuteronomy 25.17-19).
Saul was never restored again, and neither
can those be who set aside God's truth wilfully; the loss sustained
abides.
Heb10v27
This verse must be read in the light of verses 30 and 31.
"The
Lord shall judge his people."
The judgement which the rebellious
believer expects to receive cannot be eternal judgement.
The
sacrifice of Christ for ever secures for him safety from all fiery
punishment which will be the portion of the disobedient sinner in
his Adamic standing.
The apostle is dealing with the rebellious
believer, not with an ungodly sinner.
The God whom we serve is "a
consuming fire" (Hebrews 12.29).
The God of such a serving people
is a jealous God (Exodus 20.5; 34.14), and who may stand before the
fierceness (Zelos, fervour, jealousy R.V.M.) of His fire!
Poor
Saul sought peace in music from a mind in perpetual unrest.
He is
a picture of an unhappy saint who has wilfully sinned against God's
revealed will.
Heb10v28
Here we have an illustration of those who wilfully sin against the
knowledge of the truth, from what happened in the days of the law.
There was provision made for sin under the law, even as there is in
this day of grace.
By the sin offering atonement was made and sin
was forgiven (Leviticus 4).
So today, "If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1.9).
But in this verse
reference is made to something worse, it is presumptuous sin, it was
a man who set at nought Moses' law.
See Numbers 15.30;
Deuteronomny 17.8-13; Psalm 19.13, as to presumptuous sin.
There
was no sacrifice for such sin, no forgiveness or possible
restoration; death was the penalty.
Heb10v29
Great light and great privileges brought correspondingly great
responsibilities in the past dispensation.
But we are more
privileged still, who live in this economy of grace.
Death was the
punishment under law. Is there anything sorer than death? Is not
the expectation of judgement (of verse 27) worse than even the
enacting of the death penalty in the past, an expectation to receive
something that we know is inevitable, which is consequent upon
wilful disobedience; a punishment which God has not exactly
defined, but which will be commensurate with the wrong that has been
done?
What is the wrong?
The enormity of the crime of the rebellious
person is put under three heads: (1) that he "hath trodden under
foot the Son of God"; (2) that he "hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing"; (3) and
that he "hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace."
It is impossible to tread under foot the Son
can only refer to a symbolic act of treading
authority of Him who is Son over God's house
exhorted to see that we "refuse not Him that
25).
of God in person; it
down the word and
(Hebrews 3.6).
We are
speaketh" (Hebrews 12.
The sanctification here must, I judge, be in keeping with the
acceptation of the Son of God in His authority; it is associated
with the setting apart of a people for Himself.
"Jesus also, that
He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without
the gate.
Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp,
bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13.12,13).
The blood of the
covenant at Sinai set apart Israel as a people, for they professed
that they would be obedient to the law (Exodus 24.1-8).
If a man
set at nought Moses' law in regard to which he with others had
"answered together" that they would do what the LORD had spoken
(Exodus 19.8), he counted the blood of the covenant a common thing,
a thing not to be esteemed above anything else.
This was an act of
the most outrageous profanity.
Could the blood of the covenant be
so regarded in the past? and should the blood of the covenant
Victim be so viewed or treated in this dispensation?
If we are
sanctified by it, let us maintain our separated character by going
forth to our rejected Lord, who has all authority in heaven and on
earth, for such separation is because of the sanctification of God's
people by the Holy blood of the Covenant.
The rebellious person has done despite to or insulted the Spirit of
grace.
What a fearful thing to do!
We may grieve the Spirit
(Ephesians 4.30) and the Spirit may be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5.
19), but here it is much worse, the Spirit is insulted.
The Spirit
of grace describes the Holy Spirit in His character as the gracious
Guide and Teacher of God's people, He who is in each believer (1
Corinthians 6.19,20), and who dwells in and walks in them
collectively as gathered together in the churches of God (1
Corinthians 3.16,17; 2 Corinthians 6.16; Ephesians 2.22).
The
wilfully disobedient turns back from His gracious leading and
instruction and pursues a path of his own by self choice.
Heb10v30
God is slow to anger, but vengeance is His; it is His prerogative,
not ours.
Will He repay the wicked doer?
Is there punishment for
wrong doing in the case of the rebellious believer?
"I will
recompense."
There is no equivocation here.
"I will" -let us hear
and fear!
"The Lord shall judge His people"; it is His people,
not men of the world.
Their day too will come.
Judgement begins
at the house of God, and the house of God is shown to be "us" those who are "built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2.5).
"The
time is come for judgement to begin at the house of God: and if it
begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the
gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4.17).
It seems needless for us to say
that the house of God is not and cannot be the Body of Christ, yet
because of abounding error and confusion on the point, we make this
remark.
There can be no judgement in the Body of Christ; we are
there as members of Christ in all the perfection of the Lord's work,
but in the house of God we have responsibilities and privileges
relative to obedience and Divine service.
Heb10v31
The living God is the God of the house of God (1 Timothy 3.15).
Those who fall away fall away from Him (Hebrews 3.12), and it is a
fearful thing to fall into His hands to be punished for wilful
disobedience, if we have rebelled against His word and will.
May
we be warned against self-will and presumptuous sin!
Heb10v32
Those Hebrew believers had had former days, days of suffering and of
corresponding joy; for there is ever a weight of joy measured to
believers in the balances of suffering.
The former days were to be
recalled and rehearsed in the memory.
They were the precious days
of early enlightenment, when the glowing prospect of eternal joys,
like the coming of a new day with all the glories of the dawn, burst
upon them, and in the joy of a new experience they endured a great
conflict, a conflict which consisted in the sufferings they passed
through.
Was that all for nothing? would there be no recompense
for their suffering and loss? and were they going to abandon the
hopes which Divine light brought to them?
Surely not!
Heb10v33
Here we have part of their sufferings described, that in their own
persons they were a spectacle, as though in the theatre they were
exhibited and exposed to the reproaches of the multitude in all
their afflictions.
This was their conflict on the one part.
The
other side was that they were not so absorbed with their own trials
that they forgot the trials of others: they became partakers with
them who were in like affliction.
Their Christian sympathy went
out to their persecuted brethren and they became in their love for
their brethren partners with them. This marks true Christian
living; this was no fair weather friendship, but that kind in which
saints are joined heart to heart in a common love in dark days of
persecution and tribulation.
There had been nothing in those early
days of what, alas, will yet be true; "Because iniquity shall be
multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24.12);
and even in such a time to come there is this relief in such a
desolate prospect, it says "many" and not "all."
Heb10v34
"I was in prison, and ye came unto Me" (Matthew 25.36) - a precious
ministry indeed!
They had compassion, they had sympathy, they
suffered with their brethren.
The sufferings of their afflicted
brethren who were in bonds were their sufferings, and in what way
they could mitigate those afflictions they did it.
They also took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.
What an
attitude of mind! No sorrow, no tears over the destruction of
personal effects or of goods and chattels!
Business premises
wrecked, years of patient labour lost, domestic quarters, perchance,
plundered; all this they took with joy.
Why?
Because they had
their true wealth and possession where thieves do not break through
and steal.
There they had a better possession and an abiding
one.
Only a clear view from the "Delectable Mountains" of faith of
the inheritance that waited them could have enabled them to look
with complaisance and joy on the hand of wantonness that was laid
upon their personal effects.
Heb10v35
Having suffered so much, are they now going to cast away such
boldness, such firm conviction and fortitude of spirit, which came
by Divine enlightenment, and which had carried them through the dark
clouds of persecution, clouds which had such a silver lining?
Their boldness had great recompense of reward.
Note it is not
simply recompense, but it is great recompense, God will amply
reward; He will fully indemnify the loser, for he that loses his
life shall find it.
It is the most wanton extravagance on the part
of the saint to spend his time in this world as though he were a
mere worldling without future prospect.
Such a life spent in the
gratifiction of one's desires, even though they may seem innocent
enough, but which have not the vital consideration of seeking first
God's kingdom, is a life that will be lost, a life in which God is
not glorified and Christ is not well pleased.
Heb10v36
God does not recompense suffering according to His will on the day
on which we suffer, nor at the end of the week.
Nor yet does He
recompense the sinner for his sins with quick retribution.
He is
the God of patience, and we must learn to wait patiently the coming
day of reward.
We must occupy till the Lord comes.
If we are
busy the time will slip past all too quickly, for He may arrive
before we have half done what we had hoped to do. Let us not become
disgruntled and say with certain, "It is vain to serve God: and
what proift is it that we have kept His charge?" (Malachi 3.14).
If we have done the will of God then let us patiently await the
coming of the Rewarder who has said, "Behold, I come quickly; and
My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work
is" (Revelation 22.12).
Heb10v37
"A very little while," or "a little, little while," or "a very very
little while," the idea here expressed is that the little while is
the very least time imaginable, and also that we have here the great
definiteness of the promise relative to the One who is coming
emphasized.
Were the Hebrew believers flagging in their zeal and
earnestness? then nothing could be thought of which would revive
their hopes like the prospect of the imminent and certain return of
the Lord.
The coming One shall not tarry; He will not delay.
The quotation
is from Habakkuk 2.3,4.
The prophet sees the vision and says,
"Though it tarry, wait for it;
not delay."
because it will surely come, it will
The devastation of the Chaldeans would come truly, when there would
be the spoiling of goods, the destruction of homes, the captivity of
the LORD's people; but was there any hope amidst such calamities?
Oh, yes! even in such a day faith saw the dawn of a new day, the
coming of a new era.
"For the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea"
(Habakkuk 3.14).
Surely such a day was worth waiting for!
Such a
vision would cheer the man of faith amidst the ruins of the labours
of his forefathers.
The Chaldean was coming, but the Messiah was
coming also, He who would bring right into a scene of wrong and who
would bring order out of chaos, and to the sorely tried and
afflicted the Sun of Righteousness would arise with healing in His
wings.
Heb10v38
How was the righteous or just man to live in Habakkuk's time ?
"By
faith."
He would win through amidst all the turbulence of his
time.
His faith and hope was to be in God.
If his trust was in
things, then that prop would go and leave his mind without a stay in
the swelling tide of human woe.
But if in Jah Jehovah he found his
everlasting Rock (Isaiah 26.3,4), then the calm of an abiding peace
was assured.
If the eye got fixed on the circumstances, on the
upheavals, then faith would be liable to lose its hold.
Peter
when he essayed to walk upon the sea saw the storm and began to
sink.
Who could not walk on a calm sea at the Lord's command?
Peter was told to come to the Lord on a tempestuous sea.
Fair days
and full barrels need but little faith, but a famine and a handful of
meal in a barrel need a daily faith (1 Kings 17.10-16).
If from the trial of faith the Lord's righteous man shrinks back,
then the pleasure the Lord had in him is gone, for without faith it
is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him.
We may be either a
pleasure or know God's displeasure.
See Matthew 12.18.
Heb10v39
Here is a breath of fresh air, a burst of sunshine!
Men of this
kind have held the pass against the enemy in all ages.
"We are not
of them that shrink back."
The writer was neither a shirker nor a
shrinker.
He had no cold feet and was not a valiant fireside
soldier, a Reubenite of great resolves of heart sitting among the
sheepfolds, far from the tramp of armed men and from the noise of
archers (Judges 5).
Perdition means utter loss and here it is the
loss of the believer's life.
No saved person can shrink back and
lose eternal salvation. Such as are a new creation in Christ Jesus
remain so eternally, but a saved man may not have a saved life; all
his works may be burned up, yet he himself shall be saved so as by
fire - all his life work gone! (1 Corinthians 3.14,15).
How happy
to be amongst those who have faith to the saving of the soul
(or life)!
The word "saving" is not Soteria, a saving or safety,
but it is Peripoiesis (from Peri, about or around, and Poeio, to
make, form, construct), an acquiring or obtaining, an acquisition,
or a preserving as a result of faith in the living God and His
word.
Those whose lives are so preserved will have them as their
abiding possession; they shall not go to utter loss.
Heb11v1
In this verse we have a definition of faith, the faith referred to
at the close of chapter 10: "My righteous one shall live by faith"
(Hebrews 10.38).
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for or "the giving substance
to" (R.V.Marg.).
Hupostasis, "assurance" (the A.V. gives
"substance," and this original word was understood by most ancient
interpreters to mean "the real and true essence").
Faith makes the
things of Divine revelation to the believer substantial realities;
the heavenly Jerusalem is more real to him than Paris or New York,
the throne of God nearer and more accessible than that of a king.
We walk by faith and "look not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen" (2 Corinthians 4.18).
The glory and
all else for which we hope are made to us substantial realities by
faith.
Hope is cheered and strengthened by faith.
Faith is also the proving of things not seen.
Are the unseen
things true of which God has spoken?
Faith answers, "Yes!"
Faith
accepts the words of the Speaker.
The matters are demonstrated to
the eye of faith and the believer stands convinced.
Where reason fails with all her powers,
There faith prevails and love adores.
Heb11v2
Some have thought that the elders are those ancient and patriarchal
men of whom he writes in detail - Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc. but it may be that those of whom he writes are the leaders to whom
he refers in chapter 13.7 whose faith was to be imitated.
Heb11v3
The apostle states the understanding of the believer relative to the
creation of Genesis 1.1, that the worlds (or ages) were not made out
of material manifest to our senses now, but that they were made by
the word of God.
God's utterance (Rhema) or word of command, we
believe (and our faith is based on revelation), is the first and
efficient cause of creation.
We perceive this to be the case not
by reason or investigation, nor by science, but by faith, we believe
God (Psalm 33.6,9; John 1.3).
"For He spake, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast."
The mystery of the universe can only be explained by the word of
God, for by His word the universe came into being.
Alford's note on "the ages" is helpful -
"The expression Hoi Aiones (the ages) includes in it all that exists
under the conditions of time and space, together with those
conditions of time and space themselves, conditions which do not
bind God, and did not exist independently of Him, but are themselves
the work of His word."
Heb11v4
The excellence of Abel's sacrifice over Cain's was in fact that he
offered it by faith, whereas Cain's was not of faith, but according
to his own mind.
God revealed His will with reference to
sacrifice, and Abel offered according to the will of God, but Cain
did not.
Hence God had respect to Abel and to his offering, but
unto Cain He had not respect.
Cain had listened to the devil's
voice and consequently he became of the evil one (1 John 3.12).
Abel believed God and we see that his offering is typical of the
Lord in His sacrificial work. Through the respect God paid to Abel's
sacrifice he had witness borne to him that he was righteous.
He was
righteous through the sacrifice offered by faith, even as is the
believer in Christ's sacrificial work.
Through his sacrifice Abel
continues to speak.
Some have thought about "through it he being dead yet speaketh" that
the "it" refers to Abel's faith; but faith in itself is unseen and
unheard till it manfiests itself, and the manifestation of Abel's
faith in the word of God was through the sacrifice he offered of the
firstlings and the fat of his flock, so Abel's voice, the voice of
an accepted and justified man, is heard through what he offered.
But the blood of sprinkling, of Jesus Christ, speaketh better than
that of Abel (of the blood of Abel's offering).
Heb11v5
Enoch, like Abel, believed God's word and in consequence he was
translated; but what God said to him we are not told.
He left
this earthly scene, not in the normal way, by death, for he was
translated by God (Metatithemi, to transfer, transport, translate)
that he should not see death.
"He was not found" indicates that
they sought him, as the sons of the prophets searched for Elijah;
both were suddenly transported and disappeared from the scene, and
neither was found.
What a glorious end to a God-pleasing life,
during which he had witness borne to him that he pleased God well!
Heb11v6
In this verse the Holy Spirit makes a deduction from the life of
Enoch which is applicable to all persons during all time: no one
can do one single act well-pleasing to God without faith.
Those
who would please Him must live and walk and work by faith.
And,
further, those who would come to Him must first believe that He
is.
It would be folly to seek a god who is not - many do! - for
there are gods many, that are no gods, but to us there is one God,
the Father.
Those who are coming ones, whose habit it is to come to Him, believe
in His existence, and not in that merely, but that He is the
rewarder of true seekers after Him.
Why should we seek Him and say
to Him that He is not? or that He is powerless to answer?
We
believe He is the living God, the prayer-hearing and
prayer-answering One.
He will reward the faithful by and by, but
we believe that even now He rewards the seeker after Him.
Enoch is
an example of this faith as he is also a type of saints who, at the
Lord's coming, shall be translated without death.
Heb11v7
See Hebrews 8.5, where Moses was warned to make the Tabernacle
according to the pattern that had been shown him.
Noah was warned
concerning unseen things that were coming; believing the Speaker he
took good heed to the Divine warning and prepared an ark according
to the God-given instructions.
The ark was not for the salvation
of the world, but for the preservation of his house, that is, his
family, and in so doing, acting by faith, he became heir of the
righteousness which is according to faith.
He also by his faith
condemned a world of unbelievers who took no heed to his word of
warning, as a preacher of righteousness, and perchance scoffed at
his work.
All who believe the Divine message today not only enjoy
salvation, but by their faith they condemn the unbelieving.
God's
provision for men means, either salvation for those that believe or
condemnation for those who disbelieve.
Heb11v8
"Abraham, when he was called" (not "he that was called, named,
Abraham") out of Ur of the Chaldees obeyed the call of God and went
out not knowing whither he went.
In Abel and Enoch we have sacrifice and translation emphasized.
In
Noah and Abraham we learn the truths of salvation and separation.
God said to Noah, "Come in," but to Abraham He said, "Get out."
Thus the call of God is seen in two aspects, the one being the
complement of the other, and these aspects of the Divine call have
still their place in the Divine will, as witness Matthew 11.28 and
Romans 8.30 and in contrast 2 Corinthians 6.17,18.
In the will of God for Abraham the divine place of separation and
service was in view; he "obeyed to go out unto a place" and it was
only in tht place, that land, that Abraham could build an altar in
agreement with the mind of God, and call upon the Name of Jehovah.
Heb11v9
Though he was in the divinely-chosen place, yet the Canaanite was in
the land, and as it took faith in the call of God to bring Abraham
from Ur to Canaan, so it took faith in that same call to keep him in
the place to which he had come.
Even so is it now.
It takes a
continuous faith to keep a man out in the place of separation.
The land was Abraham's, but not in actual possession in his day; he
dwelt as a stranger in tents with his son and grandson, Isaac and
Jacob, the co-heirs with him of the promise.
Heb11v10
Though Abraham was in Canaan, the divinely-chosen place of
separation and service, he was in the place of trial and
tribulation, where he had testings manifold, as a sojourner, for he
waited for the City which has the foundations, whose Architect and
Constructor is God.
Not Jerusalem whose foundation is in the holy
mountains (Psalm 87.1), but the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Wife
of the Lamb (Revelation 21), which shall be God's tabernacle with
men eternally, when He shall dwell with them and they shall be His
peoples (Revelation 21.3).
The heavenly Jerusalem (and here let me
speak suggestively) shall be, as it ever has been, the dwelling
place of the angelic host, the centre of their service; and the New
Jerusalem shall be the centre of the redeemed of the human race.
Here the Lamb will enjoy for ever the delights of love in His Bride,
to whom He will be married at the time of Revelation 19.7-10, prior
to His coming as Son of Man.
The nation of Israel, as seen in the
names of the twelve tribes on the gates, it is generally agreed,
shall occupy a midway place between the Bride and the redeemed
nations without the city, as is indicated by the names of the tribes
on the gates; and the redeemed nations shall walk without in the
glory of God which will radiate from the city, from the Lamb who is
the lamp thereof.
For this final scene, however dimly understood
by him, Abraham waited, content to dwell in a tent.
A father of
many nations shall he be, for the fruit of his faith shall be seen
in full measure then.
Heb11v11
The Spirit's assurance is very beautiful here, that though Sarah
laughed when she heard the announcement regarding the birth of her
son, she counted Him faithful that promised.
Hence, because she
believed the promise, she received power to conceive seed in her old
age, when according to nature it was impossible.
Heb11v12
Through the quickening power of God, which was experienced by Sarah
through her faith, there sprang from Abraham, one as good as dead
according to the power of natural generation, so many as the stars of
heaven in multitude and as the sand of the sea shore innumerable.
Such is one of the marvels of faith in the word of God!
Heb11v13
These - Abraham,Isaac, Jacob, and also Sarah - all died, not by
faith, but in or according to faith, having received the promises
by faith and in that faith died.
They saw and greeted by faith the
realisation of the promises from afar and besides so greeting the
promises they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon
the earth.
Heb11v14
They that say that they are strangers and pilgrims (for a pilgrim
has an objective before him in his pilgrimage) show that they are
seeking, not such a country through which they as pilgrims are
passing and where they are strangers, but a fatherland (Patris,
fatherland or homeland, from Pater, father), a homeland where they
will be at home and where their stranger character will be past
forever.
Heb11v15
They could have gone back to Ur of the Chaldees had they wished, but
Abraham made it clear to his servant that there must be no going
back, not even for his son Isaac who was a sharer in his father's
call and a co-heir in the promise God made to him.
"Beware thou
that thou bring not my son hither again.
The LORD, the God
of heaven ... took me from my father's house, and from the land of
my nativity" (Chaldea) (Genesis 24.6,7).
The call of God was too
real for him to go back to the place from whence it brought him.
They were not even mindful of that country; it was to them a dead
land, for which they never had a hankering after.
Heb11v16
They desire (Orego, to stretch one's self forward in order to lay
hold of anything) a better homeland, a heavenly one, and of such
persons God is not ashamed to be called their God, and those also
who follow in the steps of faithful Abraham may know Abraham's God
as theirs.
Note the difference between Hebrews 2.11: "He is not
ashamed to call them brethren," where it is a relationship that is
in view, and Hebrews 11.16, where it is conduct.
Three countries
are in view in these verses: I. Chaldea, from which Abraham was
called and to which he never went back; II. Canaan, the land of
promise, the place of his sojourning and service, of testing and
testimony; and III. the heavenly country the Patris, the
fatherland, or all that is conveyed in that sweet word, Home.
For such persons as pilgrims God has prepared a city, the city of
verse 10, the city of gold as clear and pure as transparent glass,
such gold as men have never seen.
Into this the kings of the earth
shall bring their glory.
Heb11v17
Note the R.V.marg. - "hath offered up."
Alford says of the tense,
"Perfect, as if the work and its praise were yet enduring."
Abraham stood the testing of his faith in the promises, which he had
so gladly accepted.
"Was offering up his only begotten son" - "was
offering": imperfect tense, and again Alford says, "He was in the
act of offering - the work was begun."
The son of the bondwoman who was born after the flesh was cast out
in Genesis 21, and then God claimed Isaac, the only begotten, as a
burnt offering in Genesis 22.
How beautiful the type as to the
casting off of Israel after the flesh, the children born to legal
bondage, and the sacrifice of the true Only Begotten, the Son of
God; and from the Only Begotten, God's seed comes, even as it was
in the promise, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called"!
"When Thou
shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed"
(Isaiah 53.10).
Heb11v18
Because Abraham believed the word, "In Isaac shall thy seed be
called," he was able to say to the servant, "Abide ye here with the
ass, and I and the lad will go yonder: and we will worship, and
come again to you" (Genesis 22.5).
Abraham believed that the same
Isaac that God had given to him, and who toiled up Moriah's rocky
ascent by his side, would descend again.
Wondrous faith!
Heb11v19
If he had offered Isaac and burnt him as a burnt offering Abraham
reckoned that God, who is able to raise the dead, would have raised
him, for raise him He must so that His word might have fulfilment.
And from the dead, the writer says that he received him back as in a
parable, for the ram was slain in Isaac's stead, and Isaac arose
alive from off the altar.
Heb11v20
One would almost have thought that faith had gone astray in the
domestic tangle of Isaac's home, but no, for Isaac's oracular
blessing of his sons was by faith. Though he trembled very
exceedingly when Esau came, he said, "Who then is he that hath taken
venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou
camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed"
(Genesis 27.33).
There was no retracting of Jacob's blessing, and
no place of repentance for Esau, though he sought it diligently with
tears.
But Isaac blessed Esau also in regard to things to come,
but not with the blessing of the firstborn, for the birthright was
Jacob's.
Heb11v21
The light of faith shone clearly in Jacob as he crossed his hands
(though his eyesight was dim), much to Joseph's displeasure, and
gave the blessing of the firstborn to Ephraim the younger son, and
thus gave to Ephraim's descendants that outstanding place which they
had amongst the tribes of Israel at the first.
But, alas, they
forfeited this premier place by turning back in the day of battle.
"He (God) forsook ... Shiloh ...
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
But chose the tribe of Judah,
The Mount Zion which he loved.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
He chose David also His servant."
(Psalm 78.9,10,57,60,67,68,70).
Previous to the blessing of Joseph's sons, Jacob worshipped, leaning
upon the top of his staff.
In Genesis 47.31 it is said that he
"bowed himself upon the bed's head."
Alford says: "The same
Hebrew word ... signifies a staff, or a bed, according as it is
pointed ... And, as there are no points in the ancient Hebrew text,
it is an open question which meaning we are to take.
The LXX have
taken rhabdos (staff), though as Jerome notices, in loc., they have
rendered the same word kline (bed) in Genesis 48.2 (and Israel
strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed) two verses after." The
writer of the Hebrews follows the word used in LXX (rhabdos) in this
reference to Jacob's act of worship.
Jacob, because of his strong faith in the promises of God, made
Joseph swear that he would bury him in Canaan, in the burying place
of Isaac and Abraham his fathers, in the cave of Machpelah, and in
the light of the promises of God this aged pilgrim and servant of
God bowed before Him in this act of adoration.
There was no
worshipping the top of his staff with Jacob, according to the
fulsome idolatrous teaching of Rome.
Heb11v22
At the close of the life of princely Joseph, Egypt's glory had not
dimmed his vision, for he made mention of the departure of the sons
of Israel from the land over which he had ruled so well.
Canaan
and not Egypt filled the vision of this man of faith, and he gave
commandment concerning his bones.
These lay in a coffin in Egypt,
as the closing words of Genesis tell us, till the Exodus.
Heb11v23
In Exodus 2.2 in the Hebrew it is said of the mother of Moses that
"she hid him three months," but the LXX have the plural as in
Hebrews 11.23; he "was hid three months by his parents."
Moses was
a beautiful or fair child.
Stephen says that he was "fair unto
God" (Acts 7.20, R.V.marg.).
The faith of Moses' parents led them
to fear and obey God, and in consequence they feared not the king's
command, and they hid their beautiful son.
Heb11v24
As with his parents and Pharaoh's command, so it was with Moses,
God's will ran athwart the designs of Pharaoh's daughter.
When
grown up, Moses refused adoption by Pharaoh's daughter; he would
not be called her son.
He knew that the purposes of God were
associated with Abraham's seed enslaved in the brick fields of
Egypt, and he would be true to his belief in Divine promise; so he
renounced a pseudo-relationship, with all the earthly honour and
wealth bound up with it.
Heb11v25
Refusing and choosing are prerogatives of the human will, and never
did a man refuse a greater offer and choose a path more against the
natural enjoyments of the flesh than Moses did, but he did it by
faith.
He was like another who said, "What things were gain to me,
these have I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3.7).
Moses
willed to become a co-sharer in the afflictions of the down-trodden
Israelite nation, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season.
How temporary and transient are such pleasures!
The
pleasures of the Egyptian court had evidently become odious and
loathsome to this great-souled man, and a life of affliction was to
Him more to be desired with a people who were the people of God by
Divine choice and would become so in reality.
Heb11v26
Paul called his sufferings in the doing of the will of God "the
sufferings of Christ" (2 Corinthians 1.5), "the fellowship of his
sufferings" (Philippians 3.10), and "the afflictions of Christ"
(Colossians 1.24), that is, his sufferings were like unto those
which Christ endured at the hands of men when He did God's will on
earth.
Even so it was with Moses; the odium in which he would be
held, the reproach which he would endure from men, because of the
step he was taking, from the palace to the brick fields, from being
known as an Egyptian to being seen as a true Israelite, was typical
of that reproach which Christ would endure in the days of His
humiliation.
But to be similar in character and circumstances to
Christ, even in some small measure, is greater treasure than all the
world's wealth, for it will yield its recompense of reward; for he
that loseth his life in this world for Christ's sake shall save it.
Egypt's treasure passed away, but Moses' recompense and riches
abide.
Oh, to have an eye to see as he saw, and a mind to weigh
accurately things temporal and eternal as he did!
Heb11v27
This was not at the Exodus, but it describes his personal flight
from Egypt, though there seems to be a contradiction between the
Spirit's testimony in this verse and the historical account in
Exodus.
"Moses feared, and said, Surely the thing is known.
Now
when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses.
But Moses
fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and
he sat down by a well."
We ask, What was the real cause why Moses left Egypt, was it faith
or fear?
Did he fear?
Yes, for Exodus says so.
Did he act in
faith?
Yes, for Hebrews says so.
The real reason of his leaving
the land of Egypt was because he knew God's will for him was that he
should leave it and not through fear of the king of Egypt, for had
God commanded him to remain he would have remained and faced the
king of Egypt, as he later did this king's successor.
The two statements that he "fled from the face of Pharaoh" and that
"by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king" are
complements of each other, as are those concerning the flight of
Joseph with the Child Jesus and His mother; they fled from Herod,
but they fled at the command of God (Matthew 2.13,14).
Moses endured as seeing (not "to see") the invisible One.
was ever before him, as seen by faith.
Jehovah
Heb11v28
By faith Moses kept (the perfect tense is used as indicating that
what was done then abides, it is not merely an historic event) the
passover and the sprinkling (or affusion, proschusis, a pouring out
upon, effusion) of blood.
The blood was not sprinkled on the
lintel and side posts.
The LORD's command was, "They shall take of
the blood, and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel," and
Moses showed them how it was to be done: "Ye shall take a bunch of
hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the
lintel and the two side posts with the blood" (Exodus 12.7,22).
Proschusis - a pouring out upon, comes from pros, towards, and cheo,
to pour.
Ekcheo, to pour out, to shed (blood) is ek, out of, and
cheo, to pour.
The word to sprinkle, as in Hebrews 9.19, etc., is rhantizo, to
sprinkle, besprinkle, and the sprinkling of blood first took place
at Sinai: "He (Moses) took the blood of the calves and the goats,
with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book
itself, and all the people."
The sprinkling of blood conveys the
thought of cleansing, purification, and sanctification of those who
were sprinkled.
The affusion of blood saved the firstborn from the destroyer.
All
firstborns then and ever afterwards were to be sanctified to the
LORD (Exodus 13.12,15); the clean animals had to be sacrificed;
and the first-born ass, and the firstborn of man associated with the
unclean ass, had to be redeemed.
Heb11v29
They crossed (neither by bridge nor ford, neither by swimming nor
wading, though the Greek word can be used in these senses) as by dry
land.
This the Egyptians assayed to; in their case it was
presumption, for they had no command so to act; they walked by
sight, and made a trial or experiment of what Israel did by faith.
Men should from such events learn a lesson, to do what God has
commanded, for Israel in obeying God's command were baptized unto
Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10.2), and thus
they were saved from the hand of the enemy; though, let it be
observed, they were saved from the wrath of God which fell on Egypt
by the blood of the passover.
Let those who presume to follow the
Lord's command, given to those redeemed by blood, to be baptized,
who have never known salvation by the shedding of the blood of
Christ our Passover (1 Corinthians 5.7; 1 Peter 1.18,19) beware of
the fearful calamity such a course will lead to.
The professed
baptizing (or sprinkling) of unbelievers can only result in leading
such persons (but for the intervention of God's grace and power)
into the jaws of eternal death.
Heb11v30
Israel carried out implicitly and patiently (for he that believeth
shall not make haste) for seven days the plain command of God, and
then at a given moment they shouted and Jericho's walls fell down,
and each Israelite went into the city straight before him.
God
takes delight in His people when they obey Him as He has commanded
them.
Heb11v31
Here we have the last specific example of faith, and that in one in
whom, because of her character and conduct, you would least have
expected to find such faith.
The greatest sinners have sometimes
become the greatest saints, as witness, Saul of Tarsus, and Mary
Magdalene. Rahab said, "I know that the LORD hath given you the
land ... for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above, and on
earth beneath" (Joshua 2.9,11).
In such words shines faith of no
ordinary kind.
Because of her faith in Jehovah she hid the two
spies who belonged to His people.
She was at peace with them, for
she was not hostile to their God.
Therefore she, a believer,
perished not with the disobedient (apeithesasin, those who would not
be persuaded).
They had the same evidence of Jehovah's power as
Rahab had, in the drying of the waters of the Red Sea and the
destruction of Sihon and Og (Joshua 2.10).
Heb11v32
The writer names six men of faith, but not in chronological order,
for Barak lived before Gideon, Jephthah before Samson, and Samuel
before David.
No doubt in these three pairs the greater man of
faith is placed first in each case.
Samuel stands at the head of the prophets, not that he was the first
prophet, but he was first of that line of men who are generally
described as "the prophets." (See Acts 3.24: "Yea and all the
prophets from Samuel and them that followed after."
Heb11v33,34
In David many of these things are exemplified in a remarkable
degree.
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego seem also to be
in the writer's mind.
Heb11v35
Such believing women as the woman of Zarephath (1 Kings 17.17) and
the Shunammite (2 Kings 4.17) had their sons raised from the dead by
Elijah and Elisha.
Other faithful ones were beaten to death (R.V.marg.). (Tumpanon, a
drum, also an instrument of torture, on which criminals were
extended to be scourged and beaten even to death), absolutely
refusing the deliverance offered to them, which undoubtedly was a
deliverance under conditions with which their faith could not
agree.
They refused deliverance that they might have a better
resurrection, for there is not only the resurrection of the dead,
there is resurrection from the dead, that is, (ek) out of the dead,
when many shall rise in a pre-millennial resurrection to share the
glories of Christ's kingdom.
The rest of the dead shall not rise
till the thousand years of Christ's reign are finished.
The Lord
speaks, in Luke 20.35, of those that are accounted worthy to attain
to that world (age, R.V.marg), and the resurrection from (ek) the
dead.
Heb11v36,37,38
Well does the writer say of such godly persons who suffered such
ungodly treatment, "of whom the world was not worthy"!
What power
the devil has to set the one part of the human family against the
other!
But it is the story of Cain and Abel told over and over
again.
"Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother.
And
wherefore slew he him?
Because his works were evil, and his
brother's righteous."
The devil carries on this unholy war against
God, in which the wicked persecutes the righteous (Psalm 37),the
flesh, the spirit, and yet though the righteous is slain, he is the
conqueror of the manslayer.
Who is the victor, John the Baptist or Herod Antipas?
Christ or
Pontius Pilate?
Heaven's nobility wandered in a foreign land in
sheepskins and goatskins, in deserts and mountains and caves, but
what robes and what mansions shall yet be theirs!
Heb11v39,40
They "received not the promise"; compare this with Hebrews 9.15.
Those who died in faith under the Old Covenant received not the
promise of the eternal inheritance, nor could they until Christ had
died for the redemption of the transgressions which were committed
under that covenant.
These saints died and went down to Sheol
(upper), and were there till the resurrection of Christ.
When He
was raised this new dispensation which God had foreseen began, for
apart from "us," of this dispensation, who have been brought into
the blessings of the eternal covenant through the death of the
covenant Victim, they could not have been made perfect.
Note how the two peoples are seen in Ephesians 4.8 "Wherefore He saith,
When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men."
"He led captivity captive," these captives were held under a measure
of captivity till the death and resurrection of Christ, and then
they were liberated by Him, and they are seen in association with
the heavenly Jerusalem as "the spirits of just men made perfect"
(Hebrews 12.23).
These during their earthly lifetime were subject
to bondage through the fear of death (Hebrews 2.15), but now know
Divine deliverance through Christ's death and resurrection.
"And gave gifts unto men," these are the gifts of the present
dispensation - "apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and
teachers."
The "something better" of this dispensation above the
past dispensation of law is what has resulted from the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of which so much is made by the apostle in the
earlier chapters of this epistle.
There is no thought here of these Old Testament saints becoming
members of Christ's Body.
They are a company of saints distinct
from the eternal purpose of God proper to this dispensation of
grace, durng which Christ is building the Church the Body, which is
a distinct and separate thing, an eternal purpose which God purposed
in Christ Jesus.
Heb12v1
In addition to those described in chapter 11, we also are to run the
race before us.
In the imagery used of the runners in the race
there seems to be some allusion to the runners being surrounded by a
great crowd - a cloud of witnesses.
Some have thought there are
two meanings in the word "witnesses": 1, that they are witnesses to
the power of faith in their life's work and experience; 2, that
they are onlookers on the runners of this dispensation.
I do not
view the witnesses as spectators.
No scripture, that I know of,
would justify the thought that saints who have left this earthly
scene are now viewing the progress of saints on earth.
I regard
the first sense, that they are witnesses who have borne and bear
testimony to the power of faith, to be the correct one.
Like runners who divest themselves of every burden, even that of
heavy clothing, so the Christian runner is to lay aside every weight
which would hinder him.
In particular he must lay aside the
besetting, or easily surrounding, sin of unbelief, a sin which would
hem him in on all sides.
How can we run the race of faith with an unbelieving heart?
is allied to patience or endurance.
The race is not one of
minutes, but of years.
Faith
Heb12v2
Some render this "looking off" or "looking away," but looking to one
object - faith's Leader (not the Author) and Completer necessitates that we look away from every other object.
We can
only truly look at one object at a time.
The Lord Jesus is to fill
the runner's vision.
He is the Leader of faith (as He is the
Leader of many sons to glory), who by His perfect example takes
precedence over all others.
He is also the Completer of faith; He
"exhibited faith in perfection in His own example."
No clouds of
unbelief ever filled His sky or were seen on the horizon of his
thoughts as morning by morning God wakened His ear to hear as a
disciple.
He said, "The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was
not rebellious, neither turned away backward" (Isaiah 50.4,5).
This perfect Man, subject and obedient, coming at the close of a
past dispensation and opening a new dispensation, becomes before
all; He surpasses all, and we see in Him, the Leader of faith, the
course we are to pursue.
He, our great Example, in the days of His flesh endured the cross,
and He despised all the shame which consummated in His Crucifixion,
in view of the joy of His triumph and the satisfaction He would have
as the result of the travail of His soul.
His earthly sufferings
o'er, He sat down on God's right hand.
Such is the picture that is
to fill the minds of those who patiently endure in the race - the
Lord's endurance and His resultant joy.
Heb12v3
Consider, "think on, by way of comparison."
Compare Him with
ourselves, how He stood, how He endured such or so great gainsaying
of sinners; such gainsaying as "All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn:
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
Commit Thyself unto the LORD; let Him deliver Him:
Let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighteth in Him."
(Psalm 22.7,8)
"My tears have been My meat day and night,
While they continually say unto Me, Where is Thy God?"
(Psalm 42.3).
Whether we read "against Himself" (A.V.) or "against themselves" (R.
V.) it matters but little, for the gainsayng of men against the Lord
will rebound against themselves; for who can despise the suffering
Saviour without despising the salvation He by His sufferings
wrought, with all the inevitable and awful consequences?
Great is
the tonic to sufferers who drink from the well at Calvary, and as we
consider Him and think of "His wearied frame and thorn-crowned head,
" we feel our own weariness the less.
Heb12v4
No blood had yet flowed from the Hebrews in the spiritual contest in
which they were engaged, as had flowed in the case of their Master,
and had flowed in the case of many of old time, who were stoned,
sawn asunder and slain with the sword.
"Wrestling against sin" is not our striving against the evil which
arises from the old nature in our flesh, but resistance to external
oppression; and were we to yield to such we should be found doing
what is contrary to the will of God.
Earlier, the Hebrews had
taken joyfully the spoiling of their possessions, and now that that
early joy had passed, under the present pressure they were liable to
give way.
Heb12v5,6
Chastisement by external persecution, causing the Christian much
distress of mind and perchance grief, is not to be lightly regarded
or despised.
His wrestling to do God's will is a necessary part of
his discipline and education.
God strong.
Such discipline makes the sons of
"A planter had the cocoon of an Emperor moth, and one day watched it
bursting.
He saw it struggle to burst its bonds, pitied it, and
taking a pair of scissors, cut the old garment so as to permit it to
emerge easier.
So it did, but it was an abortion, it could neither
stand nor fly."
We must not despise our strivings against sin, our standing for
God;
it is part of the Father's discipline of His sons.
The quotation in these verses is taken from Proverbs 3.11,12, as to
God's chastising.
In the first seven chapters of Proverbs we have
Solomon's instruction to his sons.
God too wishes to instruct His
sons. These are our school days, and whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth.
Our future will depend upon our learning of present
lessons God would teach us.
The reception of sons here must not be
confused with the reception of sinners (Luke 15.2), nor yet with the
reception into the Fellowship at the time we were added thereto
(Acts 2.41), but is the reception of sons by the Father into His
school of experimental dealing and instruction that we may be useful
to Him in His service.
A man without training is like a fruit tree
without pruning - all wood and no fruit, or like a horse that has
never been trained, an animal whose strength is going to waste, and
which may be a real danger.
Heb12v7
Whilst God will afflict those that afflict His people, and vengeance
belongs to Him, not to them (2 Thessalonians 1.5-8; Romans 12.19),
yet such affliction is part of God's discipline for His sons.
"It
is unto chastening that ye endure."
This affliction comes by
Divine permission.
There is nothing haphazard in God's training.
We endure affliction, perhaps we say, because we must, it is
inevitable and there is no use fighting against it; we must not
view it in that light.
"It is for discipline."
God is going to
teach us some lesson by its means that we could not have learned
otherwise.
Storms on the sea of Galilee taught the disciples how
small their faith was, a very necessary lesson.
In calm waters
they no doubt thought that they had great faith.
The storm was
needed to show how weak was their faith.
Storms cause the oak to
send its roots deeper into the earth, so should afflictions, which
are oft sent in mercy, cause us to lay hold upon God by His word,
because faith ever comes by hearing and by the word of God.
Heb12v8
The son who knows no chastening is not a son in God's reckoning, but
a child without a father.
All sons are made partakers of
chastening.
How much a person misses in life who has had no
fatherly care, no restraint, no correction, no pruning, allowed to
grow wild!
But how beautiful is the character of a properly
trained person, whose disposition by training has been rendered mild
and moderate, who is a real asset and embellishment to the life of
any community!
On the other hand, how disturbing and destructive
of peace is the lawless, fiery spirit, who has never been put under
restraint, never been displeased by paternal control (1 Kings 1.6),
who becomes a displeasure to all who know him, a rebel against law
and order!
This sort of character is becoming more and more
manifest in the perilous times of the last days, in which being
disobedient to parents and headstrong are outstanding features. (2
Timothy 3.1-5).
Heb12v9
Here the contrast is drawn between the fathers of our flesh and the
Father of spirits.
The former chastened us and we gave them that
respect due to them, but in the greater and more important matter of
the disciplining of the human spirit, naturally so lawless, restless
and rebellious, ought we not, who own this Divine Father as our
Father, to subject our spirits to Him and live?
When oppression and affliction come should our spirits become bitter
as Israel's did at the waters of Meribah?
Should we murmur and
rebel against the Lord?
Is it not better that we should remember
the beautiful words of Paul in such circumstances?
"Our light
affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4.17).
We
may rebel, but we shall dwell in a parched land (Psalm 68.6) and
there die, or we may subject ourselves to the dealing of the Father
of spirits, grow fat on the bread of affliction and live before Him.
Heb12v10
During the few days our fathers had control over us they chastened
us as seemed good to them; the apostle does not say the chastening
was just and right, but the chastening was what seemed to them
proper to the need and the occasion.
How much rather should we
welcome divine discipline, in view of the fact that the profit
accruing therefrom shall abide when time shall be no more!
To be
partakers of His holiness means that we should be holy, as is
enjoined in 1 Peter 1.16: "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy," and
again in 2 Corinthians 7.1 "... perfecting holiness in the fear of
God."
Heb12v11
Here we have "the grievous present" contrasted with "the fruitful
afterwards."
Here we have the sowing during divine chastisement
contrasted with the reaping time of the peaceable fruit, even that
of righteousness.
James 3.18 says that "the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace for them that make peace," and in Isaiah 32.17, it
says, "The work of righteousness shall be peace: and the effect of
righteousness quietness and confidence for ever."
The reaping of righteousness is only true in the case of those who
are exercised concerning chastisement.
Happy are the people who
can say, "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: ... He hath
smitten, and He will bind us up.
After two days will He revive
us: on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before
Him.
And let us know, let us follow on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6.
1-3).
An unexercised mind is like an athlete who has not exercised his
body for the contest; failure will inevitably be his; so the
believer should have an exercised mind, a mind trained, and to such
his experiences will yield abundant fruit.
Heb12v12,13
Having said so much to runners as to the Lord's example and our
being disciplined and trained, the writer reverts to the race
again.
If there has been a slackening off or a ceasing to run, in
the light of what has been said they are to lift up the hands that
hang down.
No runner runs with his hands dangling at his side as
mere appendages, far less do palsied or paralysed knees befit a
runner.
They were to straighten their hands and knees and also to
make straight tracks or paths for their feet.
There was to be no
zig-zag running like the ostrich.
If the strong runners run as
they should, then the weak and lame will be able also to keep to the
path and to go straight on, and in time, by practice and goodly
example, may themselves run well.
But the failure of the strong
has often turned the weak out of the way.
Heb12v14
We are to pursue peace with all.
"Men" is not in the original.
We are to follow peace manward and sanctifiction Godward.
The
Christian is to be a man of peace and a holy man.
Without
sanctification no man shall see the Lord.
James 5.11 says, "Ye ...
have seen the end of the Lord," that is, the end of the Lord's
dealings with Job.
To see the Lord, in the sense here spoken of,
is to see Him, not in person, but in His dealings with us.
When
Samuel told Eli every whit of the LORD's visitation to him the
previous night, Eli said, "It is the LORD."
"Blessed are the pure
in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5.8), they shall see Him
with the eyes of their heart, here and now, as well as in time to
come.
Heb12v15
The analogous scripture to this in the Old Testament is in
Deuteronomy 29.18, which contemplates the possibility of a man or
woman, or family or tribe, turning away from Jehovah to idolatry,
which would result in a root bearing gall and bitterness.
It is not falling short of God's grace, but one who has known it
falling back or away from it.
It is not God's grace in salvation
(Titus 2.11), but the grace of God as a teacher, which instructs us
that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present age (Titus 2.12).
A backslider in heart is ever a trouble, and often many are affected
by such a root of bitterness.
Sometimes through such a root some,
who have themselves done right, have gone away from the holy place
and have been forgotten in the city; this also is vanity
(Ecclesiastes 8.10).
Heb12v16
Reuben was a fornicator and lost his birthright, and Esau was a
profane person and sold his.
With the selling of the birthright
went all the spiritual inheritance of the promises of God, and also
the blessing and service of God.
Whatever material wealth may be
got for the birthright it is but a mess of pottage or a moment of
carnal pleasure.
Afterwards comes the loss, the life a blank, and
in due time comes the remorse consequent upon such outrageous acts.
Heb12v17
Birthright and blessing go together.
At the first his father Isaac
would have blessed Esau with the firstborn's blessing, but later,
having understanding of God's purpose by revelation, he rejected his
son's entreaty.
Esau found no place of repentance; though he had
changed his mind God had not changed His, and his tears did not move
his father to repeal the words of blessing pronounced upon Jacob,
whose was the birthright.
Let us hear and fear!
Let us hold fast what we have that no one
take our crown (Revelation 3.11).
Jacob knew much of divine chastening, but he died in possession of
the fruits of the birthright and the blessing, and passed on the
birthright to Joseph and to Ephraim.
Heb12v18,19,20,21
This is the description of that fearful appearance of Jehovah upon
Mount Sinai; the mountain to which Israel came, where they received
the law and where they commenced their national service for God, in
connexion with the sanctuary which they built there for Jehovah
their God.
God appeared thus to Israel that they might fear Him
and keep His covenant.
Heb12v22,23,24
There are here eight clauses, in which eight things and persons are
mentioned, which are joined by Kai, and 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Mount Zion, and
The city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
Innumerable hosts of angels, the general assembly, and
The church of the firstborn (ones) who are enrolled in heaven, and
God, the Judge of all, and
The spirits of just men made perfect, and
Jesus the Mediator of a New Covenant, and
The blood of sprinkling.
We suggest that the earthly copy seen in Israel of the heavenly
things as enumerated here finds answer in 1. Mount Sinai
2. The encampment of Israel
3. The people of Israel, God's
host on earth
4. The Levites, who were called
out of the tribes to take
the place of the firstborn
sons of Israel
5. The God of Israel
6. --
1. Mount Zion
2. The city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem
3. The innumerable hosts of angels,
the general assembly
4. The church of the firstborn
(ones)
5. God, the Judge of all
6. The spirits of just men made
perfect
7. Moses the mediator of the Old 7. Jesus the Mediator of the New
Covenant
Covenant
8. The blood of the Covenant
8. The blood of sprinkling. (The
sprinkled on Sinai, by which
blood of sprinkling should not
the covenant was ratified
be confusd with the teaching
and Israel became God's holy
associated with the blood of
nation, a kingdom of priests,
and a peculiar people
the passover)
The following remarks are made as a contribution to a difficult, yet
important subject, and are not dogmatically made, but are given
suggestively.
With present knowledge the writer considers that the heavenly
Jerusalem is not the New Jerusalem.
The latter is the Lamb's Bride
and Wife.
The heavenly Zion, God's holy mountain, is alluded to, I
judge, in Ezekiel 28.14-16, where we read of the holy mountain of
God: there too, I judge, was and is the heavenly Jerusalem, the
seat of government and centre of worship of the heavenly hosts.
This heavenly Zion and heavenly Jerusalem cast their shadow on
earth, when Israel reached the mountain of God in the wilderness
(Exodus 3.1,12; 19.1-8 etc.) where they received the law, built the
sanctuary, and commenced their national service for God.
This earthly shadow of heavenly things is seen later when Israel
reached the land and God revealed His choice of "the place of the
Name," which in David's time was Mount Zion and Jerusalem.
Though
God forsook Shiloh, He never chose another place when once He
reached Zion, despite the sad and repeated failures of His people,
both in regard to the whole nation and also the remnant that later
were associated with Jerusalem, the place of the Name.
This centre
of Zion and Jerusalem will again play an all-important part in
connexion with the government and service of God in the Millennium
in those glorious days which are fast approaching.
Then in the eternal state there will be a New Jerusalem, the centre
of things in the new earth, when God's purposes in Eden, so long
suspended by the entrance of sin, will be realized, with the added
glory, a glorious state from which men can never fall.
But this, it
seems to me, will not affect the heavenly centre in the heavenly
Jerusalem, which existed before man's creation, for I believe that
the scene of Ezekiel 28.13-16 is pre-Adamic.
We have not come to Sinai, for we are not subject to Moses and his
law, but we are come to Zion where the Lord Jesus is enthroned with
all authority in heaven and on earth.
We are subject to the Lord
upon the throne, the precious corner stone which is laid in Zion, of
sure foundation.
Thither we have come collectively to receive
God's word for His collective people and to do service to our God in
connexion with His holy mountain.
Hence, we must not refuse Him
that speaketh.
God, who is served by ten thousand times ten
thousand and thousands of thousands, gives to His few and feeble
people boldness to approach to Him.
He will listen to us, if we
hearken to Him; but if we refuse His words, our worship will be in
vain.
Heb12v25
Under the Old Covenant there was no way of escape open to those who
refused Him that warned (divinely instructed, - "an oracular command
given by the Deity") them on earth; much less is there an avenue of
escape open for such as turn away or are turning away from Him that
warneth from heaven.
Heb12v26
Despite the seriousness and the responsibility of hearing and
obeying God's voice, it is comforting in these days of remnant
testimony to remember that the quotation in this verse is taken from
Haggai, and is amongst the words of encouragement which that prophet
spoke to the remnant at the time when the work of the building of
God's house had ceased.
God was with the remnant in their work as
truly as He had been with the entire nation when they built the
Tabernacle in the wilderness.
His voice then shook the earth and
He gave visible tokens of His power and presence, but there were no
such evidences to the remnant which had returned from Babylon.
Yet
they were assured, that as God had spoken in the past and given
proof thereof, and they were to abide in His spoken word, He would
again speak, and both heaven and earth would tremble, and in that
day the latter glory of the house of God would be greater than the
former.
In such words they were assured that their work in
association with God's house would fill its place, and not an
unimportant one, in the history of God's work amongst His people and
amongst men, and would meet its due recompense.
Heb12v27
What shall remain eventually, the material or the spiritual? the
things that are seen or the things unseen? the things God has made
in His natural creation or the things He has wrought in the souls of
His people by the operation of His word and Spirit? that which is
outward or that which is inward?
The things which shall be shaken are heaven and earth.
What cannot
be shaken? - His word (which shakes the shaken things), and those
that rest upon it as the sure foundation of their souls and all
their work.
As buildings shaken by an earthquake become dangerous
and are better taken down and removed, so God will remove from His
universe in due time all those things that are shaken and will
etablish for ever the unshaken and unshakable.
Heb12v28
The kingdom is unshaken, for God's throne is established for ever.
Christ said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall
not pass away" (Matthew 24.35; Revelation 20.11).
In this kingdom
- the kingdom of God - the word of God, the authority of His Christ,
and our subjection to Him are the outstanding characteristics.
No
human teaching or authority can be allowed or tolerated.
There is
one Lord and one faith (the revealed will of God for His people) and
one baptism.
Should we not have grace or thankfulness, if we have
reached and found a place in such a kingdom under the authority of
our one and only Lord, Jesus Christ, to render service well pleasing
to God with reverence and awe?
Heb12v29
Our God is no less a great and terrible God in this day of grace
than He was under the law.
Those who fear Him who speaks in a
"still small voice" need not fear the tempest, and the rending of
the mountains and the rocks, the earthquake and the fire (1 Kings
19.11-13).
The day of testing will come when each man's work will be tried (1
Corinthians 3.13-15), and all shall go save that which has been
wrought in God (John 3.21).
"He that doeth the truth cometh to the
light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been
wrought in God."
Heb13v1
Brotherly love had existed amongst those to whom the epistle was
addressed, for they had ministered to the saints and still continued
in this good work (chapter 6.10).
They had also had compassion on
them that were in bonds (chapter 10.34).
In Chapter 10.24, they
were exhorted to consider one another to provoke unto love and good
works.
This sweet brotherly affection was not to die and leave
them to a cold, dead, formal Christianity.
"In love of the
brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another" (Romans 12.10).
Heb13v2
"Given (or pursuing) to hospitality (love of strangers)" is one of
the exhortations to the Roman saints (Romans 12.13).
It is also
one of the characteristic features of an overseer - "given to
hospitality" (1 Timothy 3.2).
Peter also exhorts; "using
hospitality one to another without murmuring" (1 Peter 4.9).
The
Hebrews were to love the brethren and not to forget to love
strangers and to show them hospitality, because some, such as
Abraham, who entertained the three men who visited him (Genesis 18.
3), had entertained angels unawares.
Bearing in mind that saints,
who may be strangers to us, are children of God, we are honoured to
entertain God's own children.
Heb13v3
To be able to see ourselves in another's circumstances and to do
unto others as we would that they should do unto us, will have a
softening effect on our hearts.
Where love is, the sorrows and
sufferings of those you love become in measure your sorrows and
sufferings.
Thus those in bonds were to be remembered by those who
were actualy free, as though they were bound with them.
And those
who were evil entreated and in distress were to be remembered in the
light of the fact that similar distress could reach to those who
though free were in the body.
Heb13v4
Here we have exhortations to chastity.
The honour of marriage was
to be maintained among all.
Whilst saints were called upon to
judge and to excommunicate the fornicators, in 1 Corinthians 5, yet
God Himself will judge fornicators and adulterers.
Heb13v5
The manner of life or turn of mind of the Christian is that he
should be free from the love of money.
The love of money is a root
of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6.10).
The overseer is to be "no
lover of money" (1 Timothy 3.3).
We are to be content, satisfied
or sufficed, with present things or circumstances, for some who have
reached afer money, in the love of it, have been led astray from the
faith and have been pierced through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6.
10). We must not, however, confuse contentment with indolence and
slothfulness.
"Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1
Timothy 6.6).
To such as are free from avarice the promise has peculiar
sweetness; "for Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee,
neither will I in any wise forsake thee."
Deuteronomy 31.6,8, and
Joshua 1.5 contain similar words.
This is one of the strongest and
most comforting of God's promises in relation to what He is to His
own in the trials of life.
However hard and trying the
circumstances may be, and He has brought His own through many
difficulties, He will neither fail nor forsake His own; He has said
so Himself.
Heb13v6
If the Lord is with us we may each be of good courage and cheerfully
give our reason - "the Lord is my Helper."
What can man do if the
Lord helps His own?
Heb13v7
"Remember your leaders," the leaders who had at one time led them,
and consequently ruled them; which spake, but are no longer
speaking, to them the Word of God.
Considering, contemplating or
surveying, the issue of their life, conduct or manner of life, their
behaviour or walk, they were to imitate their faith.
Issue,
ekbasis, is rendered in 1 Corinthians 10.13 "way of escape."
The
word may mean - "way out", "egress," and also "result," "termination.
"
Some have thought that "issue" means "result, "as to what had
accrued from their faithful lives, and others "termination" as to
how they left this scene, bringing their lives to a triumphant
conclusion.
Heb13v8
The faithful leaders had gone, but that did not mean that all good
had gone with them.
Jesus Christ is the same: He who supported
their leaders yesterday, will support those that are left today, and
He will be the same for ever.
Jacob said to Joseph, "Behold I
die: but God shall be with you" (Genesis 48.21).
The God of the
fathers will be the God of their sons.
"LORD, Thou hast been our
dwelling place in all generations," said Moses (Psalm 90.1).
Jesus Christ the Shepherd and Comforter of His saints will be the
same to His own during all the rolling centuries of passing
generations.
"Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days
were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning
this" (Ecclesiastes 7.10).
Heb13v9
Ephesians 4.14 speaks of infants being tossed about with every wind
of doctrine.
Here the possiblty is contemplated of saints being
carried out of the way or course by various and strange doctrines,
teachings that they had formerly been unacquainted with.
Their
hearts were to be confirmed with grace not with meats.
God's
people in the past economy were never profited spiritually by
meats.
In this dispensation of grace it is words of grace that
feed and stablish the hearts of God's people, not meats, and there
must be no mixture of law and grace, ritualism and faith.
"Meats
for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall bring to
nought both it and them" (1 Corinthians 6.13).
Heb13v10
Those who served the tabernacle received their meat through the
altar.
We receive grace through our Altar, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Those who serve the tabernacle and have their portion from
the altar (1 Corinthians 10.18) have no right to eat of our Altar.
There must be no fusion of meats and grace, no amalgamation of
service in connexion with the tabernacle and that of Christ, no
confusion between their altar and our Altar (Christ), no mixture of
Judaism and Christianity.
They had the shadows, but we have the
Substance.
Heb13v11
Such beasts, whose blood was brought into the holy place, were the
highest kind of sin offering.
Their bodies were not eaten by the
priests, but were burned outside the camp.
This is the type of the
Lord's sacrifice.
He entered the holy place (or Holies) through
His own blood (Hebrews 9.12), and cleansed the heavenly things by
His sacrifice (Hebrews 9.23,24).
Heb13v12
As the bodies of the highest kind of sin offering were burned
without the camp, so Jesus suffered without the gate - outside
Jerusalem - so that He might sanctify or set apart His people by His
blood.
Two things are indicted in verses 11 and 23, "the holy
place" (or Holies) and "without the camp."
This sanctification is
not that of Hebrews 10.10,14 - "sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all ... By one offering He hath
perfected for ever them that are sanctified," which indicates a
sanctification which is eternal and abiding.
In Hebrews 13.12 not
only is the blood-shedding necessary to this sanctification, but the
place of His suffering is a vital consideration - "without the gate."
Heb13v13
Note how in verse 12 it is the sanctifiction of "the people"; it is
the collective sanctification of God's people that is in view.
Unto the realization of this it is necessary that we obey the
exhortation - "Let us go forth."
It is not here that we are "set
apart" by one act of faith in Christ, but a sanctification
manifested in a continual going forth to Him.
We see the state of
the camp.
Man's will has taken the place of God's will.
Christ
has been rejected; His claims have been set at naught, and He has
been taken outside and crucified.
This has been done by Jew and
Gentile, Herod, Pontius Pilate and the people of Israel, and there
has been no rescinding by the world of the decision of Golgotha.
We are responsible to go forth unto Him, to identify ourselves with
Him, and to bear His reproach, the odium which is associated with
Him, and the place and manner of His death.
If we are reproached "for the Name of Christ," then let us know that
the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon us (1 Peter 4.
14).
If we are to know the service of the Holies, we must go forth
to Him outside the camp.
The priest of old went into the Holies
with the blood of the victim whose body was burned outside.
Let us remember too, that "He led them out until they were over
against Bethany" and, "He parted from them, and was carried up into
heaven" (Luke 24.50,51).
He went "in" for those whom He led "out.
"
Are we "out" here and "in" there, or do we wish to be "in" here
and "out" there?
We cannot be "in" in both.
Some go "in" - into
the city - too soon, as Jonathan did (1 Samuel 20.42); natural ties
seemed too strong for him to remain outside the gate with David, but
David, who was "out," went to the house of God, to the priests of
Nob and there he ate of the holy bread from "the holy place" (1
Samuel 21.1-6), which no others ever did, save the priests of the
house of Aaron.
Heb13v14
As those who have gone out to Him we are pilgrims and strangers;
have no continuing city.
"We are but strangers here,
Heaven is our home."
We seek the city which is to come, the Bride, the New Jerusalem
(Revelation 21).
we
"He that overcometh ... I will write upon him the name of the city
of My God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from
My God" (Revelation 3.12).
Heb13v15
"Let us go forth" precedes "let us offer up."
Separation comes
before service.
He who is the leader of praise (Hebrews 2.12),
through whom the sacrifice of praise is offered, was cast out.
He
is outside all sects and systems of men, outside the camp which is
defiled by man's will usurping the place of God's will, and if we
would offer the sacrifice of praise through Him we must be outside
with Him.
Continuous praise is contemplated here, not spasmodic.
"Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth Me" (Psalm
50.23).
The sacrifice of praise is the fruit of lips which make confession
to His name.
"The fruit of lips" is also spoken of in connexion with the
preaching of the Gospel of peace.
"I create the fruit of lips:
Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near"
(Isaiah 57.19; Ephesians 2.17).
Heb13v16
The sacrifice of praise should not be disconnected from the
sacrifice of material things, in doing good and having communion
with others in respect of their needs.
"Communicate" is koinonia,
frequently rendered "fellowship."
We have here in these verses 15
and 16 two kinds of sacrifice (and we speak suggestively), that
which may answer to the Burnt offering, in the sacrifice of praise,
which is something that is wholly for God - "we render as bullocks
the offering of our lips" (Hosea 14.2) - and the Peace offering or
fellowship offering in which all who were clean might share.
The
fat of the peace offering was burnt upon the burnt offering on the
altar, so that God's portion in the peace offering was always
connected with the burnt offering; even so here, the sacrifice of
praise and the sacrifice of doing good in communicating to and
having fellowship with the need of others are seen joined together.
Heb13v17
"Remember (with a view to imitation) them that had," and "obey them
that have the rule (your leaders) over you," are the injunctions of
verses 7 and 17.
Obey means "to be persuaded."
Leaders rule by
persuasion, not by lording it over their charges or allotted
portions (1 Peter 5.3).
The leaders go before and persuade others
to follow by the word of God, which in some degree finds its answer
in their lives. Saints are to submit to their leaders (or
overseers).
What great responsibility leaders have - "They watch
in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account"!
If they
do not watch how shall they give account?
How serious on the other
hand it will be if saints refuse their watchful care and are
rebellious against their rule!
Overseers may give the account of
their stewardship, either with joy or grief (groaning or
lamentation).
If it is given with grief then it will be
unprofitable for the saints who have been under their care.
Let
each give cause for others to have joy in them, both now, and then at the judgement seat of Christ.
God grant spiritual leaders or
guides, and grant, too, a spiritual state amongst saints!
Heb13v18
Here the writer joins others with himself - "Pray for us."
This is
characteristic of Paul to link others with himself (1 Thessalonians
5.25; 2 Thessalonians 3.1).
Whatever may have been said against the writer and his fellows they
had a good conscience and desired to maintain this toward men, as
well as to Godward, in an honest life.
Heb13v19
Here the writer drops into the personal note, "I exhort."
He
exhorts them again with added force to pray, that he, personally,
might be restored to them the sooner.
Heb13v20,21
The God of peace is frequently referred to in Paul's epistles.
"The God of peace be with you all" (Romans 15.33).
"The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly"
(Romans 16.20).
"For God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace" (1
Corinthians 14.33).
"The God of love and peace shall be with you" (2 Corinthians 13.11).
"The God peace shall be with you" (Philippians 4.9).
"The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians 5.
23).
"The Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in all ways"
(2 Thessalonians 3.16).
"This is the only place where our writer mentions the
Resurrection ... that which lay between Golgotha and the throne of
God, between the Cross and the heavenly sanctuary, the resurrection
of Him who died as our sin offering."
But for the resurrection of
Christ chaos and darkness would have won a great victory; but He
who made peace by the blood of His Cross has been raised by the God
of peace, and now the Great Shepherd feeds His flock in green
pastures, beside the still waters.
Whatever disturbing elements
may have been indicated in this epistle, these are possible of
adjustment provided there is a turning to Him the Great Shepherd.
The covenant was sealed by His blood, in (En) virtue of which He has
been raised, its terms become living through His death, but they
could not be put into operation till the Shepherd and mediator had
been raised from the dead.
Christ is to this dispensation what
Moses was to the dispensation of law.
The Lord calls Himself the Good Shepherd who laid down His life
(John 10.11); the Great Shepherd was raised from the dead (Hebrews
13.20); and the Chief Shepherd is coming to reward the under
shepherds of the flock (1 Peter 5.4).
Though we have been made perfect by Christ's sacrifice (Hebrews 10.
14), yet we need to be made perfect in every good thing or work to
do God's will.
How imperfect we are in this respect!
Heb13v22
Here we have a personal exhortation again, "I exhort."
They were
to bear or endure the sound words of exhortation and not be as
those, of whom we read, who would not endure the sound doctrine (2
Timothy 4.3).
As we view the epistle we say, "What an
exhortation!" and what wealth is contained in what are described as
"few words"!
Every word is precious as the fine gold of the
sanctuary.
What an exaltation of Christ! and what an indicating
of that which is due to God! yet throughout there is a pious
restraint and wistful longing for the spiritual betterment of those
to whom he wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit.
Heb13v23
The writer would have them know that Timothy, who had been
imprisoned, had been released from custody, and he anticipated his
coming and hoped with Timothy to see those to whom he wrote.
Heb13v24
"Salute all your leaders," not some of them merely.
Not only were
all the leaders to be saluted, but all the saints as well, the poor
as well as the rich (James 1.9-11; 2.2-5); the less honourable as
well as the more honourable (1 Corinthians 12.23) are to be
saluted.
"Hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, with respect of persons."
"They of Italy salute you," that is "the saints from Italy," who
were not now resident there.
Heb13v25
This is the invariable Pauline salutation, "which," he says, "is the
token in every epistle; so I write" (2 Thessalonians 3.17).
John
in Revelation (22.21) uses the same salutation, but in no other
epistle, save Paul's, is this salutation found.
Great difference of mind has existed from early days as to who wrote
the epistle to the Hebrews, whether Paul, Apollos, Luke or some
other, and it may remain a matter of disputation, but there can be
no doubt of the divinely inspired nature of the epistle, and this is
what counts after all has been said. We turn to this wonderful
epistle to learn of the Lord's priesthood and His work in connexion
with the heavenly sanctuary and also the service of the people of God
in association therewith.
It is indeed a precious inheritance to
God's people and may we prize more and more its mind-illuminating
contents.
Amen.
SECTION No.4
Notes on
JAMES - I and II PETER
I, II and III JOHN
JUDE - REVELATION
PREFACE
This section is the last of Mr. Miller's writings on the New
Testament Scriptures and, as previously stated, these notes have
appeared in Bible Studies.
They embody much study and many
addresses which have delighted many audiences, who have felt
refreshed by the ministry and by the exposition of many difficult
parts of the Word.
Since the days of his early manhood Mr. Miller
has been a living example of the word to Timothy:
"Give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching"
(1 Timothy 4.13).
In his later days he has not abated his energies in this respect
and continues to find fresh gems of truth in the Scriptures so that
many of his readers can truly say that they never saw things that
way before.
It is perhaps when old age is creeping upon men, and study becomes
more arduous, that their ministry tends to be concentrated upon the
middle term (exhortation) of Paul's advice to Timothy, but that is
not so with Mr. Miller, who has endeavoured to keep a balance
between the three terms, and neither to neglect the reading nor the
teaching.
There is a lesson in the rods laid up before the LORD, as detailed
in Numbers 17, that the rod of Aaron "put forth buds, and bloomed
blossoms, and bare ripe almonds."
The blessing of God is seen when
it is no barren rod that comes from His presence, but something that
shows present fruit, full of ripeness, and early promise of yet more
to come, and hints of yet further blessing.
The buds and the
blossoms would not yield diverse fruit from the ripe almonds, but
would reveal consistencies of teaching which would develop.
At any
rate these Notes are set forth that they might be received by
students of the Word as a sincere and humble contribution to the
exploration of the Scriptures.
A.T. Doodson.
NOTES ON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES
Jas1v1
It is not possible to say with certainty whether this is James the
son of Alphaeus (Acts 1.13), called James the less, or James the
Lord's brother (Galatians 1.19).
See note on Jude 1.
He
describes himself as a servant, bondservant or slave, of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
He addresses his epistle to the twelve
tribes of or in the Dispersion.
Those addressed were such of the
twelve scattered tribes of Israel as had embraced the gospel, and
not all Jews of the Dispersion, and those who had embraced the
gospel were in the Fellowship of God's Son, as in Acts 2.42 and 1
Corinthians 1.9.
It is clear from the address that James did not
believe in what are called by some "the lost ten tribes."
In his
salutation he wished them joy.
Jas1v2,3,4
We are to esteem it all joy when we fall into various temptations
(Peirasmos, a trying, putting to the proof; this is not a bad word
in itself, but it is frequently used of temptation or solicitation
to sin, from the flesh, from Satan and the world.)
By temptation
there is a proving (Dokimion, "that by which anything is being
tried"). Dokimos, a proving, is generally used in a good sense to
reveal the excellence of what is proved, so that it may be
approved.
James says that the proof (Dokimion) of your faith
worketh endurance.
Peter also speaks of the proof of faith:
"Though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to
grief in manifold temptations, that the proof (Dokimion) of your
faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is
proved by fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honour at
(in) the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1.6,7).
The proving
of faith through temptations may at the coming of the Lord be seen
to have been unto God's glory and will in consequence be unto our
glory.
In the meantime it worketh endurance, which means
literally, to remain under trial, to endure it.
Paul says, "There
hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape,
that ye may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10.13).
The Lord
taught His disciples to pray, "Bring us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6.13).
The Lord was Himself
"led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil" (Matthew 4.1).
James says, "Ye have heard of the patience
(endurance) of Job" (5.11).
Job said, "But He knoweth the way that
I take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23.
10).
But Elihu said to him, "Would that Job were tried unto the
end, because of his answering like wicked men" (Job 34.36).
If we
refuse to endure when temptations gather around us, we shall not be
perfect and entire, for in the temptation God has something to teach
us that we could not learn in any other way.
Jas1v5
We have an apt illustration of this verse in the case of Solomon.
When he was raised to be king over Israel, God told him to ask what
He should give him, and it pleased God when he said, "Give me now
wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this
people: for who can judge this Thy people, that is so great?"
Because he had not asked riches, honour, nor the life of his
enemies, nor even long life, God gave him wisdom and knowledge such
as none had before his time nor after.
The wise instruction of his
father bore fruit. Solomon said of his father's teaching, "I was a
son unto my father ... and he taught me ... Get wisdom, get
understanding; ... Wisdom is the principal thing; ... yea, with all
thou hast gotten get understanding ... She shall bring thee to
honour, when thou dost embrace her" (Proverbs 4.3-8).
The value of
wisdom in dealing with men and in dealing with things amongst God's
remnant people cannot be over-estimated.
Seeing that God has not
chosen many who are wise after the flesh from among men (1
Corinthians 1.26-29), we, the foolish things of the world, should
have a source of supply of wisdom available to us.
Hence we are
here told, that if any lack (Leipo, to be left or deserted) wisdom
they are to ask of God, who giveth to all liberally, and He
reproaches us not for our foolishness.
Let young men and women ask
wisdom from God in the beginning of their lives, that disaster may
not overtake them in youth's early days. But let us all take
knowledge from the end of Solomon, that wisdom alone will not
preserve the life of those who have it.
We need the keeping power
of God.
Jas1v6,7,8
Faith was characteristic of praying Enoch who walked with God.
Those who pray must believe that God is and that He rewards them
that seek after Him (Hebrews 11.5,6).
Hence the persons who pray
for wisdom must ask in faith.
There must be no doubting,
staggering or wavering.
Abraham is an example of one who doubted
not (Romans 4.20); "He wavered (same word as in James) not through
unbelief."
Having come to the decision to ask wisdom, it is to be
done without wavering or hesitancy, but rather with assured
trustfulness that what has been asked for will be given.
The
wavering doubter is as unstable as the surge of the sea which is
driven by the wind and tossed, but a man of faith is not so moved.
A doubleminded or two-souled man is unstable, not fixed,
inconstant; such will receive nothing from the Lord.
To what
purpose would it be for the Lord to give wisdom to an unstable
man?
It would be much like the proverb about a beautiful woman who
has no intelligence:
"As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout,
So is a fair woman which is without discretion" (Proverbs 11.22).
Again,
"Wisdom is too high for a fool" (Proverbs 24.7).
Jas1v9,10,11
It has been the way of God from ancient times to raise up the
lowly.
Many scriptures testify to this.
"He setteth up on high
those that be low" (Job 5.11).
Hannah in her prayer said, "The
LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, He also lifteth
up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, He lifteth up the
needy from the dunghill, to make them sit with princes, and inherit
the throne of glory" (1 Samuel 2.7,8; see also Psalm 113.7,8).
Mary too struck the same note, in Luke 1.52.
Thus it was among
Christians in the same Fellowship, the poor were exalted and the
rich made low, so that in divine things they might be sharers
together in common.
The greatness of man is not in what he has,
but in what he is.
The simile which James uses to force home his
words to the rich is powerful, in the effect of the burning east
wind from the desert on the grass of Palestine.
It turned lush
pastures to a land of brown stubble, and flowers which adorned the
grass just wilted away.
"So also," James said, "shall the rich man
fade away in his goings."
Jas1v12
Temptation here, as the following verses show, is from man's own
lust which arises from the flesh.
The crown of life is mentioned
twice, here and in Revelation 2.10.
In the latter place it was
promised to those in the church in Smyrna who were faithful unto
death in the temptation which they were enduring from the
tribulation of their time.
They were to have tribulation for ten
days.
Some were to be cast into prison.
The crown of life is
promised to those who endure temptation, either from within their
own selves or from without, and those who endure temptation manifest
in this way their love for the Lord.
By enduring temptation saints
are proved and approved.
Jas1v13,14,15,16
It says, in Hebrews 4.15, "For we have not a High Priest that cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath
been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
The
"all points" do not include the temptation of which James writes.
The Lord was not tempted from lust and sin within as we are.
He
knew nothing of the lust of the flesh, for "the flesh," indicative
of fallen human nature, had no place in His holy Manhood.
There
was no sin in Him, and He knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5.21; 1 John 3.
5).
He came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8.3) - not in
sinful flesh.
His temptations therefore were all from without,
from the devil and from the world (Matthew 4.11; John 16.33).
No
temptation from without was ever allowed to enter and alight upon
and defile His holy humanity. He was ever holy, harmless
(guileless), undefiled, separated from sinners (Hebrews 7.26).
Nevertheless, the temptations which He suffered in His Manhood were
real and terrible (Luke 22.28; Hebrews 2.18).
His divine nature,
He being of one substance with the Father, was above all temptation,
for God cannot be tempted of evil things.
God proves, but tempts no
man with evil things.
This is done by the devil who works upon
human lust to bring forth sin.
James says that when a man is
tempted, he is drawn away or dragged out by his own lust, and enticed
(Deleazo, to trap or catch with a bait).
Then the lust conceives
and gives birth to sin, and sin, when completed or fullgrown, brings
forth death. Sin is a killer, its object, like a wild beast, is to
kill the sinner who commits sin.
"The foolish make a mock at
guilt (or sin)" (Proverbs 14.9), little realizing its deadly
character.
We can no more safely play with sin than with a deadly
serpent.
Let us not be deceived, but kill the lust before it has
brought forth its children.
Jas1v17,18
Every good giving, or act of giving, and every perfect free gift, is
from above (Anothen, see John 3.3,31; 19.11 etc.), coming down from
the Father of lights.
No doubt we have a contrast here between
what is said about man and his lust and sin, in verses 12-15, and
God, the Source of all good, who is without variation in His
goodness.
It may be that we have here a veiled allusion to the
sun, as illustrating what is said of the Father of lights.
The sun
is the earth's source of light and heat, without whose abundant,
changeless, life-giving rays, life on this earth would quickly becme
impossible.
Whatever change there is by turning, and whatever
variation there may be, these are caused by the earth's relation to
the sun and by its turning on its axis; these result in the changes
of day and night, summer and winter, etc.
Similarly, whatever
changes there may be in our experiences towards God, the changes are
ours, not His. We sing, "We change, He changes not."
In these
verses James gives us a picture of the meaning of the name Jehovah,
who said of Himself by Malachi, "I Jehovah change not, therefore ye,
O sons of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3.6).
It may be that
the LORD used the name of Jacob in this verse to show His gracious
dealings with a man who had many changes, as had also his sons.
Jehovah was changeless in His goodness to them as we learn, for
instance, from His giving the manna with unfailing regularity for
forty years, though they on their part disobeyed, rebelled and
lusted in the wilderness.
As they did in the wilderness, so did
they in all the years afterwards.
The Lord said, "Your Father
which is in heaven ... maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5.45).
Paul said to the pagans of Lystra, that "the living God ... left not
Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave you from
heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and
gladness" (Acts 14.15,17).
This good and unchangeable God
has brought us forth by a new birth, as 1 Peter 1.23-25 also shows,
by the word of truth, the living and incorruptible message of the
gospel, in order to be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Here is a great honour which should make us humble and contrite
before God, He having willed it in the counsels of eternity, that we
should be a kind of firstfruits of His earthly, human creatures.
Jas1v19,20
Critics differ as to whether verse 19 should commence with "Ye know"
or "So that," whether the word is Hoste or Histe.
Whichever is the
correct word, the following exhortations emerge from what James has
written in the previous verse concerning the excellence of the
goodness and changeless character of God.
We cannot fail to see
the wisdom in what is said.
The flesh will be babbling, but a
Christian man does not aspire to have a glib tongue.
The quickness
of the ear should ever come before the quickness of the tongue.
Indeed the tongue, that restless evil, needs to be reined in like a
horse (3.3).
Paul says, "Study to be quiet" (1 Thessalonians 4.
11).
It is a safe course to be a good listener.
The tongue often
leads people into trouble, the ear but seldom.
"Slow to wrath" is
a wise precaution.
One of the qualities of an elder is "not soon
angry."
The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty"
"The discretion of a man maketh him slow to anger"
(Proverbs 16.32; 19.11).
Wrath or anger is one of the things that the believer is to put away
(Colossians 3.8).
Jas1v21
We are to lay aside all filthiness, things squalid, sordid, dirty.
Purity of conduct is required of the believer.
The Lord said,
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5.
8).
Timothy was to be an ensample of purity (1 Timothy 4.12).
James also says, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; purify your
hearts, ye double minded" (4.8).
We are also to lay aside
abounding, superabundant wickedness (Kakia, malice, a word with
always a bad meaning), and to receive with meekness or gentleness
the implanted (Emphutos, from En, in, and Phuton, a plant) word.
As the word of God brought salvation to us as sinners, so the word
of God when received with meekness will save our souls (lives) for
God.
We as saints cannot be saved without it (Hebrews 2.3).
Jas1v22,23,24
There may be many hearers of the word, but few doers.
The causes
that the doers are few many be very varied, love of self, of
pleasure, present profit, friendship, etc., etc.
Deluding
(Paralogizomai, "to make a wrong computation, defraud by a false
reckoning") means to deceive or delude.
Those who hear the word
should reckon aright, as to the effect in present loss now through
obedience, and of future gain. There is profit and loss both
ways.
The Lord propounded this matter of profit and loss to His
disciples, in Matthew 16.24-27.
James says that a man who is a
hearer and not a doer is like a man who, having seen himself in a
mirror, forgets what he is like.
We can see ourselves in the
mirror of the word, both as to our perfection in Christ as God in
grace has made us, and also as to what we are like through obedience
or disobedience.
The word of God gives a true reflection as we
stand before it.
Here we may learn what Paul says, in Hebrews 4.
13: "There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but
all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do."
Jas1v25
He that looketh (Parakupto, "to stoop down towards, bend forward,
particularly for examination") into the perfect law of liberty,
refers not to the law of Moses in the letter, but of the spirit:
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (2 Corinthians 3.
6): it is the spiritual meaning of the teaching of the old
covenant.
Note the contrast which Paul draws between the law and
the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, in 1 Timothy 1.6-11.
The gospel condemns all forms of wrongdoing, and at the same time
provides a remedy for the wrongs.
The law of liberty is liberty
through doing what is right, not licence to do wrong.
The saving
grace of God instructs us, "to the intent that, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly
in this present world" (age) (Titus 2.11,12).
The doer receives
the blessing, not the forgetful hearer.
Note Revelation 1.3, also
Psalm 1.1-3.
Jas1v26,27
The Greek word Threskeia (religion) is used only four times in the
New Testament, in Acts 26.5; Colossians 2.18 (worshipping); James 1.
26,27; and Threskos (religious) once, in James 1.26.
Paul calls
Phariseeism religion.
Dr. Young calls religion "outward religious
service."
Religion may be but an outward, hollow sham, a cloke to
cover mere hypocrisy and wickedness.
James describes a man with an
unbridled tongue and a deceived heart as one who has a vain
religion.
But he shows what pure religion is, to care for the
fatherless and widows, and to keep oneself unspotted from the
world.
Here is a saint in the robes of a saint, and not a
hypocrite in stolen garments.
Jas2v1
The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is "the Faith which was once for
all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3).
It is, as we have said
before, the body of doctrine containing the will of God for His New
Testament people, as the law of Moses which was commanded in Horeb
was for all Israel, God's Old Testament people (Malachi 4.4).
Of
old Israel ws commanded, "Thou shalt not respect the person of the
poor, nor honour the person of the mighty" (Leviticus 19.15).
"Ye
shall not respect persons in judgement; ye shall hear the small and
the great alike" (Deuteronomy 1.17).
God said to the remnant
through Malachi, ye "have had respect of persons in the law"
(Malachi 2.9).
Jas2v2,3,4
Here we have discrimination of the worst kind.
David said, "Though
the LORD be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly" (Psalm 138.
6).
Again, the LORD blessed the man that respected not the proud
(Psalm 40.4).
One of the beautiful events in David's life was his
treatment of Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who was lame on both
his feet.
How he lifted up the grandson of Saul his persecutor
from his poverty, and made him to sit at his table as one of his
sons, will ever add lustre to the illustrious name of David, more
than any of his many victories.
We do well to lay to heart the
words of Elihu, "Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any" (Job
36.5), and also Solomon's words, "He that despiseth his neighbour
sinneth; but he that hath pity on the poor, happy is he" (Proverbs
14.21).
Such words in their own Scriptures, and there are many
others of like kind, would have saved the Jewish believers from
acting as James outlined.
Jas2v5,6,7
It is evident, I think, that God has a special liking for the poor
or He would not have chosen so many of them.
Scripture speaks in
many places of His care for the poor.
"The rich man's wealth is
his strong city" (Proverbs 10.15), but the poor have no such
defence, so their hope is the Lord, and in many cases the poor turn
to Him for help, and such as trust in the Lord are never
disappointed.
"Riches profit not in the day of wrath" (Proverbs 11.
4), but the poor whose faith is in the Lord fear no day of wrath.
The Lord spoke of the deceitfulness of riches, in Matthew 13.22.
What kingdom is this that was promised to them that love God?
There is the present kingdom of God, of which the Lord said, "Fear
not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom" (Luke 12.32).
This was that highly favoured place
of being under the rule of God under the lordship of Christ.
This
favoured place of being a people governed by God was once Israel's,
but on their rejection of the Lord it was taken from them and given
to another nation (Matthew 21.43), even to God's New Testament
people who were gathered in churches of God, forming the house of
God.
It is evident that the kingdom of God is a present
inheritance (1 Corinthians 6.9; Ephesians 5.5).
Righteousness,
doing what is right, according to God's revealed will, is an
essential feature of the kingdom of God (Matthew 6.33; Romans 14.17,
18), apart from which collective service for God is impossible.
But what is the kingdom of which James writes?
Is it the present
kingdom of God?
It will be noticed that the words, "promised to
them that love Him," are used in 1.12, where the allusion is to a
future reward, to the receiving of the crown of life.
I am
inclined to the thought that the kingdom of verse 5 is a future
kingdom, such as that of Luke 22.28-30, and also in the parable of
Luke 19.11-27, when rewards will be given for faithful service.
The time will come when the saints shall possess the kingdom (Daniel
7.18,22,27; see also Revelation 2.26).
Who were the rich that
oppressed the poor?
These were not the rich among the saints
(though it is not impossible for rich saints to follow this course),
they are the rich as a class, as distinct from the poor as a
class.
It was not uncommon for the rich (1) to oppress the poor,
(2) to drag them before the judgement-seats, and (3) to blaspheme
the Lord's name.
Jas2v8,9
What a powerful corrective to all forms of misconduct is the royal
law, a kingly law which reigns over and sums up all laws of conduct
of man toward his fellow-man!
It is a law which says that man's
care for himself is to be his care for others; "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself."
"Who is my neighbour?" was the question
asked by the Pharisee, and in answer the Lord spoke the parable,
commonly called that of the good Samaritan, by which He showed that
a man's neighbour is his fellow-man whether rich or poor, sick or
otherwise.
Hence the royal law is the remedy of all ills between a
man and his neighbour.
It saves from the sin of having respect of
persons, as Proverbs 14.21 also shows.
Jas2v10,11
It does not require every link of the anchor chain to break for a
ship to be at the mercy of wind and wave and to drift on the
rocks.
If one link breaks, it is as bad as if every link had
broken.
So is it with the law.
Both murder and adultery were
capital charges under Moses' law.
If one of the statutes of the
law was broken, then the law-breaker was a transgressor, and he was
guilty.
"The wages of sin is death," and death, even that of the
Lord had to take place for the sinner to be forgiven.
Jas2v12,13
The law of liberty is the law of Christ, who said, "For with what
judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured unto you."
Then the Lord spoke about
taking the beam out of one's own eye before one seeks to remove the
mote from our brother's eye (Matthew 7.1-5).
Then we have the
Lord's summing up of the teaching of the whole law and the prophets
as to man's behaviour towards his fellows in one sentence: "All
things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets"
(Matthew 7.12).
It is truly a law of liberty, but if we act
differently towards others than we act towards ourselves we are
making a rod to break our own back; "for," says James, "judgement
is without mercy to him that hath no mercy." See Matthew 18.21-35.
Jas2v14
A lifeless faith which merely acquiesces to certain facts, but which
does not reach the heart, a faith of the head but not of the heart,
can save no one from any danger whatever, whether from hell or any
other danger.
Saving faith affects the whole being of the believer
and he is changed in his attitude to God - "reconciled to God
through the death of His Son" (Romans 5.10).
He is converted to
God, and begins to move heavenward.
Saving faith is a living,
working faith in the heart.
Thus we read of "your work of faith.
"
Faith comes before works, as love comes before labour, and hope
before patience (1 Thessalonians 1.3).
Here let it be noted in
this verse in James, that it is faith being shown to men, not to
God.
God sees and knows in whose heart faith exists, he does not
need to be shown it by the believer's works; but if we are to prove
to men that we have faith, we can only show that by our works.
Men
cannot see into the heart where God can see.
If we keep this
before us in the consideration of this paragrpah in James, we shall
see that there is no conflict between what Paul says in Romans about
justification by faith, which is by God and before God, and
justification by works which is before men.
Jas2v15,16,17
The feelings of our common humanity would teach us how to act in
such a case; how much more those who have faith in the living God,
the supreme Provider for the need of every living thing!
But if a
brother should act towards a fellow-saint in such a manner as James
says - "Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled," but not at my
expense, where is faith in such behaviour?
James does not say that
it does not exist, but that it is dead.
To be dead implies that
life once existed.
We do not speak of stones, bricks, iron, etc.,
being dead, but all forms of earthly life may die, and faith may
die, it may be quite inert and lifeless in itself.
To men it is
only evident if it have works.
The Ephesians showed their faith to
all the saints (Ephesians 1.15).
Philemon too showed it toward the
saints.
This was done by the work that they did for the saints.
Jas2v18,19
Faith is an action of the heart which cannot be seen by men (Romans
10.9,10).
We only know those in whom it is by their profession and
actions.
How otherwise can we prove to others that we have
faith?
Many may believe that God is one, but their belief is no
better than the belief of demons, for it produces no change and good
works in them.
They no more love God than demons do, who believe
and shudder with fear and horror.
Jas2v20
James addresses an imaginary, vain, empty man, and says that faith
without or apart from works is idle; the A.V. says that it is
dead; it is unemployed, and consequently barren of good.
Jas2v21,22,23
Here we have two incidents in Abraham's life contrasted, (1) that of
Genesis 15, when he believed God that he would have a son and heir
by whom he would have seed as numerous as the stars of heaven; and
(2) that of Genesis 22, when he offered up that son, in whom his
seed was called, on the altar on mount Moriah.
The faith of
Genesis 15 was fulfilled in the act of Genesis 22; faith first and
works second.
Abraham's faith in the darkness of the night when he
stood alone with God was seen by no one but God, and faith is ever
before God.
We had not known that Abraham believed God had He not
told us.
But we can see his act on Moriah when he laid his son on
the altar, and by his works was faith made perfect.
He was
justified by faith before God, and justified by works before men.
Who can doubt the faith of Abraham in the light of the works of
Abraham?
He who had received the promise offered up his only
begotten son in obedience to God, for he believed that God would, if
he offered him as a burnt offering, raise his son from the dead.
Such is a living faith that shows itself in its works.
Thus
Abraham was called the friend of God.
Jas2v24
"Not only by faith" are words which show that a man is justified by
faith.
This agrees with what Paul says in many places in the
epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians.
For instance, we find
him saying, "We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith
apart from the works of the law," and again, "But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is reckoned for righteousness" (Romans 3.28; 4.5).
Besides,
a man is justified by his works before men.
Jas2v25,26
In Joshua 2.1 the two men whom Joshua sent to Jericho are called
"spies," but here James calls them messengers (Angelos, "one sent,
messenger, angel").
This is the word that is used of the seven
messengers, one from each of the churches of Asia, in Revelation 1.
20; 2.1, etc.
See also the following where Angelos is used of a
human messenger: Matthew 11.10; Mark 1.2; Luke 7.24,27, 9.52.
James views the two spies as messengers who brought to Rahab a
message of salvation, and those men who brought their message to
her, Rahab sent out another way.
Thus her faith in the God of
Israel (Joshua 2.9-11) wrought, as Abraham's did, with her works,
and by her works was faith made perfect.
She too was justified by
works as well as by faith.
She is amongst those envisaged in
Isaiah 45.22: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the
earth: for I am God, and there is none else."
As the spirit
cannot be separated from the body without death taking place, so
faith cannot live if it is separated from works.
Let us think a
little on the worthies of faith in Hebrews 11 and of what they did
through faith.
James in nowise cancels out Paul, nor Paul James.
Each describes the two sides of a circle, faith and works, faith
before God and works before men.
Jas3v1
Having dealt with the believer, that it is necessary for him to show
to men his faith by his works, James now turns to the teacher.
Paul asks, "Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not
thyself?" (Romans 2.21).
James warns the teachers that a greater
judgement awaits them.
The principle is, that to whom much is
given of the same much is required.
It is said of the Lord,in Acts
1.1, that He began both to do and to teach.
He was the only one
who ever did all that He taught.
Paul called upon the saints
to imitate him as he imitated Christ.
He also wrote to the
Thessalonians and said, "Ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord"
(1 Thessalonians 1.6).
Doing should come first and teaching
afterward in all who would teach others.
Jas3v2
How true it is that we stumble, stagger or fall, many times!
If we
remembered the Lord's words, "And I say unto you, that every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the
day of judgement" (Matthew 12.36), we would be more conservative
with our words.
The spoken word cannot be recalled.
If a man can
bridle (put reins on) his tongue, he is able to bridle his whole
body also.
Such is what James calls a perfect man, a man who is
complete, deficient in nothing.
Jas3v3,4
Here we have illustrations of bridling the tongue and in consequence
the whole body, in the bridling of a horse and bringing the whole
animal under control.
This conception of control is strengthened
by the use of the rudder in the steering of a ship.
The ships in
James's day were small things as compared with the giants that sail
the oceans these days, yet the early principle of guiding a ship by
the rudder is still followed and likely to be.
The same principle
is followed in the ships that sail across the sky as well as on the
sea.
This matter of control, and controlling oneself, is of very
great importance.
Jas3v5,6
How much evil has been caused in the world through masses of men
being swayed by oratory of one of their fellows!
We can think of
the passions of men being aroused by this means, and of wars,
world-wide conflagrations, breaking out in consequence. Men's
boasting with their tongues is like the small fire kindling much
wood.
But the tongue may cause an unholy burning in smaller
spheres than amongst the nations.
A child might light a fire that
it would take a fire brigade to put out.
"The tongue is a fire,"
says James.
It is the world of iniquity or unrighteousness set in
our members.
World (Kosmos) here does not mean order, a thing of
beauty, an embellishment, but rather the conception of the present
world, with weakness, sin and vice, etc., the aggregate of what the
world contains (see 1 John 2.15,16).
The tongue is here viewed as
something utterly bad, and, of course, signifies the tongue that is
not under the control of the Spirit of God.
James says that the
tongue defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course or wheel
of nature.
The word for wheel or course is Trochos which is
derived from Trecho, to run.
Trochos may describe a runner or a
running course, anything round or circular, a wheel of any kind.
The word nature is the Greek word Genesis, which has a variety of
meanings, origin, source, beginning, birth, race, generation, etc.
The course of nature may signify the course in which nature runs.
It conveys to the mind that the tongue inflames or sets on fire that
which is intensely vital in our being, and this that sets the course
or wheel of nature on fire is itself set on fire by Gehenna.
Whilst Hell (Hades) was the abode of all the dead in past
dispensations, both of the righteous and the wicked, Gehenna is the
place where the wicked only will be punished in eternal fire.
James sees destruction as the fire which sets on fire the tongue,
which is a fire which sets on fire the course of nature.
It is
altogether a fearful picture.
The unbridled tongues of men reek
with the very stench of the pit of destruction. But David describes
his tongue as his glory (Psalm 30.12; 57.8).
So also does Christ
speak of His tongue being His glory, in Psalm 16.9.
Jas3v7,8
James says that every species of creature, of beasts, birds,
creeping things, and sea creatures, have been tamed (Damazo,
subdued, or restrained within limits) by the human species. Such
was the ordinance of God at the beginning, when he said, "Have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1.28).
But in contrast to man's ability to control living things outside of
himself, he is not able to control his own tongue, and to restrain
it within proper limits.
It is a restless evil.
Man's other
members may become weary, but not his tongue.
It is as restless as
the troubled sea, which continually casts up mire and dirt (Isaiah
57.20).
The tongue is also full of deadly poison; millions have
been poisoned by it.
Our sole source of pure thought is the
Scriptures; there is no other.
Jas3v9,10,11,12
The R.V. gives "the Lord and Father," which is very unusual; the A.
V. wording is, "God, even the Father."
The contrasts drawn by
James are easily understood, that out of the same mouth should not
proceed blessing and cursing, even as from the same hole or opening
do not pour sweet and bitter waters, or waters salt and sweet.
So
also men do not gather olives from a fig tree, or figs from vines.
Each tree is true to its nature, but often believers are not true to
their new nature, the old man is often heard speaking by the
believer's tongue.
Such things ought not so to be.
Jas3v13,14
After the many illustrations he has used James comes to grips with
their application to assembly life.
He addresses the wise and
understanding among God's gathered people, that they are to show by
their good life (Anastrepho, moving up and down, conduct, mode of
life, frequently rendered conversation in A.V.) their works in
meekness of wisdom.
But if there is bitter jealousy (Zelos, this
word may have a good and a bad meaning according to the context in
which it is found, it may mean strong affection or zeal, and also
envy, jealousy) and faction (Eritheia, this word unlike the former
has no good side in the Scriptures, it is the demon of strife, it
means "to do anything for gain or ambition," to contend or dispute)
in the heart, James says that they are not to boast and lie against
the truth.
Jas3v15,16
This wisdom, that which is seen in jealousy and faction, is not
heavenly, but earthly, sensual (Psuchikos, soulish, animal, "swayed
by the affections and passions of human nature"), devilish
(Daimoniodes, demoniacal, "pertaining to or proceeding from
demons").
Where jealousy and faction are there is confusion or
tumult, and every vile (Phaulos, refuse, worthless, evil, wicked)
deed.
Jas3v17,18
The wisdom from above is pure (chaste, modest, innocent), it is also
without variance (impartial), and without hypocrisy (unfeigned,
real, sincere).
What excellent qualities the wisdom from above
has!
Here the behaviour of heaven is defined for men on the earth
who are moving heaven-ward and hope to be there one day.
The
kingdom of God in its moral characteristics is "righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14.17).
If we want peace
we must first do what is right.
"The work of righteousness shall
be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and confidence
for ever" (Isaiah 32.17).
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5.9).
Jas4v1,2,3
These verses present a sorry picture of carnality.
Wars and
fightings are traced to the desire of these believers for physical
pleasures and lust; "pleasures that war in your members."
They
were not abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (1
Peter 2.11).
They lusted, they killed and coveted, but could not
obtain.
They fought and warred, but they had not.
They either
ceased to pray, or they prayed and asked amiss, and if they received
aught, they spent it to gratify their lust for pleasure.
One could
hardly visualize a worse state than what is depicted here.
Jas4v4,5
In John 14 to 16 and in 1 John 2.15-17, we have the world's attitude
to the Christian and the Christian's attitude to the world clearly
defined, and here James calls those who are friends of the world
adulteresses, such as break their marriage vows, and form a lewd
association.
Often in the prophets the association of Israel with
the nations and their gods is called adultery; Israel was
frequently guilty of unlawful and lewd intercourse.
Similary James
views the believer's unlawful association with the world as
adultery.
The devil is the prince of this world (John 12.31; 14.
30), and the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4.4), and it is
impossible to walk with God and with the world.
It is serious, for
the world's friendship is enmity with God, and to be a friend of the
world makes a believer an enemy of God.
The world is guilty of the
rejection and crucifixion of the Lord, hence, if the believer would
be faithful to his absent and coming Lord, he must treat the world
as it treated his Master. We must not be like a soldier who deserts
and joins himself to the camp of the enemy.
The flesh in the
believer is an ally of the world, hence the flesh must be crucified
with the passions and lusts thereof.
To the enemy within you
cannot allow liberty of action to open the gate of the heart to the
world and allow the world to walk in and pervert the affections and
to turn the believer from minding heavenly things to minding earthly
things.
We know that the Spirit does not speak in vain to those
who have ears to hear.
"Spirit" in verse 5, though printed in both
A.V. and R.V. "spirit", is undoubtedly the person of the Holy Spirit,
and not a disposition of mind.
Jas4v6
God gives greater grace, greater grace for greater need, for grace
is given according to need (Hebrews 4.16).
The words "the
scripture" are in italics, and consequently are not in the Greek,
"He saith," of the A.V. is correct.
God resisteth or sets Himself
against the proud (Huperephanos, Huper, above, and Phaino, to
shine), such as would be conspicuous above or shine above all
others.
Such persons have no place with God.
He giveth grace to
the lowly, those who are not conspicuous.
Such was His Son and the
prophets and the apostles.
Jas4v7,8
The saints were to be subject to God, but to stand against the
devil, and if they resisted and repelled him, he would flee from
them.
Here is a word of encouragement both towards God and towards
the devil.
God said to Asa of old by Azariah, "If ye seek Him, He
will be found of you" (2 Chronicles 15.2).
Moses also said, "What
great nation is there, that hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD
our God is whensoever we call upon Him?" (Deuteronomy 4.7, Mg.).
Jeremiah said, "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon
Thee" (Lamentations 3.57).
As to the matter of cleansing our hands
and purifying our hearts, David said, in Psalm 24.3,4, that those
who would ascend the hill of the LORD and stand in His holy place
must have clean hands and a pure heart.
Asaph also said, "Surely
God is good to Israel, even to such as are pure in heart" (Psalm 73.
1).
The Lord said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall
see God" (Matthew 5.8).
If we do God's work we must have clean
hands, and if we think God's thoughts we must have pure hearts.
To be double-minded means to be two-souled, and describes one who is
fickle and inconstant.
Jas4v9,10
Ecclesiastes 3.4 says that there is a time to weep and a time to
laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
In the light of the
condition of those of whom James writes, as shown in the former
verses, it was a time to mourn and weep, and to afflict one's
soul.
Jeremiah had been called the weeping prophet, and well might
he weep over the condition of God's remnant people prior to the
Babylonian captivity.
The LORD said, "Stand ye in the ways and
see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We
will not walk therein" (Jeremiah 6.16).
Later Jeremiah said, "Hear
ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.
Give
glory to the LORD your God, before He cause darkness, and before
your feet stumble upon the dark mountains; and, while ye look for
light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross
darkness.
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in
secret for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down
with tears, because the LORD's flock is taken captive" (Jeremiah 13.
15-17).
James calls for mourning and heaviness because of the
condition of God's people in his day.
If they humbled themselves
in the Lord's sight then He would exalt them, but He could not exalt
them as they were.
Jas4v11,12
These words are like those of the Lord, in Matthew 7.1-5, when He
said, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
Again He said, "Be ye
merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
And judge not, and ye
shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be
condemned: release, and ye shall be released: give, and it shall
be given unto you" (Luke 6.36-38).
It is well to remember the
incident of Aaron and Miriam when they spoke against Moses (Numbers
12) in this matter of speaking against brethren.
James says that
he that speaks against his brother speaks against the law, a very
serious matter, and he becomes not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Paul said that it was a small matter with him to be judged of man's
judgement or "man's day."
He who judged him was the Lord, who
would give a true judgement, having all the deep secrets of the
human heart before Him.
Whilst God's people are called to judge
under the direction of elders, especially where there is sin in the
camp, they are to cease judging one another.
"He that despiseth
his neighbour is void of wisdom" (Proverbs 11.12).
Jas4v13,14
God's wisdom through Solomon gives guidance as to all our plans and
projects: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy
paths" (Proverbs 3.6).
Both the uncertainty of earthly things, and
of life itself, should make us in all things seek the leading of
God's good Spirit.
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God" (Romans 8.14).
The future of our pilgrimage
is in God's hands, not our own.
Human life is but a vapour, both
in its uncertainty and in its brevity.
David said at the end of
his remarkable and turbulent life, "Our days on the earth are as a
shadow, and there is no abiding" (1 Chronicles 29.15).
Jas4v15,16,17
They were saying of their own volition that they would go here and
there and trade and get gain (and have no losses), instead of
seeking the Lord's will in their movements and enterprises.
"If
the Lord will" is not to be merely a saying with us, but implies a
seeking and discerning what the Lord's will is in any of our
purposes and movements.
If we do not know what His will is, we do
well to halt, as did Ezra at the river Ahava (Ezra 8.21), and to
seek of God a right way.
To embark on a self-chosen way would be
as foolish as for a ship to put to sea without chart or compass.
Their boasting and vauntings were evil in the sight of God.
Ostentation and pomp have no place with God.
If they knew what was
good to do and did it not, then it was sin; this is true both to
them to whom it was written and to us.
It is a very corrective
word.
Jas5v1,2,3
Whilst the words of James may have a general application to the rich
as a class, their primary application was to the rich among God's
people, whom James addresses.
Though it is not an evil for any to
be rich among God's people, provided that they are rich in good
works (1 Timothy 6.17,18), yet there is a danger of loving riches
for their own sake.
This is an evil and a danger.
This was the
evil James saw in the rich believers of his time.
They were to
weep and howl for their miseries were approaching, and would come
upon them.
How small a displacement of the balance of economic
stability would leave many, who are esteemed rich, poor and
without means of subsistence!
James uses some very potent
descriptions of the miseries which he saw coming.
He said that
their riches were putrified, and moths had destroyed the garments
which they had stored.
Moths do not eat the clothes that people
wear, only those that are laid aside.
Rust does not corrupt silver
and gold in use.
The sin and lust of Pharaoh of Egypt in the past
was to have great store cities and to fill them as the result of the
tears and sweat of his Israelite slaves.
It is this evil, in which
some have more than enough and many less than enough, which fills
the earth with sin and misery.
The whole of the teaching of the
Scriptures is against this curse, and the Lord told His disciples
where to lay up their treasures, where there are neither rust nor
moths and where there are no thieves either.
The Lord spoke
powerfully of profit and loss, in Matthew 16.24-27: gain in the
present, loss in the future; loss in the present, and gain in the
future.
Gold still glitters in the light of this world and drives
some people mad, as it did Balaam of old, and Demas in the present
dispensation, not to speak of Judas Iscariot. How paltry was the
gain of each!
Last days is a bad time to lay up treasures on earth.
Jas5v4
Here we have the evil work of the rich of the former verses
revealed.
Instead of rendering to their servants "that which is
just and equal" (Colossians 4.1), according to the command of Paul,
they kept back the labourers' hire by fraud, and what was cast into
the treasury of the rich fraudulently cried out against the unlawful
possessors. It should have been in the needy hands of the
labourers.
Though the authorities of those days, perchance, paid
little heed to such injustice, the cries of the reapers came into
the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
He will recompense, if men do not,
and well may the unjust rich weep and howl in the light of God's
just judgement.
God is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are
weighed.
Jas5v5,6
Whilst others lived lives of semi-starvation by their proper wages
being fraudulently kept back, the rich luxuriated in delicate living
in pleasure.
They nourished their hearts in a day of slaughter,
for there are more ways of killing men than hitting them over the
head with a bludgeon.
It is not revealed who is referred to as the
unresisting righteous one, who was condemned and killed, but the
crime is laid by James at the door of the rich.
It is not the
Lord, Stephen or James, I judge, who is referred to, but some other
tragedy connected, perhaps, with the fraudulent dealings of the rich
with their workers.
Jas5v7,8
The husbandman here is not the Lord, but he illustrates how the Lord
waits, and that we too are to be patient, and to establish our
hearts, for the Lord's coming is at hand.
The husbandman waits
till the fruit of the earth receives the early rain to cause the
seed to sprout, and the latter rain to fill the ears of the corn.
It has no promise or indication that there will be Pentecostal
showers of blessing at the end of the dispensation as there were at
the beginning.
That is not the subject that is being dealt with in
the paragraph.
The subject is the longsuffering of saints in view
of the soon-coming of the Lord.
Jas5v9,10,11
It may be that in the words, "Murmur not ... one against another,"
which means to groan or sigh, we have a reference to Job and his
three friends, who "when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and
knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent
every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward
heaven.
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and
seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his
grief was great" (Job 2.12,13).
Is it any wonder that after such a
silence Job opened his mouth and cursed the day in which he was
born? (Job 3).
Their words were no better than their weeping and
silence, of which Job said, "To him that is ready to faint kindness
should be shewed from his friend" (Job 6.14), and later he said,
"Miserable comforters are ye all" (Job 16.2).
Job said that were
they in his state, "I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the
solace of my lips should assuage your grief" (Job 16.5).
They
had only one idea and that was to condemn Job for his supposed
wickedness which they thought was the cause of his great suffering.
Some of the greatest saints have been the greatest sufferers.
Suffering is not always to be traced to the sin of the sufferer.
This is proved in Job's case.
Those who suffer, the Lord pointed
out, are not the greatest sinners (Luke 13.1-5).
Let us learn the
art of comforting the afflicted.
Whilst we have the end of the
Lord's dealings with few of His prophets, Moses, David and Elijah
being exceptions, and we have none of the end of the Lord's dealings
with the apostles, except James, we have the end of the LORD;
that is, the end of the LORD's dealings with Job.
God gave to him
twice as much as he had before, and an equal number of sons and
daughters to whose upon whom the house fell, proving that the LORD
is full of pity and merciful.
In Job we have an example of patience
in suffering, an example worthy of following.
Jas5v12
The command of the LORD, in Leviticus 19.12, was, "Ye shall not
swear by My name falsely, so that thou profane the name of thy God.
"
There has been difference of mind about swearing, as to Matthew
5.33-37, and in the verse above; some holding that what was before
the Lord and James was men swearing lightly by this and that, and
has nothing to do with a person taking the oath before a court
or tribunal, or swearing fealty to any king or government.
Clearly
there was no ban on swearing under the law.
The swearing, in
Leviticus 19.12, is in connexion with not stealing or dealing falsely
with one another.
Then in Numbers 30.2, when a man swore an oath
and bound himself, he was not to break his word, but to do according
to what he had said. Again in Deuteronomy 23.21,22, it was sin for
any one to vow and not to perform the vow, but if there was no vow
it was not sin.
The Lord cancels all swearing, as under the law,
for His disciples by His word, "Swear not at all."
The Christian's
word is his bond, and anything beyond, "Yea, yea; Nay, nay," is of
the evil one.
Whilst it may be argued that what is taught in these
two passages has no primary application to the taking of the oath in
a court of law, etc., yet I am of the opinion that the Lord's words,
"Swear not at all," contain a guiding principle even to an oath in a
court of law.
We are not to swear lest we fall under judgement in
not fully performing what we say. There is in Britain provision
whereby a person may affirm instead of taking the oath.
Jas5v13
Paul and Silas, in the prison in Philippi with lacerated backs and
feet in the stocks, first prayed in their suffering, and later, in
the upsurge of spiritual joy, they sang praises to God, and the
prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16.25).
If suffering saints
pray long and fervently, they too may sing praises.
God does not
ask praise from a heavy heart, most birds do not sing in the
winter; but to the afflicted He can and does give joy.
Of the
Thessalonians it is said, that they "received the word in much
affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1.6).
Jas5v14,15
Five things in this passage appear on the surface, (1) the sick man,
(2) the church, (3) the elders of the church, (4) the prayer of
faith, (5) the anointing with oil.
There is one thing that does
not appear on first reading, and that is, perhaps, the most
important of all, the knowledge of the Lord's will, namely whether
it is the Lord's will that this saint should be healed or not.
For
elders to go and pray over a sick saint and anount him with oil,
professedy in the name of the Lord, not knowing that it is the
Lord's will to heal the person, is to act blindly.
It is no prayer
of faith at all.
No wonder many who have acted blindly in their
praying and anointing have failed in their supposed curing, and have
blandly laid the blame on the sick person; a shameful thing to
do.
The blame lay with the would-be miracle workers.
Shame on
those who pretend to carry out James 5.14,15, and blame the sick
person for their failure!
It is such as carry out the praying and
anointing who are the failures.
It is quite erroneous for any one
to say that the healing of James 5.14 is not miraculous healing.
Anointing with oil is twice mentioned in the New Testament, in Mark
6.13, and James 5.14.
The first was the work of the twelve
apostles, who were sent out by the Lord with power to heal the sick
and to cast out demons.
"And they went out, and preached that men
should repent.
And they cast out many devils (demons), and
anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them."
No one
can deny that the events recorded in these verses were miracles.
The saving or raising up of the sick in James is also miraculous.
It is not that the sick man, in James, felt a little better after
being anointed and prayed over, and little worse the next day, and
better the following, and so on, oscillating between better and
worse.
It might be that because he has been anointed he adopts
auto-suggestion, and seeks to convince himself by saying, "I am
getting better and better and better."
It has been well said that
you may have a miracle, or no miracle, but you cannot have half a
miracle.
Miracles of healing and casting out of demons were
wrought by the Lord in which He proved to men His Deity, and the
Lord's disciples were given power by Him to prove the divine
character of their message (John 10.36-38; 14.10,11; 15.22), and
when the Lord returned to heaven the working of miracles continued
to prove the truth of the great salvation; "God also being witness
with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and
by gifts (distributions) of the Holy Spirit, according to His own
will" (Hebrews 2.4).
Many claim miraculous powers today whose
doctrines are unscriptural and Satanic, communities of people whose
doctrines differ entirely from one another.
Is God, who is One and
whose doctrine is one, putting His seal on all those who claim to be
able to perform cures?
It simply cannot be. God cannot deny the
unity of His own Being and the unity of His revealed will as given
in the Scriptures.
What church is referred to in James 5.14?
It
cannot be the Church which is Christ's Body (Ephesians 1.22,23),
which the Lord called "My Church" (Matthew 16.18), against which the
gates of hell cannot prevail.
That Church never meets and it has
no elders.
The most of its members are in heaven.
The church
James mentioned was one of the churches of God (1 Corinthians 1.2;
11.16; 1 Thessalonians 2.14; 2 Thessalonians 1.4, etc.), of which
there were many in the days of the apostles.
Miracles were not
performed because of the godliness of the apostles, consequently the
power to work miracles was not lost through the ungodliness of the
men who followed the apostles.
Hear the words of Peter, "Ye men of
Israel, why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on
us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to
walk?"
The power which healed the lame man was the power of the
name of Jesus Christ (Acts 3.6,7,16).
James 5.14,15 belongs to a
miraculous period at the beginning of this dispensation, and such as
mimic the miracles of those days will receive a mimic's reward.
Does God hear prayer for the sick?
We emphatically believe He
does, and He has in our experience healed the sick in answer to
prayer.
According to the wisdom which God has given us, we use the
natural means of healing and seek God's blessing thereupon.
Careful nursing has often been richly blessed of God.
God has
often been pleased to use the simple means used to the recovery of
the sick.
Even Paul, a great miracle-worker, wrote to Timothy to
use a little wine for his stomach's sake and his often infirmities
(1 Timothy 5.23); this was wine used medicinally, as we may use
medicinal preparations.
Till men are given that knowledge that
they know that it is God's will to raise a sick person up, they will
be wise to leave the oil bottle at home, when they go to visit the
sick and to pray for them.
If, in the time of James, sin was the
cause of the sickness, then the sin would be forgiven. In this way
both soul and body would then be brought into a state of well-being.
Jas5v16,17,18
Verse 16 does not teach us that sins, such as in 1 John 1, are to be
confessed one to another, the intimate things which occur in the
lives of believers which have to do with their communion with God.
The sins that have to be confessed to one another are such faults
and offences which have been committed by saints between themselves,
which have affected communion between themselves, and, in
consequence, their communion with God.
These should be confessed
to one another and prayer made for each other.
And where sickness
has been in consequence of these sins, through confession and prayer
the sick person will be healed.
Then we are told of the
effectiveness of prayer of a person who is righteous and right with
God.
Elijah is held up as an example as showing what is meant by
the prayer of faith.
Could any sincere and righteous Israelite
have prayed for God to send no rain on the land, and then again for
Him to send rain, and God would have hearkened to him?
We judge
not.
What are we to learn from Elijah's prayer?
It is this, that
we must first learn what the will of God is, and then to pray
according to His will (1 John 3.19-22; 4.14,15).
Elijah the
prophet was one who claimed to stand before God (1 Kings 17.1), but
he was not at liberty to pray against Israel, because he thought
that they should be punished for their wrong doing (1 Kings 19.9,10,
13,14; Romans 11.2,3).
His prayers had to be according to the will
of God.
Hence it was that God revealed to himn that there would
not be dew or rain for years upon Israel, and he prayed for the
fulfilment of God's word.
Then God revealed to him His will as to
sending rain at the end of three years and a half of drought, and He
again prayed for the fulfilment of God's word.
We see him in
prayer on Carmel, bowed down upon the earth, with his face between
his knees.
The rain came according to the word of the LORD and
Elijah's prayer.
It is quite possible by not knowing God's will
that we ask amiss (James 4.3).
Elijah's prayer was the prayer of
faith, prayer as the result of divine revelation, for where there
has been no revelation there can be no faith.
Jas5v19,20
It is better to read the passage - "If any among you is seduced from
the truth, and one convert him"; this is a most profitable and
desirable work.
What is said here about recovering the erring is
like what is said in 1 John 5.16: "If any man see his brother
sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him
life for them that sin not unto death."
If a sinning brother goes
on in his way of error, then death, spiritual death, will be the
result, but if he is converted by someone then he will be saved from
death, and a multitude of sins which would have been committed will
be covered or concealed (Kalupto, to hide, conceal, or to prevent,
but not to cover in the sense of atone for).
NOTES
ON
THE
FIRST
EPISTLE
OF
PETER
Peter, James and Paul wrote epistles to the same people, to the
saints of the Dispersion (James 1.1; 1 Peter 1.1; 2 Peter 3.15).
The Dispersion was the dispersed Jews who lived in Gentile lands.
The only epistle of Paul which answers to what Peter said is that of
the Hebrews, and we are of the opinion, despite what some modern
writers have written to the contrary, that Paul was the writer of
the Hebrews.
1Pet1v1,2
Peter writes as an apostle.
Those to whom he writes are the elect
in Pontus, Galatia, etc.
The elect are viewed as sojourning on
earth, a pilgrim people, like the children of Israel in their
journey through the wilderness.
This is different from the view of
election in Ephesians 1.4, where the saints are viewed as chosen in
Christ before there was any earth.
"He chose us in Him (Christ)
before the foundation of the world"; and as chosen ones we were
blessed with every spiritiual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ.
In Ephesians we are taught to look away from earth to the
heavenlies in Christ, the place of our blessings and election, but
in 1 Peter we look to the earth and see a chosen people wending
their way as pilgrims through a strange and foreign land to their
inheritance above.
These elect in 1 Peter were sojourners in a
double sense, they were Jewish people sojourning among the Gentiles,
away from their own land, but they were also "sojourners and
pilgrims" (chapter 2.11) in the higher sense; they were pilgrims on
earth going on to their heavenly country.
Like Abraham, they
desired "a better country, that is, a heavenly" (Hebrews 11.16).
The five places
Minor, which is
churches of God
planted by Paul
mentioned, Pontus, etc., were Roman provinces in Asia
now called Turkey.
In these provinces there were
in various cities, certain of which we know were
and his fellow-workers.
These elect sojourners were elect according to the foreknowledge of
God.
Of old, God chose the seed of Abraham, His friend, and we can
see how in His foreknowledge He made provision so that His purposes
might be fulfilled.
We point out but one thing in this connexion,
the choice of the sons of Joseph, according to God's foreknowledge
of future events, who were given a place among the sons of Jacob as
though they had been Jacob's own sons (Genesis 48.5,6).
This was
because the day would come when Levi would be given the place of the
firstborn sons of Israel because of the idolatry of the latter in
the matter of the golden calf (Exodus 32.26-29; Numbers 3.44-51).
In this election of 1 Peter 1 we are to make our calling and
election sure (2 Peter 1.10), but in that of Ephesians 1, which is
coupled with foreordination, we cannot make it more sure (Ephesians
1.5).
What is said in Ephesians 1 is similar to what is recorded
in Romans 8.30: "whom He foreordained, them He also called: and
whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them
He also glorified."
This foreordination, which is connected with
justification and glory, cannot be made more sure, but in service,
during the days of our sojourning on earth, we are to make our
election sure.
Election in 1 Peter is "unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
This takes us back to
Sinai, to the time when Israel became the people of God, to which
they had previously been chosen.
The sprinkling of the blood of
the covenant at Sinai should not be confused with the blood of the
passover which was put upon the portals of the doors of the homes of
the Israelites in Egypt.
Two very different lessons are to be
learned from the blood in each case.
It was when Moses "took the
book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people", and
they said, "All that the LORD hath spoken will we do, and be
obedient," that Moses took the blood of the covenant, and sprinkled
it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which
the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words" (Exodus 24.7,
8).
No obedience, save what was involved in the killing of
the passover, applying the blood, and eating the passover lamb in
preparation for their journey, was required of Israel in Egypt, but
it was quite different in regard to the blood of the covenant; the
covenant required continual obedience on the part of Israel.
It is
even so in regard to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood in 1
Peter 1.2.
There is a great difference between obedience to the
Faith (Acts 6.7), and the obedience of faith (Romans 1.5; 16.26).
To the gospel the believing sinner renders the obedience of faith;
he is not allowed to do more than believe, and hence he is saved and
justified by faith.
But when he is justified, then he has to be
obedient to the Faith in all its commandments, the Faith being the
revealed will of God for His people in this day, as the law was for
Israel in the past.
In the past the covenant was the law, and the
law was the testimony; it was the ten commandments written on the
tables of stone which were placed in the ark in the Holy of Holies.
Peter salutes this elect, sanctified, obedient, blood-sprinkled
people with the words "Grace to you and peace be multiplied."
Even such as Nebuchadnezzar wrote of peace being multiplied (Daniel
4.1), and of Messiah's kingdom it is written "Of the increase of His
government and of peace there shall be no end" (Isaiah 9.7).
1Pet1v3,4
Peter begins this paragraph with an ascription of praise to God the
Father, whom He calls the God (this implies the manhood of Christ,
who as Man was an obedient worshipper) and Father (this implies the
Deity of Christ, who is the only begotten Son of the Father) of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
He according to His great (not Megas, great,
but Polus, "great in magnitude or quantity, much") mercy begat us
again unto a living hope, and that living hope springs from the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The two disciples on the way to
Emmaus were in a disconsolate and hopeless state, for to them the
Lord was dead.
They said, "We hoped that it was He which should
redeem Israel," but their hope blazed up afresh when He was known of
them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24.35).
"The Lord is risen
indeed" is the hope of the believer, and to such a hope he
is begotten again.
The A.V. uses the Old English word "lively."
At times this hope, though it is alive in the believer, is not
"lively"; it is a fact which does not quicken his pulse, brighten
his eyes, raise his head.
He is more like those who followed the
body of the Lord to Joseph's new tomb, than like those who walked
out with Him in resurrection to the slopes of Olivet, when He went
back to heaven.
hopelessness.
We have been begotten again to a hope, not to
We have also been begotten again to an inheritance, for since we are
children of God with the Spirit-taught words, "Abba, Father," upon
our lips, we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8.
15-17).
Ours is an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading
inheritance.
There are no death duties here to reduce a noble
inheritance to what is but a faded memory of fabulous fortunes.
The inheritance which is ours is in heaven, where there is neither
illegal theft, nor legal appropriation. The inheritance does not
fade away till its wealth and glory are gone.
Neither the
corrupting hand of sin nor the defilements of earth can affect it;
it is reserved, kept for us against our arrival in heaven.
One day
we shall claim our own unto which we have been born again.
The
inheritance is not something we have laboured to attain, but it
comes to us through the new birth.
1Pet1v5
Guarded means that we are guarded as with a military guard.
The
danger of these pilgrim-heirs was great as they made their way
through what was truly "a waste, howling wilderness."
Israel's
wilderness was a "land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the
lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent" (Isaiah 30.
6); it was the Negeb (the South) of Israel's wanderings.
The
power of God guarded His people in the past and the power of God is
the guard of His people now.
Thus we have a reserved inheritance
for a guarded people.
We are guarded through faith, for we must
not stray from the path marked out for us in the Scriptures, for if
we stray to the right and left, we may fall a prey to the devil,
who, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour
(chapter 5.8).
"We walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5.7) should
follow being saved by faith.
We have been saved by grace through
faith (Ephesians 2.8); we are being saved daily by working out our
own salvation through God working within us (Philippians 2.13); and
there is salvation yet further, which is nearer to us than when we
believed (Romans 13.11), and which is ready to be revealed in the
last time; this is at the Lord's coming again.
1Pet1v6,7
"Greatly rejoice," the word translated is Agalliao, which means "to
leap for joy, exult."
This is what is called "the rapture" by some
teachers of the word.
On the one hand, we are "transported with
desire" at the thought of being saved completely from the world and
its corruptions;
on the other, we may be put to grief by manifold
temptations, if there should be need for this.
"But God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape,
that ye may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10.13).
"With the
temptation" (with, Sun, together with), shows that the temptation
and the escape, the issue or way out, are made together.
Often,
perchance, we are so grieved with the temptation that we do not wait
on God to reveal the way out, which will surely come if we wait for
it with patience.
The way of escape came for Job after his weary
days and nights of temptation.
It came also for David, for Joseph,
and for many others.
Why should there need to be temptations?
The answer is, they are a
test of faith.
God has had great pleasure in displaying the faith
of His saints.
Think in particular of faith's "picture gallery" in
Hebrews 11.
How frequently we have gone round and viewed the
characters of those faithful men and women, as the Spirit of God has
painted them!
That is a display in miniature of what will yet be,
which is sufficient to encourage present sufferers to imitate their
faith.
But wjat will it be when at the revelation of Jesus Christ
the proof of the faith of saints will be exhibited, a proof so
precious that gold could not buy it, which will be found unto
praise, glory and honour?
The revelation of Jesus Christ here is
not His revelation to the world in flaming fire, as in
2 Thessalonians 1.7,8, etc.
The different words used in connexion
with the Lord's coming again should be studied.
The word Parousia,
"coming," or more correctly "presence," is used both in connexion
with the Lord's coming to the air for His saints (1 Thessalonians 4.
15) and His coming to earth as the Son of Man (Matthew 24.27).
Phaneroo, to be manifested or appear, refers to Christ at His first
coming (Hebrews 9.26; 1 John 1.2, 3.5-8) and to His coming again for
His saints (1 Peter 5.4; 1 John 2.28, 3.2.
Epiphaneia, appearing
or manifestation, refers to the Lord's first coming (2 Timothy 1.10;
Titus 2.11), to His coming for His saints (Titus 2.13, "the blessed
hope and appearing of the glory"), and to His coming to earth (1
Timothy 6.14; 2 Timothy 4.1).
Apokalupsis, uncovering, revelation
or appearing, refers to His being revealed to His saints at His
coming for them (1 Corinthians 1.7; 1 Peter 4.13; 1 Peter 1.5,13;
revelation also applies to the Lord's coming in judgement to earth
(2 Thessalonians 1.7).
1Pet1v8,9
We believe in One whom we have not seen (John 20.29), and we also
love Him whom we have not seen.
Peter is careful to use "ye" and
not "we," for he had been privileged to see the Lord daily.
Though
we see Him not, yet believing (faith makes things more real to the
believer than sight, for faith implies seeing persons and things as
God sees them), we rejoice greatly (Agalliao, "leap for joy," the
same word as in verse 6) with joy unspeakable, with a joy which
cannot be told out, and which human words cannot express.
Peter
thinks of saints leaping for joy, their whole being exulting,
something like David when he danced before the LORD at the bringing
up of the ark to Zion.
Doxazo (full of glory) means to be
glorified or such as are glorified; it is a present experience like
being changed from glory unto glory, as from the Lord the Spirit (2
Corinthians 3.18).
We are believing ones now; we shall be
receiving ones shortly, for we shall receive the end of our faith.
This faith which applies to the present circumstances of life
(though faith, hope, love, we judge, shall never cease) shall reach
its end or issue, which is the salvation of our souls or selves at
the Lord's coming.
1Pet1v10,11
Salvation will not be completely effected until we receive the end
of our faith, even the salvation of our souls or selves.
As has
often been pointed out, there is (1) salvation once for all from
sin's penalty (Ephesians 2.5,8; Titus 3.5), (2) salvation daily from
sin's power, effected by the work of God within us and by our own
work and the ministry of others (Philippians 2.12,13; 1 Timothy 4.
16), (3) salvation from the defiling presence of sin when we fall
asleep in Christ (1 Corinthians 15.18) or when the Lord comes
(Romans 13.11).
God's saving grace has appeared, by which we are
already saved (Titus 2.11), but there is yet grace which is to be
brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ when He comes for
His saints (1 Peter 1.13).
Two words are used, of somewhat similar
meaning, of the exercise of the prophets of the Old Testament, they
sought out, they set themselves to seek out concerning this
salvation of which they wrote, and they also traced out,
investigated, scrutinized their own writings and they did so
diligently.
A prophet not only searched out the matter in is own
writings, but he searched the writings of other prophets.
Daniel
read the prophecy of Jeremiah, and Zechariah referred to what the
former prophets had written.
What was the cause of their deep
and painstaking interest?
It was because the Spirit of Christ
which was in them testified beforehand the sufferings of (Eis, unto,
belonging to) Christ, and the glories that should follow them.
What would be the time and what would be the manner of the time of
the sufferings of Christ?
How evil would be those days, and the
people thereof, when men would cause the Messiah, the very Son of
God, to suffer!
They searched out also the days of the glories of
Messiah; these were to follow Messiah's sufferings.
Such are
still the cause of much diligent searching of the Scriptures on the
part of God's saints.
Here are mines where they may dig riches
untold.
1Pet1v12
What had been covered was revealed to the prophets, but they did not
minister the things to themselves, but they ministered in their
prophecies things which had their application to those who would
have the gospel preached to them.
Such are the ways of God who
uses some to minister for the good of others.
The spirit of this
is found in Paul's resignation to the divine will to serve for the
blessing and spiritual progress of others; "Yea, and if I am
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and
rejoice with you all" (Philippians 2.17).
The fulfilment of Old
Testament prophecies in the Lord's days and afterwards is referred
to by Him in the words, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and
your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many
prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see,
and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard
them not" (Matthew 13.16,17).
In the comparative gloom of the
times of the prophets, as compared with the noon-day light which
resulted from the coming of the Lord and the coming of the Holy
Spirit, the holy men of old sought out and searched out concerning
the day of grace which lay ahead of them.
What a day of the
fulness of divine revelation there is in our time!
We have the
full revelation of God in the Scriptures to which God will add no
more.
When the Lord comes He will speak in Person.
The Holy
Spirit is the One who empowers the preacher of the gospel, even as
the Lord said, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come
upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses" (Acts 1.8).
The preaching
was "by," or, rather, "in" the Holy Spirit.
The following words
show the interest of heaven in the work of God on earth: "which
things angels desire to look into."
"To look" (Parakupto) means "to
stoop down towards, bend forwards, particularly for examination."
How wonderful is this conception of the angels bending down and
gazing upon the suffering Saviour and examining the glorious
results of His sufferings in that salvation which is bound up with
His sufferings and glories!
1Pet1v13
The grace of God is manifold, that is, it is variegated (1 Peter 4.
10).
There is grace for every need and every time of need.
Then
there is grace to be brought unto us at the Lord's coming for His
saints.
The revelation of Jesus Christ here is not His revelation
to the world, when every eye shall see Him, but His revelation to
His own.
We have not to allow our minds to go loose and to be
occupied with all manner of unworthy objects, but to set our hope
perfectly on the Lord's coming, that great crowning act of grace on
His part towards His unworthy people.
If we have our hope set on
Him we shall be purifying ourselves even as He is pure (1 John 3.2,
3).
1Pet1v14,15,16
The children of God are to be children of obedience.
They are not
to fashion themselves (Suschematizo): the Greek word signifies that
the outward appearance or likeness bears no relationship to the
nature which is within.
Scheme, "fashion," has a vastly different
meaning from Morphe, "form," which signifies the external form of
the inward nature or essence, "the utterance of the inner life."
We, who have a new nature by the new birth, are not to fashion
ourselves according to the present evil age (Romans 12.2), but to be
transformed by the renewing of our mind, which is similar in meaning
to Peter's exhortation here, not to fashion ourselves according to
our former lusts in the time of our ignorance.
In contrast, we are
to be holy as God who called us is holy and that in all manner or
mode of life, conduct, deportment.
Peter strengthens his
exhortation by a quotation from Leviticus 11.44, in which God
commanded His people to keep themselves from everything unclean.
Then it was physical cleanness and holiness, now it is moral
and spiritual holiness.
We are to be separate and to touch no
unclean thing and to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2
Corinthians 6.14-7.1).
1Pet1v17
God loves all His children equally, and in the matter of the
judgement of their works there are no preferences for the one more
than the other.
But the faithful or unfaithful work of saints will
make a difference both here and hereafter.
It is in the hands of
saints themselves whether they, through their works, will be
commended or condemned.
God cannot be blamed for the result, for
He judges the work of His saints without respect of persons.
How
proper and how just are His ways!
Hence we are to pass our earthly
days in holy fear, not in dread of punishment, but in fear lest our
actions should displease our God.
1Pet1v18,19
Peter has before him Leviticus 11.44, in which the people of Israel
were commanded to be holy, because God brought them forth from the
land of Egypt to be their God.
Peter writes of God's people in his
day as being redeemed also, not by earthy precious metal,
corruptible riches, but with precious blood, even the blood of
Christ, from their vain manner of life handed down from their
fathers, a life of ritualistic observance in which they were in
bondage to the ceremonial law's requirements (Galatians 4.3,8-10,24,
25, 5.1.
Of old, God's people, Israel, were in bondage to Pharaoh,
from which God redeemed them by power and by the blood of the
paschal lamb.
Pharaoh's bondage was a vain, empty life, so also
was the bondage of the law; it was a weary round of ceremonials for
such as were not men of faith.
Faith saw beyond the shadow to the
substance, which was Christ (Colossians 2.16,17), who is without
blemish and without spot, therefore the paschal lamb had to be so
too (Exodus 12.5).
See 2 Peter 2.13, where the pleasure-lovers are
described as spots and blemishes, persons who were a disgrace to
Christian society.
There is neither blemish nor spot on the Lord's
behaviour.
He is "holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from
sinners" (Hebrews 7.26).
1Pet1v20,21
Christ, the incarnate Son of God, was foreknown before the
foundation of the world; saints, who are members of the Church
which is His Body, were chosen in Him before the foundation of the
world.
Note that others, not of this dispensation of grace, had
their names written in the book of life from the foundation of the
world (Revelation 17.8, 13.8; Matthew 25.34.
The mystery of the
wisdom of God is Christ who was crucified, who was foreordained
before the ages unto our glory (1 Corinthians 2.7,8).
None of the
rulers of this world knew of this hidden wisdom, or they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory.
He who was foreknown was
manifested at the end of the times for our sakes.
He was
manifested that we might enjoy fellowship with the Father and with
the Son and with one another (1 John 1.1-4), and to take away sins (1
John 3.5; Hebrews 9.26), and to destroy the works of the devil (1
John 3.8).
It is through Christ that we are believers in God, not
by the visible things of the creation which declare God's eternal
power and divinity (Romans 1.20), nor yet by the fact that He spoke
to Moses and Israel out of the midst of blazing Sinai when He gave
to them the law, but through the Man Christ Jesus we are believers
in God. The words and miracles of His life were proved to be
divine, if proof were needed, by His resurrection from the dead, for
God glorified His holy Servant Jesus (Acts 3.13-15).
Through this
incarnate, crucified and risen Christ, the believer's faith and hope
in God are firmly fixed.
1Pet1v22
Purified (Hagnizo) means "to live like one under a vow of
abstinence, as the Nazirites, to purify in a moral sense."
Obedience to the truth brings us, not into a state of bondage, but
into one of glorious liberty in which the heart is free and the
conscience is pure.
This purity, resulting from obedience to the
truth, has for its object unfeigned love of the brethren.
"Unfeigned" means "without hypocrisy," not to appear to be what we
are not, for there is nothing so fulsome as insincere love, if such
love can exist.
We are to love one another from the heart
fervently.
Though the R.V. leaves out "pure" (with a pure heart, A.
V.) and certain textual critics leave out Katharos (pure) from the
Greek Text, yet purity of heart is undoubtedly involved in loving
with the heart fervently, which means intensely, earnestly.
1Pet1v23,24,25
God's elect had been both redeemed by the precious blood of Christ
(verse 19), and born again.
The new (Anothen, again, anew, or from
above: John 3.3) birth is by the incorruptible seed of the word of
God, which word of God is the word (or saying) of the gospel which
was preached.
Peter uses the word Anagennao in this verse and
verse 3.
The preposition Ana signifies "again" in composition, as
well as "back" and "up."
Gennao means "to beget or generate."
In Titus 3.5 the word rendered regeneration is Palingenesia, Palin,
"again," and Geneses, "birth," the noun form of the verb Gennao, so
that in effect the different words Paul and Peter use are similar in
meaning.
Both mean another or a second birth, a birth again.
The
new birth is of water (the laver or washing with the word: Ephesians
5.26; Titus 3.5) and the Spirit ("renewing of the Holy Spirit": Titus
3.5).
See John 3.3,5.
It is by the incorruptible seed of the
living word of God (1 Peter 1.23); it is by receiving Christ by
faith in the gospel which is preached (John 1.12,13; 1 John 5.1);
for the new birth never was or could be effected by baptism in, or
sprinkling of, literal water, either in the case of adults or
infants.
That which is born of the flesh (by corruptible seed) is
flesh, a thing as corruptible as grass or the flowers of the
grass.
The life of the flesh of man is longer than that of grass,
but the end is the same; it falls back again into the dust whence
it came: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis
3.19).
Thus comes to an end the material part of man (in saying
this we are not oblivious of the fact of resurrection), but the
soul, the individual, which is created by the breath of God, does
not end thus.
The soul, the person, which came into being by the
breath of God (Genesis 2.7), needs to hear inspired or God-breathed
Scripture which lives and abides, and that for ever.
There is life
in the word.
This is the living message of the gospel which was
preached unto those to whom Peter wrote, by which they were begotten
again.
1Pet2v1,2
Here are evils which must be put away if the children of God are to
grow.
They are harmful evils and were, and still are, the habits
of life of the old man, the corrupt nature which is still in our
flesh.
"Wickedness" (Kakia) signifies "worthlessness, cowardice,
malice, malignity."
It is derived from Chazo, "to retreat in
battle."
It describes a cowardly, dastardly action, something done
with the object to cause harm to another and often done in a
cowardly way.
"Guile" (Dolos) means "fraud, deceit, insidious
artifice, iniquity."
It indicates the action of one who sets out
to deceive others.
Hypocrisies (Hupokrisis); we know what this
means; the Pharisees of old were past-masters at the art of
appearing to be what they were not.
The Lord called them whited
sepulchres.
The hypocrite is one who assumes a feigned
character.
Envies (Phthonos), this word is derived from Phthino,
which means "to decay, pine away."
There is usually little envying
where there is health, vigour, and forward movement.
Those given
to envy are such as see others making progress either spiritually or
materially and themselves being surpassed.
Envy is well
illustrated in the stroy of Saul and David.
Saul could not bear
the women of Israel singing, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and
David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 18.7).
Evil speakings
(Katalalia), this is "detraction, backbiting, calumny."
This
describes the tearing of the characters of others to pieces.
When
two evil speakers get together they tear their victim limb
fromlimb.
Peter contemplates those to whom he writes as newborn
babes, and as natural babes long for milk, so were these to desire
or long for To logikon adolon gala, which literally means, "the
mental, without guile, milk."
This mental milk is for the
spiritual mind of the children of God, as natural milk is for the
bodies of babes.
This is the milk of the word of God.
If this
milk is freely and regularly taken there will be growth, "unto
salvation."
God's children, who follow this course, will be saved
from many evils, to which those fall a prey who scarcely ever read
the Scriptures and meditate therein.
The salvation of the sinner
is by one act of faith in Christ, and this salvation is once for
all, but salvation by growth is a continuous process and never ceases
during the earthly lifetime of the children of God.
1Pet2v3,4
"If" (Ei) means, "because, since"; it is not the "if" of doubt, but
the "if" of argument.
There was no doubt that thoseto whom Peter
wrote had tasted that the Lord is gracious, for they had been
redeemed and born again.
It is the same conjunction (Ei) that is
used in Colossians 3.1; "If (Ei) then ye were raised together with
Christ."
There was no doubt that they had been raised with
Christ.
But it is quite different in Hebrews 3.6, where "if" (Ean)
means "if, on condition that."
It is the "if" of condition, and
not the "if" of argument.
Those in the house of God would remain
there on condition that they held fast. About this there cannot be
two opinions, and those who faithfully handle the inspired
Scriptures will be careful to follow the mind of the Spirit in each
passage.
Since those to whom Peter wrote had tasted that the Lord
was gracious, they had to come again to Him and to continue coming,
not to a Saviour who would save them frm the penalty of sin - that
was an accomplished fact - but to Christ, the living Stone, the
Stone which the builders rejected (Psalm 118.22; Matthew 21.42), the
Stone which was and still is rejected by men, but with God He is
both elect, or chosen of God, and precious.
Here we have a similar
thought, but under a different similitude, to what Paul writes in
Hebrews 13.13, "Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp,
bearing His reproach."
Christ is both elected and rejected,
elected by God and rejected by men, and we should be like Him in
this world.
1Pet2v5
Christ is the living Stone, and we also are living stones, but
stones do not make a house, unless they are built up according to a
pattern. God's house had ever a pattern.
Moses was given the
pattern of God's house, the tabernacle in the wilderness.
"Let
them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
According
to all that I shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the
pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it"
(Exodus 25.8,9).
David, too, got the pattern of the house of God
which he gave to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28.11-21).
Ezekiel also
received the pattern of God's house which he was to show to the
house of Israel (Ezekiel 43.10-12).
"Let them measure the pattern,
" said God through Ezekiel.
God's children do well today to
measure the pattern of the house of God in the New Testament, and
then with the measuring rod of God's word, measure where they are to
see whether it agrees with the Scriptures.
Let them not hold down
the truth in unrighteousness, but let the truth speak to them
(Romans 1.18).
"Ye are built up," means "ye are being built up";
it is continuous.
It may also be rendered "be ye built"; see A.V.
margin.
The building of the house of God is a continuous process;
a condition of remaining in God's house is, "if we hold fast."
In
Hebrews 3 the falling-away doctrine is plainly taught, not falling
away from Christ as Saviour, which can never take place, but falling
away from the living God (verse 12), the God of the house of God (1
Timothy 3.15).
God's spiritual house, composed of saints, built
together according to the pattern contained in the New Testament, is
also a holy priesthood, the purpose of which is to offer up
spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ, the Great Priest (Hebrews 8.3,10.21,22).
God the Father
is the object of worship (Matthew 4.10; John 4.23,24).
1Pet2v6,7
The house of God remains ever a possibility, and the offering of
spiritual sacrifices therefrom by a holy priesthood is because of
the fact that the Lord is laid in Mount Zion above as the chief
corner Stone (Hebrews 12.22).
All the heavenly hosts are under His
control; all created heavenly beings are in alignment with Him, as
a building is laid out from the corner stone, it is under the rule of
line and plummet. Christ is Son and Great Priest over the house of
God (Hebrews 3.6,10.21), over those who acknowledge His authority.
He has also all authority on earth, though we see not yet all things
subjected to Him (Hebrews 2.8), but the time will come when He will
sit upon earthly Zion, and then judgement will be the line, and
righteousness the plummet, and all will be brought into line with
His authority (Isaiah 28.16,17).
But that day for the earth is not
yet; it awaits His coming again as the Son of Man.
The Stone
which the builders (the elders of Israel) rejected has become the
Head of the corner in the heavenly Zion, of the edifice of the whole
angelic order.
And if saints on earth would be right they, too,
must obey His word, spoken by the Lord Himself and by Him through
His apostles.
"For you therefore which believe is the preciousness.
"
Believe what?
Believe in Christ as Saviour?
No, that is not
the truth with which Peter is dealing.
He is dealing with Christ,
the living corner Stone whom men rejected, and whom God has exalted
to His throne on Mount Zion above, to whose authority it is the
privilege of saints to be subject, and whose commandments they are
privileged to obey, if they would become a house for God to dwell
in, and a priesthood to offer to Him.
But what of those who
disbelieve?
Their portion is stated in the next verse.
1Pet2v8
Here we have the fatal choice of the people of Israel through their
elders: "And as soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders (the
elderhood) of the people was gathered together, both chief priests
and scribes; and they led Him away into their council" (Luke 22.66)
(Sanhedrim, the council of seventy elders who sat in Moses' seat,
Matthew 23.2,3; Numbers 11.16,17), and they condemned and rejected
the Lord there.
He was to the leaders of the nation and all who
followed them, a Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence.
They
stumbled at Him nationally and fell and were broken to pieces
(Matthew 21.44).
They stumbled because they were disobedient;
they refused to be convinced despite all He said and did.
Then we
come to the solemn word of divine decision in regard to the Israel
nation - "Whereunto also they were appointed."
Paul deals fully
with this matter of God's governmental dealings with Israel in
Romans 11, in which we see God giving to Israel a spirit of stupor,
and their eyes were darkened that they should not see, and so a
hardening in part befell Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles
should come in (Romans 11.7-10,25).
Though Israel was appointed to
stumble nationally at Christ and fall and be broken to pieces, no
individual Jew is appointed to stumble at Christ and fall and become
a lost soul in eternity.
The message of life is to whomsoever, and
it was to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
We must distinguish
between God's dealings with Israel nationally and with the Jew as a
man.
Though the nation rejected Christ, yet the door of mercy was
ever open to those who repudiated the action of their leaders or to
the leaders who repudiated their own action in the crucifixion of
the Lord, as many did, in Acts 2.36-42 and after, for a great cmpany
of the priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6.7).
The wrath
of God came upon Israel nationally (1 Thessalonians 2.14-16.
God
eventually sent the Romans who destroyed the Jews and burnt
Jerusalem (Matthew 22.7), but this must be distinguished from the
rejection of Christ by the individual Jew and the punishment of the
Christ-rejector in hell.
1Pet2v9,10
"Race" (Genos) means offspring, progeny, and, in consequence,
family, kindred.
They were "an elect race."
Besides, they were
"a royal priesthood." In verse 5 these same people are called "a
holy priesthood."
It has been taught from the time of Luther that
all believers are priests.
It is more correct to say that all
believers have a birthright to priesthood, but not all believers
exercise their birthright.
Those who are called priests, in
Revelation 1.6, were in the seven churches which were in Asia, and
are comprehended within the scope of Peter's first letter, who wrote
to those in Asia as well as the other four Roman provinces.
Priests of the house of Aaron could not function apart from being in
the house of God.
Priestly service and God's house cannot be
separated, either in the past or present.
Blemished sons of Aaron
who had permanent defects could not engage in the work of priests in
a past dispensation, though they ate the bread of their God.
Such
could neither come into the sanctuary nor approach to the altar
(Leviticus 21.16-24).
Again a man of Aaron's seed who was a leper
or had a running issue was not even allowed to eat of the holy
things.
If he did approach to the holy things he was to be cut off
from before the LORD (Leviticus 22.3,4).
It is far too undefined a
statement to say that every believer is a priest.
To be priests,
however, is the birthright of believers.
In order to exercise this
birthright believers must be in the house of God, forming part of
the holy and royal priestood.
"A holy nation" shows a people
together subject to authority, and obedient to the law which governs
the nation, not the law of Moses now, but the law of Christ (1
Corinthians 9.21), which is the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
(James 2.1), which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude
3).
"A people for God's own possession," or "a peculiar people,"
this carries one back in thought to Exodus 19.5,6, where we hear God
saying to Israel at Sinai: "Now therefore, if ye will obey My
voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me from among all peoples: ... and ye shall be unto Me
a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."
The parallel between 1
Peter 2 and Exodus, chapters 19 and 24, is too close to be denied.
The conditions are similar in both cases - obedience to the revealed
will of God, for if people are to be together and function together
in collective life, then obedience to revealed and collectively
accepted conditions are necessary.
Upon Israel's acceptance of the
conditions of the covenant, God revealed to them His desire to have
a house, a dwelling or sanctuary, and to dwell among them (Exodus 25.
1-9), and thus the tabernacle came into being and the service of God
in Israel commenced.
The purpose of God in a holy priesthood is to
offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (2.5), and
that in the same people as a royal priesthood is to show forth the
Lord's excellencies, which are the excellencies of Deity revealed in
the Lord's Manhood.
"Excellencies" means "virtues."
Virtue
(Arete) means "goodness of any kind" and here means "tanscendence of
divine perfections."
We have been called, in His effectual calling,
out of darkness into His marvellous light.
It is marvellous light
indeed when we contrast the darkness of unbelief with the light in
which the enlightened believer dwells through the Spirit in revealed
truths of the Scriptures, which truths form the truth, like the
colours of light which together form light.
God's New Testament
people were once no people, but in wondrous grace, through divine
regeneration and the call of God to come out and be separate in
order to give effect to His revealed will, God's people came into
existence in the days of the apostles, and today a remnant is found
together in God's house to do what the churches of God did at the
beginning of the dispensation.
Such a people knew not the mercy of
God once, but now they have obtained mercy.
God's remnant today
can say as the remnant of old said, "And now for a little moment
grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant
to escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may
lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving" (Ezra 9.8).
1Pet2v11,12
"Beseech" may also be rendered "exhort."
Believers in this world
are only sojourners or temporary residents.
It is also true of
all men that their day in the world is very temporary compared with
the permanence of eternity, but the unbeliever does not acknowledge
this, for this world is the only home he has; his portion is in
this life.
The enlightened believer is travelling on to his home
and rest.
He is a pilgrim, a person residing in a country not his
own.
He is exhorted to abstain from fleshly lusts, or desires of
the flesh, which war (as an army on a military expedition) against
the soul.
Their objective is to wound and reduce the believer to
enslavement, so that he may become useless to God.
By such lusts,
if permitted, he is dragged back to the level of ordinary men of the
world.
In contrast, his behaviour is to be of such a character,
that though men would wish to speak against the believer, his good
works cause them to glorify God in the day that He visits them.
Visitation (Episkope) means "inspection" and is the word used of the
work of an overseer, in 1 Timothy 3.1.
The word may be applied to
a time of God visiting men in mercy, as in Luke 19.44.
A day of
visitation may also be one of judgement, as in Isaiah 10.3.
The
visitation Peter has in mind seems to be one of mercy, wherein men
glorify God for the lives of saints which were as shining lights to
them.
1Pet2v13,14
Subjection is a necessary lesson which God's saints need to learn,
especially in the present state of things in the world: (1)
subjection to rulers (verse 13); (2) subjection of servants
to masters (verse 18); (3) subjection of wives to their own husbands
(3.1).
The form of human government is a human institution or
creation (Ktisis, creation, see R.V. margin).
Perhaps there never
was a day when so many diverse forms of human government occupy
men's minds: (1) rulers by natural descent, (2) rulers elected by
the people, (3) rulers raised up by dominating foreign powers, and
(4) autocrats who grasp the reins of government by destroying the
lives of others, or by artifice, or by both.
It is not for
believers to choose the kind of government they think should exist,
but to acknowledge the institution of men as that to which they are
to be subject.
They must be subject to the supreme head, king or
president, and to their governors who are sent to maintain law and
order, and to punish evil-doers and to praise well-doers.
To
these and all forms of human government in whatever land it may be,
the believer is to be subject.
1Pet2v15,16,17
"Well-doing" is the banner and battle-cry of saints.
With it they
march against the forces of ignorance and all kinds of evil.
Through it they are strong, and without it they are as a flock of
terror-stricken sheep ready to be devoured by wolves.
The will of
God was that by well-doing they should silence and put to shame
human ignorance.
Though freeborn, and delivered from the bondage in
which they previously were, yet they were bond-servants of God; and
a cloke of wickedness ill became those in such high service and
employment.
They were as heaven's gentlemen to be careful of their
manners and to honour all men.
Courteous behaviour is ever becoming
in a Christian. Whilst we are to honour all men, there are those
who are nearer to us, and these we are to love; love the
brotherhood, all such as are in a unity of brethren.
The word is
again used in 1 Peter 5.9, where it is translated brethren, but it
should be brotherhood (see R.V. Marg.).
It shows those who were
brethren joined together in unity, similar to priests united in
a priesthood (2.5,9).
They were to fear God, and of the fear of
the LORD David said that it "is clean, enduring for ever" (Psalm 19.
9).
It is both wisdom (Job 28.28), and the beginning of wisdom and
knowledge (Proverbs 1.7,9.10).
The word Honour (Timao) means "to
estimate," "to fix a value upon," and in consequence "to respect, to
reverence."
This reverence due to the king must ever be regulated
by the reverence due to God inplied in the fear of God.
1Pet2v18,19
"Servants" means household-servants (see R.V. marg.), they were
domestic servants who lived in the house, who were probably
household slaves.
This thought is strengthened by the word in the
Greek for "master" (Despotes), the "absolute master or lord" who had
unqualified authority, a master of slaves.
To such masters
Christian household-servants were to be subject, whether the masters
were good and gentle or froward (Skolios, "crooked" or "perverse,
hard to please, peevish, morose").
To be subject to masters of the latter sort was acceptable (grace, R.
V. marg.); it showed what grace could do or bear for conscience
towards God, when servants had to suffer wrongfully.
1Pet2v20
There is no glory in suffering for one's own wrong-doing, but there
is glory when one suffers for well-doing.
If such suffering is
taken patiently then such is acceptable or grace with God.
The
fruits of grace in the lives of saints are well-pleasing to God.
How well pleasing this is to God is revealed in the next verse.
1Pet2v21
Christ is the example for all, whether they be suffering servants or
other sufferers.
Saints are called to a path of suffering in this
world.
The Lord assured His own that in the world they would have
tribulation, but in Him they would have peace.
They were to be of
good cheer, for He had overcome the world (John 16.33).
He
suffered for us; it was because of us that He had all His suffering
as Jehovah's Servant, and servants were called upon to follow His
steps.
They were to be sufferers, following a suffering Leader.
1Pet2v22,23
Joh tells us that "in Him is no sin," no original sin such as that
in which all mankind is conceived (Psalm 52.5), and here we are told
by Peter that He "did no sin."
No guile, fraud or deceit, was found
in His mouth. When He was reviled or was railed at, He railed not
in return.
He did not return word for word or blow for blow.
When He suffered He did not threaten His persecutors with dire
retribution for their actions.
He committed His cause to God who
judgeth righteously, as is said, "He is near that justifieth Me"
(Isaiah 50.8).
The time will come when His persecutors will stand
before Him to hear His just sentence, but that was not in His
lifetime on earth.
1Pet2v24,25
Here was the consummating act of God's suffering Servant, when in
His own body He bore our sins upon (Epi, upon), not to or up to the
tree.
The suffering of Christ for sins was once only (1 Peter 3.
18), and that was when He was hanging on the tree.
It was then
that God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53.6).
Peter,
without doubt, had Isaiah 53 before his mind when he wrote "by whose
stripes (or bruises) ye were healed," and that "ye were going astray
like sheep."
We have now a Divine Shepherd and Overseer to care
for our souls, and, like David, we can say, "The LORD is my
Shepherd" (Psalm 23.1), He who is the Good, Great and Chief
Shepherd.
Christ bore our sins as our Saviour and Substitute, and
we in Him have died unto (not for) sins, and now it is ours to live
unto righteousness, to the doing of what is right.
1Pet3v1,2
"In like manner" casts us back on the matter of the subjection of
believers to kings and governors, and of believing servants to their
masters.
Here it is the subjection of wives to their own husbands.
Subjection is one of the necessary lessons Christians need to
learn.
Christian wives are to seek to gain their husbands who are
disobedient to God's word, not by firing scripture texts at them, or
reproving them in other ways, but by their behaviour.
In them
husbands are to be able to witness the word of God in practice in a
chaste manner of life in fear.
Not dread, but fear lest anything be
done which would destroy the objective they have before them, of
gaining or enriching themselves by having their husbands walking in
obedience to the Lord, like themselves.
1Pet3v3,4
Here are two ways of adorning: (1) the body, with braided hair,
wearing jewels and fine clothes; (2) the hidden man of the heart,
with that which is incorruptible, a meek and quiet spirit, which is
in the sight of God of great price.
If the heart is right within,
then there will be little need for cosmetics and other things for
bodily adornment (Greek, "cosmos," translated adorning, the
beautiful display of hair, jewels and the conspicuousness of the
latest fashion).
The beauty of the hidden man of the heart will
give womanly grace which all who see it cannot but admire.
Such
clothing is heaven's fashion, not according to the fashion centres
of the earth.
1Pet3v5,6
The conduct of holy women is contrasted with that of common women.
The latter went in for a great display of bodily adornment, the
former were concerned with the beauty of the heart.
We have to
remember that "the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on
the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel
16.7).
In fleeing from decking oneself according to the latest
fashion model, women need not run to the opposite extreme and become
dowdy in their appearance, as though dowdiness would more abundantly
show the beauty of the hidden man of the heart.
One need not
become a spectacle to show this.
Dowdiness may equally mar
testimony as fashionableness.
Christians should so dress, both men
and women, that their outward attire may be in keeping with their
profession.
"In modest apparel" are the fitting words of Paul (1
Timothy 2.9).
Subjection is seen in the words of Sarah in her old
age.
She still in old age had that reverence for her husband which
she had in youth.
She said to the angel concerning her husband
Abraham, "my lord being old also" (Genesis 18.12).
In such a case
wives will not be put in fear by any terror, and married life will
be a delight, as God intended it should be.
1Pet3v7
Husbands have to see that they play their part in the happiness of
married life.
What an amount of wise dealing is contained in the
exhortation - "Dwell with your wives according to knowledge"!
In
the secrets of married life that only husband and wife are privy to,
the husband's knowledge of his wife, who is the physically weaker
partner, or generally so, of the union, plays a large part.
If he
acts according to his knowledge, he will be a wise man and will pave
the way to his own happiness as well as that of his wife and of his
family, if they are blessed with a family.
It is abominable if
Christians follow the ways of the world.
The husband is to give
honour to the wife as unto the weaker vessel.
He is the head and
chief partner to the union and much depends upon him.
The English
word husband is an abbreviation of "house-band," the one who binds
the house together.
Husband and wife are joint-heirs of the
grace of life.
This is a peculiar statement not found elsewhere in
the Scripture.
It is evident that Peter views marriage here as much
more than the physical union of male and female, in that they become
one flesh.
The word here is not Bios, which means the present
state of existence, but Zoe, the word always used in the Scriptures
wherr reference is made to eternal life, that is, to the higher
life.
That the "grace of life" is the higher spiritual life is
indicated by the words which follow, "that your prayers be not
hindered."
The behaviour of the husband and wife is to be such
that communion between themselves in spiritual things is not broken,
and, in consequence, communion with God hindered.
It is a calamity
in the home of Christians when the Bible is not opened and read and
when joint prayer ceases.
1Pet3v8,9
It is of the greatest importance that saints together in the house
of God should be of the same mind, not only in doctrine, but in
their disposition or attitude to each other, "thinking, feeling, and
acting alike," "compassionate," that is, sympathetic, "loving as
brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded."
No exposition is needed of
such excellent words of exhortation; their meaning is evident.
If
believers were in such a condition, how smoothly collective life
would flow!
There is to be no rendering of evil for evil, nor
reviling for reviling.
The Lord is to be our example in this, for
when He was reviled, He reviled not again.
The Christian instead
of being a reviler or railer should be one whose words are a
blessing, they should "give grace to them that hear" (Ephesians 4.
29.
Paul said, "Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse
not" (Romans 12.14).
If they bless, then they will themselves
inherit a blessing.
The words which form their title to this
inheritance of blessing are clear.
1Pet3v10,11,12
These words are the teaching of David on the fear of the LORD, when
he said, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the
fear of the LORD" (Psalm 34.11-16.
This psalm was written by David
following his deliverance from Abimelech (Achish) (1 Samuel 21.
10-15).
He fled from the persecution of Saul to Achish for
protection, but he found that he was in even greter danger among the
Philistines than he was from Saul and his own people.
If he was to
win through to the good days the LORD had promised him, when he
would be king over all Israel, it would not be by a policy of
vilification of Saul and of Israel.
He had to keep his tongue from
evil, and there should be no deceit in his mouth.
He was to do
good though others might do evil to him.
He was to be in hot
pursuit of peace even amidst his days of turbulence.
He was to
learn that the LORD knows all, for His eyes are upon the righteous
and His ears are open to their cry.
His face is against the
evil-doers.
If we would ever remember that God sees us and hears
when we cry to Him, it would save us from saying and doing things
that grieve Him and which are against our own well-being.
1Pet3v13,14
Solomon wrote, "When a man's ways please the LORD, He maketh even
his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16.7).
When
Jehoshaphat walked in the first ways of his father David and when he
sent princes, Levites and priests to teach the law of the LORD in
all the cities of Judah, "the fear (or terror) of the LORD fell upon
all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that
they made no war against Jehoshaphat" (2 Chronicles 17.3-10).
It
does, nevertheless, happen that God's saints are caused to suffer
for righteousness' sake, even as th blessed Master suffered in His
day on earth.
"A sufferer all His life was He,
A dying Lamb at last."
He said, "Blessed are they that have been persecuted for
righteousness' sake," and again, "Blessed are ye when men shall
reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against
you falsely, for My sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5.10-12).
"Fear not their
fear" is a rendering of Isaiah 8.12.
Men have their fear, but
men's fear is not to be the fear of God's saints.
Those who fear
God have no fear of divine retribution, but for persecutors there is
punishment ahead; for though God allows His saints to suffer
betimes, He is not unconcerned about it.
See 2 Thessalonians 1.
4-10.
1Pet3v15,16
Here is one of those proofs of the Deity of the Lord Jesus which
occur frequently in the Sacred Scriptures.
This refers to Isaiah 8.
13, where we have Isaiah saying, "The LORD of hosts, Him shall ye
sanctify."
Peter renders this, "Sanctify in your hearts Christ as
Lord" (R.V.).
Christ the Lord is the LORD of Hosts.
Sanctify
means to set apart, and the Lord is to be Lord in our hearts, to
dominate our whole being in all its affections and activities.
If this is so, then we shall be ever ready to give a reason for our
hope, and this we are to do with meekness and fear, without
ostentation.
If we have a good conscience that our manner of life
is in keeping with our testimony, then we need be in terror of no
one, whatever may be said regarding our life and hope.
"Christ
liveth in me," said Paul.
The old Saul-life was dead; it was now
the Christ-life, a life ever beautiful and radiant.
1Pet3v17-18
Christ is an Ensample in suffering.
He suffered for the sins
of others, the object of this was that He might bring them to God.
He was righteous and those who caused Him to suffer were
unrighteous.
If saints suffer, let it not be for evil-doing.
The
Lord was a sufferer all His life, suffering ever for well-doing, but
when He suffered for sins, it was once and once only, when He hung
on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
He was
not the Sin-bearer all His lifetime. We must distinguish between
His suffering once at the hands of God for sins, and His day-by-day
sufferings at the hands of men.
He was put to death in the flesh,
but quickened or made alive in the Spirit.
Spirit here is the
Person of the Holy Spirit and should be printed, as in A.V., with a
capital.
The Spirit was the One by or in whom He was made alive.
He rose from the dead in the body in which He was nailed to the
tree.
He showed to the disciples and also to Thomas the print of
the nails in His hands, and the spear-wound in His side, the marks
of identification (John 20.20,25,27).
1Pet3v19,20
We have here an admittedly difficult passage upon which we tender
our view.
Firstly, we are told that Christ did not go in Person
and preach to those spirits, but went in the same Spirit as that in
which He was quickened after His death on the cross.
If the
heralding took place in prison, in Hades, why was it limited to the
people who perished in the flood of Noah?
Others perished in
signal judgements, such as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea, the host of Sennacherib, and why
should the preaching be limited to the Antedeluvians?
This
presents a difficulty, if the preaching took place in Hades.
Then
again, What could be the message heralded to these people in
Hades?
Was it a message of hope and deliverance? This could not
be!
If it were, it would open up a vast question which would be
against any scripture we know in the whole range of the word of
God.
Then, Was the message one of added doom and despair?
What
would be the value of such a preaching?
It seems to us that the
simple, straightforward interpretation of the passage is this, that
Christ went in the Holy Spirit and preached by the mouth of Noah who
was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2.5).
Both the preaching
to and the disobedience of the Antedeluvians (who disbelieved
aforetime) were "when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was a preparing."
"When" and "while" refer to
the same time as the preaching and the disobedience.
God speaking
to men on earth by the mouth of His prophets, and also by the
apostles (2 Peter 3.2), is one of the most common things in the
Scriptures.
"He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have
been since the world began" (Luke 1.70).
"God spake by the mouth
of His holy prophets which have been since the world began" (Acts 3.
21).
"The Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David" (Acts 1.
16).
David spoke in the Spirit (Matthew 22.43), and the Spirit of
the LORD spoke by him, and His word was upon his tongue (2 Samuel 23.
2).
The Spirit of Christ who was in the prophets "testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should
follow them" (1 Peter 1.11).
"Men spake from God, being moved by
the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1.21).
We believe that Christ in the
Spirit spoke to the men of Noah's time, even as the gospel is now
preached "by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven" through men (1
Peter 1.12).
The following is a helpful note by Mr. William Kelly
on this difficult passage: "To be understood, this verse must be
taken with what goes before.
Christ was 'put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also He went and
preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were
disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days
of Noah,' etc., just as we read, in 1 Peter 1.10-12, of Christ's
Spirit in the prophets tetifying, so here we learn that His Spirit
preached (i.e. in Noah).
Those who heard were disobedient then,
and their spirits are in prison now.
Christ's Spirit, by Noah,
went and preached to them when they were living men, before the
Deluge came; but they rejected it, and now, consequently, their
spirits are kept for judgement.
The collocation of the Greek (Tois
en Phulake Pneumasin) is decisive, that the true connexion is not
between the preaching, but the spirits and the prison.
The
preaching was by Christ's Spirit in Noah to men on earth, whose
spirits are now imprisoned till the judgement of the dead."
Peter
tells us that those in the ark were saved through water.
They were
saved by the ark from the water, which was God's judgement upon the
world, but they were saved by the water from the corrupt world which
was destroyed by the flood.
"Saved" and "salvation" do not refer
always to salvation from the same danger - God's wrath.
We need to
be saved from men, as well as from God's wrath, "Save yourselves
from this crooked generation," said Peter (Acts 2.40), and there are
many like exhortations regarding salvation from surrounding dangers
in this present evil age.
1Pet3v21,22
Sprinkling water on infants and adults is a mockery of divine
regeneration, and the mocking rite of churches (so called) which do
not hold baptismal regeneration, is in no sense baptism.
Baptism
means dipping, and in scriptural language signifies burial and
resurrection, a figure of the Lord's burial and resurrection (Romans
6.3,4; Colossians 2.12).
Baptism in water is not necessary to
salvation from hell, as some teach, for salvation from hell is by
God's grace through our faith in Christ, and through faith in Christ
alone (Acts 16.30,31; Ephesians 2.5,8,9).
As Noah and his family
were saved by the ark from the waters of judgement and from a
corrupt world by the same judgement of the flood, so after a true
likeness baptism saves us, if we truly appreciate that baptism is
not just dipping a person in water, but it has a spiritual
significance.
It signifies that the believer who died with Christ
to sin is buried with Him and raised with Him, the object of this
being that the old life which ended in death is finished and
buried.
We should be raised from a corrupt world, as the ark of
Noah was by the water, from the evil world that then was to the top
of Ararat.
The believer is now to walk in newness of life.
If
this truth is appreciated it will save the believer from the
corruptions of the world.
It is in such a sense that the believer
is saved through water.
Though the believer should regard himself
as dead to this world and buried, dead to all its plans and
pleasures, the corruptions of his flesh are not put away by
baptism.
Noah, who was saved from a corrupt world, planted a
vineyard, made wine and drank too freely, and "was drunken" (Genesis
9.21), and "old Noah," or "old Adam," still lives in our flesh, and
we need to learn what it means to die daily (1 Corinthians 15.31).
Paul also said of himself, "Always bearing about in the body the
dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our
body" (2 Corinthians 4.10).
Death is the only way that the
corruptions of the flesh can be dealt with.
Baptism is the
question or demand of a good conscience, and when it is obeyed it is
the answer of that same good conscience toward or unto God; it is
the outward sign of the invisible conscience within.
Christ is
raised from the dead, but the unbaptized believer who died with Him
is neither buried nor raised with Him through faith in the working
of God who raised Him from the dead (Colossians 2.12).
He who has
been raised is on the right hand of God, and to Him angels,
authorities and powers are subject, but the unbaptized believer is
not subject or obedient.
No wonder conscience often knocks at his
heart's door demanding that he should obey the word of the Lord.
1Pet4v1,2
Here the believer is to arm himself with the same idea, thought, or
intention, that he is to be a sufferer in the flesh as Christ was,
He who suffered at the hands of men.
Consequenty, when suffering
is his portion, he is not to be surprised as though some strange
thing has happened to him (verses 12,13).
It is what the believer
is to expect in this world.
Then Peter adds, "For he that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin," that is, he has done
with, left off, desisted or refrained from sin.
Suffering in this
world (not bodily illness) is a purifier in the life of the
believer, as we learn from Hebrews 12.4-11, and by it God chastens
His sons so that they may become partakers of His holiness.
The
object of suffering, as stated by Peter, is that we should no longer
live the rest of our time in the flesh (that is during this earthly
life) to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
"The rest of
your time," what an opportunity, be the time long or short, to
devote it to the doing of God's will, and there is nothing more
important!
1Pet4v3,4
The time past, previous to conversion, is a sufficient part of human
existence to be devoted to work the desire, purpose or determination
of the Gentiles, and to have walked in all forms of lust, and in some
cases idolatry.
How frequently the unbeliever is surprised in the
changed behaviour of a friend who has just been saved by grace!
The whole attitude of each to each is changed by the one having
become a new creature in Christ.
The greater the change in the
believer the greater the wonderment of the unbeliever.
Then
sometimes evil-speaking starts and scorn is heaped on the believer.
1Pet4v5,6
Solemn indeed will be the accountability of the wicked in the day of
judgement.
They wilfully allow themselves to be cheated that the
day of judgement will never come or that it is far distant from them
and they have more than enough time to reform their ways, whereas
the Lord is ready to judge, and was ready to judge the living and
the dead when the epistle was written.
The wicked have no time to
lose to repent and believe the gospel.
Death is an enemy who may
come upon them unawares, and then time will be gone.
Then we are
told that it was unto this end, in view of divine judgement, that
the gospel was preached to the dead, that is the dead in trespasses
and sins (Ephesians 2.1), not to persons who once lived and are now
dead (certainly not to the physically dead), that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, their sins having been borne
and judged in the person of Christ their Substitute (2.24; Romans 5.
6,8), the judgement of God for them is past (John 5.24; Romans 8.
1).
Now it is theirs to live according to God in the Spirit.
Spirit here is the Holy Spirit.
"If we live by the Spirit, by the
Spirit let us also walk (Galatians 5.25).
1Pet4v7,8,9,10
New Testament writers speak of this dispensation as the "end of the
times" (1.20), "the last days" (James 5.3), "the last hour" (1 John
2.18).
If the end was at hand when Peter wrote, how close to us
the end must be now!
In the light of the swiftly approaching end
we are to be of sound or sober mind, to be sober, watchful,
vigilant, unto prayers.
We are to be fervent in love among
ourselves.
Love coves sins, not discovers them.
Where there is
little love the sins and wrongs done by one believer to another grow
like the snowball, when rolled for a time, to enormous proportions.
"Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all transgressions"
(Proverbs 10.12).
Where love is, believers act like Shem and
Japheth in regard to their father's sin and shame, but loveless
believers act like Ham (Genesis 9.20-27).
How fulsome and wrong it
is to murmur at the need of showing hospitality, which means love
for strangers, and be glad to see them go!
How has God treated us
who were strangers and aliens?
If God loved us, should we not be
like the Father's children and love one another?
Whatever gift we
have, whether it is in spiritual things or things material, we are
to minister it among the saints as good and beautiful stewards (for
we are only stewards of what God has given us) of the manifold
(Poikilos, various, variegated, different) grace of God.
God's
manifold grace suits every need and time: His grace is
all-sufficient.
1Pet4v11
Speaking and ministering or serving (Diakoneo) are quite evidently
not identical.
The speaker is to speak (Laleo) the words as if he
were speaking oracles of God, and he that serves is to do so in the
strength with which God has supplied him, which, I judge, is
something different from mere physical, bodily strength, though that
too is necessary in its place.
All is to be done that God may be
glorified amongst His people through Jesus Christ.
Due to God is
the glory and the dominion or might unto the ages of the ages.
Amen.
1Pet4v12,13
Satan had been allowed by God to turn on the fire of persecution, to
try or tempt (Peirazo) God's saints so that they might break down in
the temptation, but they were not to think that something strange
had happened.
The Lord continually warned His disciples of the
suffering that they must expect in this world for His sake.
"If
the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated
you. . . . Now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father"
(John 15.18,19,24).
These are but a few of the Lord's statements
of the world's attitude to the Father, the Son and His disciples.
Suffering saints are to rejoice if they are partakers of, if they
share in, the sufferings of Christ, for at the revelation of His
glory great will be their joy.
Great sufferers will be great
rejoicers!
1Pet4v14
"Reproached" (Oneidizo) is a bad word, it means "to revile, scoff
at, insult with opprobrious language."
It is the language of those
who live in the darkness of sin when they see coming into view one
upon whom the light of the glory of God's Spirit dwells.
Such as
hate the light, hate also the light-givers, believers who are as
lights in the world, holding forth the word of life (Philippians 2.
16).
If the believer hides his light, then there will be no
reproach, for he will be as an ordinary man in whom no light is, but
the glorified saint in this world is sure to be reproached.
But
blessed are they who shine in this dark world.
"Ye are the light
of the world," said the Lord (Matthew 5.14).
How dark this world
would be without the children of God!
1Pet4v15,16
Believers may bring suffering upon themselves by their behaviour,
but they should not.
Some think that a believer might be a thief,
an evil-doer or a meddler in other men's matters, but he could never
be a murderer.
Such forget that one who hates his brother is in
God's sight a murderer.
"Whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer" (1 John 3.15).
Indeed if it were not possible for a
believer to be a murderer such an exhortation would not have been
given by Peter.
But if any one suffers as a Christian, a disciple
of Christ, he is not to be ashamed of being one who belongs to
Christ and follows Him, but rather, he is to glorify God in this
name by which he is called.
We are told "that the disciples were
called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 11.26).
It was not a
nickname, but a correct definition of their character.
They lived
like Christ.
Called (Chrematizo) means "to transact public
business; to converse or treat about business . . . in the N.T. to
impart a divine warning or admonition . . . to be called, named, be
known by a particular appellation . . ." (Acts 11.26; Romans 7.3).
1Pet4v17,18
This judgement which begins at the house of God is not such as we
read of in 1 Corinthians 5.12,13: "For what have I to do with
judging them that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are
within, whereas them that are without God judgeth?
Put away the
wicked man from among yourselves."
Both the elders and the church
of God in Corinth had failed in their responsibility to judge the
fornicator and to put him away, hence Paul had to judge the case, as
he says, "For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit,
have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so
wrought this thing" (verse 3).
This same kind of judgement had to
be effected by Joshua the high priest in the remnant that returned
from Babylon to Jerusalem to build the temple.
"Thus saith the
LORD of Hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep
My charge, then thou also shalt judge My house, and shalt also keep
My courts" (Zechariah 3.7).
See also Deuteronomy 17.9 and 1
Corinthians 6.1-8.
Thee is a parallel between judgement beginning at the house of God
in the above verses and judgement beginning at God's sanctuary or
house as portrayed in Ezekiel 9.
Men were marked who sighed and
cried because of the condition of God's people and were to be spared
in the judgement which was about to fall in the coming of
Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, whilst others were to fall in that
judgement as set forth in the six men with weapons in their hands.
The judgement of God's house in these verses, in the connexion in
which they are found, leads one to conclude that it was by external
persecution, which the carnal, worldly-minded believers would not
endure but would leave the faithful to continue in their testimony
as the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3.15).
If
God judges His house by fiery trial, what shall be the end of them
that obey not the gospel?
They have but one end, the fiery torment
of hell.
If the righteous is scarcely saved!
Mark, it is not if
the sinner who believes is scarcely saved, for there can be no
"scarcely", or with difficulty, in that glorious salvation by
Christ.
But here it is the salvation of the righteous.
What is
his danger?
His danger is not that of eternal fire, but the
dangers of this evil world through which he is passing.
He has a
trinity of evils to combat, Satan the adversary in front of him, the
world around him, and the flesh within.
But what of the ungodly
and sinner who know no present salvation from such evils, who are
slaves to sin?
Where will they appear?
The answer is at the
Great White Throne judgement, there to hear the fatal sentence and
to be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20.11-15).
Those who
will be there are defined in Revelation 21.8.
1Pet4v19
The Lord in encouraging His disciples in Luke 12 said that they were
not to fear them that kill the body, but to fear Him who had power
to cast into Gehenna (not His disciples but others).
Then He
speaks of God in His faithfulness as Creator, that not one common
sparrow is forgotten in His sight, and His disciples were of more
value than many sparrows.
He said that the very hairs of their
head were all numbered. He also taught them lessons from God's care
for the ravens and from the lilies of the field.
Such is the
faithful Creator to whom all sufferers are to commit their souls in
well-doing.
Let them do well, and God the Creator will not fail to
do well for them.
Let none say as did Zion, "Jehovah hath forsaken
me, and the Lord hath forgotten me . . . Behold, I have graven thee
upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me"
(Isaiah 49.14,16).
1Pet5v1
As the saints in the churches of God in the five provinces of Asia
are addressed as a whole (1.1) and viewed as a holy and royal
priesthood (2.5,9) and together as a brotherhood (2.17; 5.9), so
here the elders of the churches are viewed together and addressed as
a whole.
The elders were among the flock (verse 1), and in verse
2, the flock is among the elders.
Peter describes himself as a
fellow-elder.
An apostle was an elder, though an elder was not an
apostle.
Undoubtedly the church of God in Jerusalem was cared for
by the apostles who were also elders, before there came to be "the
apostles and the elders" (Acts 15.6).
"A witness" (Gk., Martus) is
one who bears testimony, but if he is to bear testimony he must
first of all see and hear, even as Peter and John said, "We cannot
but speak the things which we saw and heard" (Acts 4.20).
What
they saw and heard fitted them to be credible witnesses.
Thus
Peter testified of the sufferings of Christ which he saw.
He was
also a partaker of the glory which is to be revealed.
Suffering
and glory is the way of Christ and His saints.
Alas, the world's
way is glory (for those who get it) and suffering.
It is death and
life with the Lord and His own, but life and eath with the world.
These things are exemplified in the story of the rich man and
Lazarus in Luke 16.19-31; suffering and comfort in the one case and
comfort and suffering in the other.
The lot of each was determined
by his attitude to God.
1Pet5v2,3
The elders are here exhorted to tend or shepherd, to feed and care
for, the little flock of God.
The word "little flock" is found in
all places where flock refers to the Lord's own in the New
Testament, except in Matthew 26.31; John 10.16.
"Exercising the
oversight," means doing the work of an overseer.
Of this Paul
wrote to Timothy that if any seeketh (stretches forward to) the work
(not the office of a bishop) of an overseer, he desired a good
work.
A man qualifies for overseership by the work he does.
Oversight work is not to be of constraint or compulsion, but is to
be voluntary or spontaneous.
"According unto God" is not in the A.
V. and some authorities omit the words, but it is true nevertheless
that oversight work is to be carried out according to God.
It is
not to be undertaken for monetary reward, for filthy lucre, but of a
ready mind, nor yet is there to be any lording of the overseers over
their allotted charge (Ton kleron, the lot, which falls to any one,
"the church or people of God, which are said to be their peculiar
possession or property, 1 Peter 5.3").
Instead of lording it over
God's little flock they were to make themselves ensamples.
Eastern
shepherds go before the flock, they do not drive them forward with
dogs.
So also shepherds of God's little flock should go before
them as enxamples for them to follow and imitate.
An ensample is a
type or pattern.
1Pet5v4
The Lord is the Good Shepherd who died (John 10.11), the Great
Shepherd was was raised from the dead (Hebrews 13.20), and the Chief
Shepherd who shall be manifested to His own at His coming again, as
here, bringing His rewards with Him (Revelation 22.12).
"Crown"
(Stephanos) does not always mean a victor's crown, but means one
which adorns as well.
The faithful shepherds of the little flock
will be adorned, and so rewarded with the crown of glory which will
never fade.
1Pet5v5
The younger elders are to be subject to the older elders, and,
indeed, all elders are to bind or gird on humility as clothing in
order to serve one another, even as the Lord did prior to the
institution of the remembrance of Himself on the night of the
betrayal.
He girded Himself with a towel, poured water into the
basin and began to wash the disciples' feet (John 13.4,5).
Such
was His blessed example of lowly service toward His own.
God
resisteth, or sets Himself against, the proud, but He giveth grace
to the humble for humble service.
1Pet5v6,7
God gives grace to the humble to keep them humble and to enable them
to humble themselves still further under the mighty hand of God.
The Lord is our example, who emptied Himself and humbled Himself to
become Man.
Then He humbled Himself still further, becoming
obedient to the death of the cross.
What grace was His!
The
mighty hand of God under which elders are to humble themselves is
the same hand which will exalt them in due season. A season is a
brief period of time.
Elders are to cast all, not some, of their
anxiety or care upon God, who cares for them, in the burdens He has
given them to bear.
Moses of old complained to God about the great
burden the care of the children of Israel was to him, and seventy
elders were chosen, men who were already elders, to share with him
the burden of responsibility in the rule of God's people (Numbers
11).
1Pet15v8,9
Be sober (not intoxicated either with alcohol or with the pride of
position as an elder or with anything which takes away sense), that
is, be prudent, and be watchful, be awake and vigilant, for there is
a lion about and the flock needs to be guarded.
The roaring lion,
the devil, is your adversary and theirs, and he is out to kill and
devour.
"Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?"
(Amos 3.4).
The elders are to withstand him, stand against or
resist him, firm, steadfast, in the faith.
I think the A.V. is
correct here "in the faith" rather than "in your faith" (R.V.).
The same sufferings which the elders addressed were enduring were
being accomplished in their brotherhood elsewhere in the world.
1Pet5v10,11
"In Christ," a term used by Paul to describe the abiding and eternal
relationship to Christ of believers who are members of Christ's
Body, is here used by Peter.
God, the God of all grace, the Source
of all the grace which has been poured out richly upon us through
Jesus Christ, has called us unto His eternal glory in Christ.
Here
again glory is connected with suffering. For after these saints had
suffered a little while He would perfect (Gk., Katartizo, "repair, i.
e. restore from breach or decay, mend, whatever damaging effects
suffering had had upon them").
He would also establish, render
firm, and strengthen, impart strength to them.
To Him be the
dominion or might unto the ages of the ages.
Amen.
1Pet5v12,13,14
As Tertius wrote the epistle to the Romans at Paul's dictation
(Romans 16.22), so Silvanus (Silas), the faithful brother as Peter
reckoned him, wrote this epistle at the dictation of Peter.
He
sums up this brief letter as being the true grace of God, covering
election, salvation, redemption, regeneration, the house of God, the
functions of the holy and royal priesthood, subjection, suffering,
rule.
It is an epistle which contains much in little, and he
exhorts and testifies that they stand fast in God's true grace which
he outlines in this letter.
She that is elect together with them in Babylon is the church of God
there.
Church is a feminine noun, hence the feminine definite
article (He) is used here.
There is neither the word for church nor
woman in the verse.
The corrct meaning, I judge, is given in the A.
V., "The church that is at (in) Babylon."
Babylon here I take to
mean literal Babylon and not the Roman church.
The apostate Roman
Catholic church was not then in existence.
Then it was political
Rome.
Saints and churches sent salutations to each other by
apostolic letters, as witness Romans 16.
They were to salute each
other with a kiss of love, we may do likewise by a warm shake of the
hand.
Peace (the salutation of the Hebrew) be unto you all in
Christ.
NOTES on the SECOND EPISTLE of PETER
2Pet1v1,2
In the first epistle Peter writes of himself as "Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ," but here he speaks of himself as "Simon Peter, a
bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ."
He uses his name
according to nature, Simon, and his new name according to grace,
Peter.
In the former epistle to the same people as he now writes
(3.1, he wrote of the true grace of God, grace which covers the
matters of salvation, service, suffering and rule, and carries the
mind forward to the day of the revelation of the Lord to His own.
In his second epistle he writes to them as those that have obtained
by lot a like or equally precious faith, because this faith is in
the same thing, even the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus
Christ.
Faith ever partakes of the quality of that in which, or
the person in whom, it reposes.
If men place faith in men or in
deceitful or unworthy things, then their faith is like in quality to
that in which their trust is.
The A.V. renders the Greek en "in",
by "through," that this like precious faith is obtained through
righteousness, but, I judge, the R.V., literally translating en "in,
" gives us the correct thought.
This is not faith in imputed
righteousness, but faith in the righteous character of all the
dealings of the Lord Jesus Christ with His own.
Moreover, the faith
here is not the initial act of faith of the believing sinner in
Christ his Saviour.
That faith is not obtained by lot, but comes
by the hearing of the word of God or of Christ in the divine message
of salvation.
We obtain fiath by lot as the children of Israel
obtained the land by lot at Shiloh (Joshua 14.1,2, etc.).
The
tribes lived on the things their inheritance produced.
We in this
dispensation have not obtained land, but in contrast believers
obtain faith by lot, the word of God is that "the just shall live by
(ek, out of) faith."
There is nothing more just than land, if it
is tilled it will yield its increase; if it receives rain and
sunshine, the blessings of God.
Our faith is in the Lord's
righteousness, who will deal justly with His own according to the
irrevocable law, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that
soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but
he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal
life" (Galatians 6.7,8). The Lord will deal justly with His own
both now and at the judgement-seat of Christ.
"God accepteth not
man's person" (Galatians 2.6; Deuteronomy 10.17).
Some have
thought that the R.V. by making a change in the text in 1 Timothy 3.
16, from "God" to "He who," was weakening the testimony of the New
Testament to the Deity of Christ, but here, and in Titus 2.13, in
the R.V., the testimony to the Lord's Deity is strengthened by
correctly rendering the words "our great God and Saviour Jesus
Christ," instead of "God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," as in the A.
V.
The R.V. says that Jesus Christ is God as well as Saviour.
"Grace and peace," in the apostolic salutations, are multiplied
within the sphere of the knowledge of our God and of Jesus our
Lord. The true knowledge of the divine Persons of the Godhead does
not puff up, but is a spiritual knowledge which produces lowliness
of mind and humility of demeanour.
2Pet1v3
The source of the supply of all things is by the divine power of
God.
All things are His servants.
The covenant God (El Shaddai)
of Abraham, who gave His pilgrim-friend all he possessed, was God
Almighty; and our God, too, who calls us to separation from evil to
one of sanctification to Himself, is also the Lord Almighty (2
Corinthians 6.14-18). He has granted us all things that pertain
unto life, as He did in the case of ABraham.
He has said to us,
"Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye
have: for Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither
will I in any wise forsake thee.
So that with good courage we say,
The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear: what shall man do unto
me?"
(Hebrews 13.5,6).
What God has granted to His own will be
implemented by His divine power.
There can be no failure with
Him.
As He has granted all that pertains to life (Zoe), He has
granted all that pertains to godliness, so that our lives may be
godly lives.
Paul says, "Godliness with contentment is great
gain: for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we
carry anything out; but having food and covering we shall be
therewith content . . . For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil" (1 Timothy 6.6-10).
Divine provision of all that pertains
to life and godliness is through the full knowledge of Him who
called us; not our full knowledge of Him, but His full knowledge of
us and of our needs.
Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will see, and the
Lord will provide - pre-vision and provision, the one precedes the
other.
He called us through His own glory and virtue
(excellence).
We were not called because of any glory or
excellence in us.
Peter was just a fisherman amongst the rest of
fishermen of Galilee, and a wilful one at that, for when he was
young he girded himself and went where he would (John 21.18).
Those who are called have nothing wherein to glory in themselves,
but they glory or boast in the glory and virtue of Him who of His
own glory and virtue called them.
The worthiness of what we are by
grace is in Him, not in us.
2Pet1v4
Faith and promise are related to each other, as are works and law.
What men see, either with their eyes or the eyes of the mind, they
lust after, and men want to satisfy their lust now.
But in
contrast, God promises, and faith waits patiently and hopefully for
the fulfilment of the promise.
Such a man of faith was Abraham.
"Looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief,
but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully
assured that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform"
(Romans 4.20,21).
"And thus,having patiently endured, he obtained
the promise" (Hebrews 6.15).
God's promises are exceeding great.
his promises, as His works, are worthy of Himself; there is nothing
small and petty with God. Through His promises which we receive by
faith we become partakers of a divine nature, a nature which lives
by faith, for the just shall live by faith.
The initial act of
faith in the gospel brings life, and every act of faith afterwards
is the means by which we have life abundantly (John 10.10).
The
believer who is living the life of faith in God's promises is one
who has escaped from the world's corruptions in lust.
This world
lies in a state of incurable corruption, for it lies in the evil
one, in the devil who is totally and completely bad (1 John 5.19).
As a system it can never be cured till the Lord returns, when the
devil and the wicked will be removed in the day of judgement.
God's message in the gospel to men in this world is their one and
only hope.
2Pet1v5,6,7
We are to be such as have added, or brought in besides, all
diligence; but it may be asked what is diligence added to?
It
seems clear that diligence is added to faith in God's promises and
with diligence we are to supply virtue in our faith.
Virtue is
goodness, excellence, of any kind.
In virtue knowledge; for
virtue is soon dimmed by ignorance. In knowledge temperance:
temperance saves those who have it from giving a loose rein to
knowledge, which is ever liable to be accompanied by pride, to the
destruction of themselves and others (1 Corinthians 8.1,7,10,11).
In temperance patience: temperance or self-control does well to
have as a friend patience or endurance, indeed these should never be
parted for they are twin-brothers.
In endurance godliness: even
the most patient of men may endure their trials, but if endurance is
not wedded to godliness you have a stoical attitude of mind, and not
that godly disposition of reverence and awe which is most becoming
in the patient.
Was it not in this that Job failed?
He was
patient truly, but he justified himself rather than God (Job 32.
2).
In godliness love of the brethren: some may have a kind of
seeming godliness, which is really an aloofness which springs from
pride, in which there is little or no mingling with the brethren, a
monkish or hermit kind of godliness.
If such as would be godly in
Christ Jesus truly love the brethren, they will desire to be with
the objects of their love.
In love of the brethren love: love of
the brethren, that warm-hearted love (Philadelphia), sometimes
liable to run to excess, should be governed by love (Agape), that in
which the mind plays a part, governing the affections and directing
their flow.
In the outflow of love (Agape) we should love God, the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, love God's people and house,
love the Word; briefly, we should learn to love what God loves and
hate what God hates.
2Pet1v8,9
These excellent qualities, supplied one in the other, being or
subsisting in believers, and abounding, or in abundance, will make
them to be neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
To know Christ was the yearning desire of
Paul, and for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his
Lord he suffered the loss of all things and counted them as offal.
The knowledge of Christ is not passive, but active, bringing our
whole being and activities into alignment with His purpose and will,
as Paul further puts it in Philippians 3.10-14, "That I may know
Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death; if by any means I
may attain unto the resurrection from the dead . . . I press on."
Onward and upward is to be the path for the disciple of Christ, and
if we are following Him we shall ever be led in triumph to Christ.
Sufferings there will and must be, but it will be a triumphant
life; even though it be a lowly and obscure one, it will have
a triumphant end.
The lack of the things of which Peter writes
makes the believer shortsighted; he sees only the things
immediately surrounding him; he has no long vision of coming glory,
and as to the past has forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
He sinks into a morbid condition of soul, doubting, it may be,
whether he had been saved by God's grace.
2Pet1v10,11
Such as believe in the truth of eternal salvation know that the
calling and election associated with that cannot be made more sure
than it is.
This is plainly taught in Romans 8.29,30,33,34: "For
whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren: and
whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them
He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also
glorified . . . Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect?
It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall
condemn?"
Foreordained, called, justified, glorified!
Who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
In this view of God's
calling and election human failure can never enter; it is all of
God's work in Christ, not ours; these cannot be made more sure by
us, whatever we as believers may do.
But the view of the calling
and election of which Peter writes is not that which is connected
with eternal salvation, but with service.
It is such a calling as
those in Corinth had known when, as the church (Ekklesia, a
called-out people) of God in that city, they had obeyed the call of
God and had come out and were separate (1 Corinthians 1.2; 2
Corinthians 1.1; 6.17,18), and by obedience to that same call they
were found in the Fellowship of that time: "God is faithful, through
whom ye were called into the Fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our
Lord" (1 Corinthians 1.9).
From that position it was possible for
them to go back to the synagogue or to the idol's temple, whence
they were called, after they had known the call in the gospel, of
Romans 8.30.
Also, they could leave that people who are described
as God's house (1 Peter 2.5; 4.17), of which each church of God
formed a part, and cease to be of the elect who were in Pontus,
Galatia, etc., where they are viewed as God's elect as to service,
not as to salvation, as in Romans 8.33; Ephesians 1.4.
Peter
exhorts them to be diligent in making their calling and election
sure, for if they acted as he had exhorted them, by supplying the
things mentioned to the enrichment of their faith, they would never
stumble.
Stumbling is one of the evidences of childish and carnal
believers.
Every little stone has to be carefully removed from
their path lest they should trip over them; but the believer with a
rich and strong faith views mountains as molehills and strides
forward with vigour as he pursues the work of the Lord in helping
others.
The believer with an enriched faith will in the day to
come have a richly supplied or furnished entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour.
What an entrance this will be for
some, who by a rich and strong faith have marched through life
here!
They will enter upon a still wider sphere of service in that
eternal kingdom.
As compared with the entrance of some, who,
instead of having gone from strength to strength, have gone from
weakness to weakness, and have, in the sea of life, been the mere
plaything of every wind of doctrine!
2Pet1v12
Things we should remember we are ready to forget.
Frequently in
the Scriptures God's people, both in the past and present
dispensations, have been called upon to remember.
Amongst God's
last words in the Old Testament are these, "Remember ye the law of
Moses My servant" (Malachi 4.4), and amongst Paul's last words in his
last epistle, his second to Timothy, he said, "Remember Jesus Christ,
risen from the dead" (2 Timothy 2.8).
So here Peter calls them to
remember the things of which he was writing; not that they did not
know them, for they were established in the truth which was present
with them.
2Pet1v13,14,15
Peter here looks back to the incident by the sea of Tiberias in
that early morning when the resurrected Lord sought them after their
fruitless night of fishing, when He filled their nets with fish and
themselves with food, and then spoke to him of His needy lambs and
sheep, that they needed to be fed rather than that they should feed
themselves, as the faithless shepherds of Israel did of old (Ezekiel
34.2).
Then he told Peter concerning the manner of his death by
which he was to glorify God (John 21.18,19).
Peter sees that his
end is approaching swiftly and his earnest desire is, that those to
whom he is writing would not forget when he was gone the things
which they had learned.
He as a faithful shepherd had fed them
with the good word of God, but soon his voice would be heard no more
teaching and admonishing, feeding and shepherding them.
These
words of Peter must have been received with genuine sorrow by the
faithful amongst God's people who had been blessed by the ministry
of this outstanding leader of the people of God.
Those words wee
akin to the words of Paul to Timothy concerning his approaching end
(2 Timothy 4.6,7).
Thus it was that to the persecuting hand of
Nero and the iron kingdom ofImperial Rome there fell the two great
apostles of the Lord, Peter and Paul; but they left behind a
heritage of divine truth, the latter especially, which was to endure
when Imperial Rome had disappeared.
This tabernacle is Peter's
body.
Paul also uses a similar word for the human body in 2
Corinthians 5.1-4.
2Pet1v16
The world is filled with skilfully invented fables.
It takes an
expert liar to devise deceptions which will be received and believed
by multitudes of others.
There is nothing cunning and artful about
the truths and promises of Scripture.
God's stories and promises
are backed by unassailable truth, and evidence is borne by chosen
witnesses of unimpeachable veracity.
The power and coming
(Parousia, presence) of the Lord is attested by what Peter, James
and John saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the Lord appeared
in glory, when Moses and Elijah appeared with Him and spoke of His
decease at Jerusalem.
They were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
They got a glimpse of what will yet be seen when the Son of Man
comes in His kingdom (Matthew 16.28), when the Son of Man shall come
"with power and great glory" (Matthew 24.30).
2Pet1v17,18
He who had chosen to become Man, to partake of all the circumstances
of his lowly birth and life on earth, received from the Father
honour and glory in the presence of His three apostles, when the
Father declared for the second time who He is, and ever shall be,
even His beloved Son: not a Son by His human birth in time, but
God's only begotten Son, who is Son before all ages.
In God's
declaration at the Jordan that He was well pleased in His Son, He
summed up His Son's earthly life from the time He emptied Himself
and took the form of a bond-servant (Philippians 2.7) until His
baptism in Jordan at the hands of John the Baptist (Matthew 3.
13-17).
Here in these verses He reviews His life of public
ministry, concerning which He adds, "Hear ye Him."
In this public
ministry He found equal pleasure to the life of His Son in the home
of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth, about which we know but little.
Peter, one of the three holy apostles, the most credible of
witnesses, who heard the Father's voice, says, "This voice we
ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were with Him in the
holy mount."
2Pet1v19
The prophetic word was confirmed by what took place on the Mount of
Transfiguration, and Peter says that we do well to take heed to the
prophetic word, which is as a lamp shining in a squalid, filthy,
dark, obscure, murky place.
The word Peter uses (Auchmeros) is a
word of dismal meaning, associating darkness with squalor, dryness
and neglect.
The sole light in such a place of darkness is the
word of God.
There is none else beside.
In the darkness of this
present night we look for the Day-star, which is the Lord, who will
not rise in the heavens like Venus the morning star, but will rise
in our hearts and will never set there.
He is "the Bright, the
Morning Star" (Revelation 22.16).
He rises as the Morning Star
before He appears as the Sun of righteousness, with healing in His
wings, for the deliverance of Israel and other sufferers, when He
comes as Son of Man (Malachi 4.1,2).
2Pet1v20,21
These verses tell us that the prophecies of Scripture do not
interpret themselves.
One part of the Scripturs casts light on the
other.
The words of Malachi cast light on God's dealings with Easu
and Jacob (Malachi 1.2-5; Genesis 25.23, etc.).
Again the word of
Malachi reveals the meaning of the name and character of Jehoavah,
"I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not
consumed" (Malachi 3.6; Exodus 6.2-4).
Neither His name nor His
covenant with the fathers of the Israel people changed.
So it is
with all Scripture.
The Divine Author of the sixty-six books of
the word of God is the Holy Spirit.
No part of the Scriptures ever
came by the will of man, but men spake from God (Balaam and
Caiaphas, who both prophesied, the one unwittingly and other
unknowingly, were not holy men, yet both prophecies are of profound
meaning and importance) (Numbers 23.7-10,15-24; 24.3-9,15-24; John
11.49-52) being moved, or borne along, as things by the wind, by the
Holy Spirit.
The Spirit used whom He would to communicate His word
to men.
Though given "by divers portions and in divers manners"
(Hebrews 1.1), yet the complete volume was before the mind of the
Spirit before one word was spoken or written, for "Known unto God
are all His works from the beginning of the world (or from
eternity)" (Acts 15.18).
Into this book's treasuries none but the
believer may enter.
Here are things hidden from the wise and
prudent, but revealed unto babes (Matthew 11.25,26).
2Pet2v1
How a false prophet was to be treated in Israel is dealt with in
Deuteronomy 13.1-5.
Such an one was to be put to death even though
his sin or wonder came to pass.
His validity as a prophet was to
be determined, not by his wonder, but by the import of his message.
By such a false prophet God proved His people whether they did love
Him with their heart and soul.
False teachers were also to arise
in the churches of God in the later apostolic period and bring in by
stealth evil doctrine.
Paul referred to those when he spoke to the
elders of the church in Ephesus.
He said, "I know that after my
departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the
flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20.29,
30).
The faithful shepherd Paul departed and the grievous wolves
entered in.
Later, Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, when he was going
into Macedonia, to charge certain men not to teach a different
doctrine (Heterodidaskaleo to teach a different kind of doctrine
than Paul taught) (1 Timothy 1.3).
Later still, Paul called upon
Timothy and those who were faithful to the word of truth to purge
themselves out from such as Hymanaeus and Philetus and their
followers because of their false teaching (2 Timothy 2.15-22), for
only thus could the pure teaching be preserved from the corrupting
effect of false doctrine.
The heresies taught by the false
teachers were destructive, both to teachers and hearers, destructive
of the house or temple of God (1 Corinthians 3.16,17), and also
destructive, not merely of the lives of believers in their service
for God, but ultimately, the destruction of human souls.
This we
see going on all around.
Doctrines are being taught which sink men
in endless perdition.
That these false teachers, to begin with,
were persons saved by grace, we doubt not, for it says, "denying
even the Master that bought them," but we doubt very much if many of
those who followed them were saved people.
False doctrine can
produce only perverted people, and such, we judge, were many of
those who followed in their false way.
2Pet2v2
If the devil cannot destroy those who walk in the way of the truth
by enemies without, he will try the more subtle method; he will
seek to corrupt them from within.
He has been more successful in
the latter method of attack.
These teachers were licentious, given
to lewdness.
They were the exact opposite of Paul, as seen in what
he wrote to the Thessalonians.
"Ye know what manner of men we
shewed ourselves toward you for your sake.
And ye became imitators
of us, and of the Lord, having receivd the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Spirit; so that ye became an ensample to all
that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia" (1 Thessalonians 1.5,6,7).
The evil doctirne and practice of the false teachers were followed
by many, for men will naturally follow the wrong way rather than the
right.
Only by the Spirit's enlightenment and quickening power do
believers ever follow the way of the truth.
Because of the excess
and licentiousness of these people the way of the truth would be
evil spoken of or blasphemed.
2Pet2v3
Not sufficed with those whom they have deceived and perverted, they
go forth, like the Pharisees, who compassed land and sea to make one
proselyte (Matthew 23.15), with feigned words, well formed, invented
words of deceit, to enrich themselves with an increase of numbers,
which amounts to making merchandise of human souls.
This goes on
on all sides.
The Lord said of the proselyte of the Pharisees,
"When he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell
(Gehenna) than yourselves."
Thus evil teaching and practice
spread.
But as with the Pharisees and these false teachers,
neither their sentence nor their destruction lingers or slumbers.
God will ever requite the wrong-doer.
2Pet2v4
Peter cites different incidents of divine judgement, and here he
begins with the angels that sinned.
These are perhaps the angels
of the devil, referrd to in Matthew 25.41; Jude 6; Revelation 12.
7.
Jude speaks of "everlasting bonds" (A.V. chains, under
darkness, Desmos, a bond, a cord, chain or fetter).
The A.V.
renders the word Seirais (Seira, a cord, rope band or a chain) in
Peter as "chains," but the R.V. gives "pits," and others "dens"
(Sirois or Seirois).
The sinning angels were cast down to
Tartarus, "which in the mythology of the ancients was that part of Hades
(or Hell) where the souls of the wicked were confined and tormented.
"
According to the ancients the souls of all went to Hades, both
good and bad, but Tartarus was the place where only the bad or
wicked were confined.
If the sinning angels were cast down to
Tartarus, how is it that they are in heaven, in Revelation 12.7, and
are cast down by Michael with the dragon, the devil, to the earth in
the middle of Daniel's prophetic week of seven years (Daniel 9.
27)?
Here is a mystery as yet unrevealed (to me) in the
Scriptures.
Questions such as, how long are the chains that bind
them to the Tartarian dungeons?
What measure of freedom do these
everlasting bonds allow those angels that sinned?
That they were
cast downt to Tartarus, and that they will be found in heaven with
the dragon, and later be found on earth are plain statements of the
Scriptures, but how is the gap between these statements filled in?
Milton fills it in in his "Paradise Lost," by his account of the
escape of Satan from Hades, but we need more than a poet's dream, we
need the words of the inspired truth to rest upon.
Whatever be the
solution of such an obscure passage of the word, we are assured that
those angels that sinned are now reserved or kept unto judgement,
that is the solemn consequence of their sin.
It may be useful to some to say that the Greek word here rendered
"Hell" in the R.V. and A.V. is not the noun Tartaros (Tartarus), but
is a participle, Tartarosas, of the verb Tartaroo.
Someone with an
expert knowledge of the Greek may help us to understand the use of
the Greek participle here, and what the Spirit through Peter is
telling us of the fearful and solemn event of the delivering of the
sinning angels to dens or chains of darkness.
Parkhurst, in his
Greek lexicon, gives a lengthy comment on the difficulty of the word
Tartarosas.
He says in summing up:"The true original sense of that word (Tartarus) above explained
which, when applied to spirits, must be interpreted spiritually;
and thus Tartarosas will import that God cast the apostate angels
into Sophos tou Skotous, 'Blackness of darkness' (2 Peter 2.17;
Jude 13), where they will be for ever banished from the light of His
countenance, and from the beautifying influence of the blessed Three.
"
2Pet2v5
Sin will bring its recompense.
God's judgement was world-wide in
Noah's day.
We are told that "all the high mountains that were
under the whole heaven were covered.
Fifteen cubits (about 27
feet) upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were
covered" (Genesis 7.19,20), and only eight persons were saved (1
Peter 3.20), "Noah with seven others."
Noah was a preacher of
righteousness, who condemned sin and called upon men to repent of
their wickedness, but they were unheeding and went on corrupting
God's way upon the earth (Genesis 6.12).
God has had at all times
a way in which men should walk.
It was "the law" in Israel's day
(Psalm 119.1), it is "the Faith" today, "the Way which they call a
sect" (Acts 24.14).
It was the Way Paul first persecuted (Acts 9.
2; 22.4).
2Pet2v6,7,8
Not only did God turn these wicked cities of the plain of the Jordan
to ashes by fire and brimstone from heaven, but Jude tells us that
they are now suffering the punishment of eternal fire (verse 7).
Eternal fire is something different from the fire which destroyed
Sodom and the other cities.
Many men have still some measure of
dread upon them as they think of the consequences of the sins of
Sodom, and laws have been enacted under which the sins of Sodom are
punished.
Such has been the result of the example of divine
punishment in that long past time.
Lot was a back-slider, but the
changes wrought in him by the work of God through his uncle Abraham
were such that to him the lawless licentiousness of the people of
Sodom was revolting; it distressed and tormented his soul what he
saw and heard in that wicked city; both their conversation and acts
were filthy and abominable.
Such is the course the flesh takes in
man when given a loose rein.
Deliverance came for Lot,in one sense
through the prayers of his uncle, though God does not destroy the
righteous with the wicked (Genesis 18.23; 19.29).
2Pet2v9
How to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment are the prerogatives of God, who in
infinite wisdom deals with men, as He sees and knows, with perfect
insight, their thoughts and ways.
This work He has not delegated
to any created being whatsoever.
He is the Judge of all.
Let the
godly be comforted with this word, that their deliverance from
temptation is with the Lord, who will not suffer them to be tempted
above that which they are able to bear, but with the temptation
will make the way of escape (1 Corinthians 10.13).
How deliverance
will come is known to Him, not to us.
2Pet2v10,11
Here we have the lawlessness of the flesh uncovered.
Men are
hastening along a slippery course in the lust of pollution and
defilement.
"Who is lord over us?" is the expression of their
thoughts.
They despise dominion or lordship.
They are lord over
themselves and claim the right to direct their own lives according
to their own appetites.
It has been well said, that
"self-determination is self-destruction." Hence it is that they are
daring, presumptuous; they persuade themselves to act as they
please, and in consequence are self-willed, arrogant, and they do
not tremble to blaspheme, rail at, "glories" (R.V.M.). They know of
nothing more glorious than their own carnal and corrupt selves.
In
contrast, the angels, though greater in strength and power than men,
do not bring against such glories, not even against the devil (Jude
9), a railing charge or judgement before the Lord.
He who created
the "glories," even though they be fallen from their original
estate, as in the case of the devil, has the sole right to charge
His angels with folly (Job 4.18).
2Pet2v12
Peter is not here dealing with the matter of God's free grace
towards men, but with the behaviour of men.
That a child of God
can get far away from God, and sometimes his behaviour is such that
there seems to be no evidence that he had ever known the grace of
God, is not a matter of doubt, but of fact.
Peter exhorts his
readers that none is to suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an
evil-doer (1 Peter 4.15).
Only the Lord Himself knows some of
those that are His, and it may be a surprise to some, who at one
time believed in Christ and who thereafter drifted far from Him into
sin and lost the joy of salvation (Psalm 51.12), to be caught up at
the Lord's coming again.
Those that Peter here describes are such
as walk after the flesh, and a believer who walks after the flesh is
little different from sinners in the flesh.
These are "as
creatures without reason, born mere animals," but they were not
cratures without reason, though they lived bestial lives.
As brute
beasts in their ignorance they railed in matters about which they
were totally ignorant, and in their destroying or corrupting others
they would themselves be destroyed or corrupted.
This is what Paul
said when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that ye are a
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any
man destroyeth (corrupteth) the temple of God, him shall God destroy
(corrupt); for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1
Corinthians 3.16,17).
It follows as a sequence that one who
corrupts others corrupts himself, and so his work of destruction
results in self-destruction.
Some may think that they are wise and
clever enough to destroy others, and that they themselves shall be
saved from the effect of their works, but that is quite impossible.
So also in reverse it is the case, that those that seek to save
others shall themselves be saved, even as Paul exhorted Timothy,
"Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching.
Continue in these
things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them
that hear thee" (1 Timothy 4.16).
2Pet2v13
Wrong-doing or unrighteousness has ever its reward, hire or wages.
Wrong-doing ever rests in the wrong-doer.
Of old Cain cried out
when he knew what his wrong-doing brought to him, "My punishment is
greater than I can bear."
What a man sows he shall also reap
(Galatians 6.7), and the reaping from some forms of sin is
fearful.
Not sufficed with revelling in the night, for "they that
be drunken are drunken in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5.7),
shamelessly they carried on their revels in the day-time; they
indulged in their passing pleasure.
They were spots and blemishes
on Christian conduct; stains upon the testimony of the Lord;
living luxuriously in their love-feasts while they banqueted or
feasted with the faithful - "with you."
2Pet2v14
It is not having eyes full of adultery, but "eyes full of an
adulteress."
The would-be adulterer has his eyes full, not of
adultery, an abstract act, but full of the object of his adultery,
the woman, the object of his lust.
These false teachers who are
here described could not cease from sin, for they sinned continually
in thought, as the Lord clearly stated of those whom He condemned in
Matthew 5.27,28.
They allured or enticed unsteadfast souls, and
woe to the women who became their prey.
Their heart, which was
exercised in sin, became increasingly strong in its coveting, lust,
or craving, which was against the law which said, "Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour's wife," as well as anything else that was their
neighbour's.
Truly, such false teachers and their dupes were
children of a curse, as in 1 Corinthians 16.22.
2Pet2v15,16
These false teachers were once in the right way, but they left it.
This is what Paul prophesied would happen in Ephesus after his
departing, that, besides the grievous wolves who would enter in
among the flock, and possibly among the elders also, from among the
elders men would arise, speaking perverse (perverted or distorted)
things to draw away the disciples after them (Acts 20.30).
Thus
the false tachers went astray themselves and deceived others who
followed them, for teachers ever seek to lead others to where they
are themselves.
They followed the way of Balaam, who, it is said,
loved the hire of wrong-doing.
If men have not heavenly rewards
before them for right-doing, they will have before them the wages of
the hireling in worldly honour and wealth.
Each man will have his
price according to his gift and astuteness.
Let it be clearly
understood that such men and their works will be against God's
people, as was Balaam of ond, whom Balak sent for to curse Israel.
God calls Balaam's way "madness," and He caused his ass to rebuke
him with a man's voice.
It was a miracle indeed, which, if it had
been heeded, would not simply have "stayed" the prophet's madness,
but would have stopped it and sent him home again.
Alas, it did not
cure his madness, so on he went in his folly to curse, if possible,
a people whom God had blessed.
Men believe what they want to
believe and do what they want to do.
2Pet2v17
In their ministry there was no refreshing.
They were dry as dust
and as lifeless; their ministry had neither spirit nor soul, but
was a mere body of words, and such words are no better than pebbles
in the mouth. They were as mists which beclouded the eyesight, but
gave no rain; for such men the gloom of darkness is reserved.
Confessedly, it would be a great difficulty if the words "for ever"
(Eis Aiona), as in the A.V., were in the original Greek text, for
the chapter begins by telling us that the false teachers denied the
Master that bought them.
No sinner bought by the Lord with His
precious blood can be in the blackness of darkness for ever.
The
words "for ever" are omitted in the R.V. and by several of the great
textual critics, so we judge that the gloom of darkness which is
kept for these false tachers is the gloom of present darkness, and
not the outer darkness of the lost.
The "swift destruction," of
verse 1, is not eternal destruction, but the destruction of the
life of the believer.
2Pet2v18,19
Swelling words were words which swelled like a tumour, pompous,
boastful words, the language of pride.
They were words of vanity,
useless, unprofitable, but they were words to bait, to allure and
trap, for they wrought by lasciviousness or lewdness on the flesh of
those who were just escaping from them that live in error.
If
these escaped out ofone snare, they were faced with the snare of the
false teachers.
How artful and mischievous the devil is!
He sets
his snares everywhere to catch God's children and keep them from
ever reaching God's house where they may serve God according to His
word.
The appeal of false teaching is ever to the flesh, in one
kind or other of carnal attractions.
The false teachers promised
liberty, while they were themselves bondservants of corruption; it
was a promise which could never be fulfilled. If the false teachers
overcame, vanquished, or subdued those who were escaping from error,
then they brought them into the same bondage as they were in
themselves.
2Pet2v20
Here we have contemplated persons escaping from one form of evil
through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then being
trapped and overcome in another form of evil through the work of
false teachers.
This state of things abounds in our times, and it
becomes all who would find the right way, the way of the truth, to
pray like David, "Teach me Thy way, O LORD; I will walk in Thy
truth" (Psalm 86.11).
All that is taught by men should be tested
by the word of God, which, by the Holy Spirit's guidance, will
surely direct the steps of all who would be led by Him.
Escaping
from one snare and then to fall into another, the last state of the
person will become worse than the first.
2Pet2v21,22
It is better, and will incur less responsibility and correspondingly
less judgement, for a person not to know what is right than to know
what is right and turn back from it.
Sin against light is worse
than sin in darkness, for the former involves the sin of the will
which is rebellion, which is the worst form of wrong-doing.
Then
Peter quotes a proverb showing what happened in the case of those
who were overcome by the false teachers.
It must not be
interpreted as teaching that as the dog and the sow were unclean
animals, so these who were overcome wre unregenerated sinners who
had never been cleansed from their sins.
Unregenerate sinners do
not escape from evil by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, as these backsliders had been escaping when they became
entangled and overcome by the false teachers.
The proverb simply
teaches that they have become entangled in a like evil, perhaps a
worse, than that in which they had been.
Sectarianism is like a
rabbit burzow with many holes.
By whichever hole you enter, you
are in the same burrow of sectarianism.
Some leave one form of
sectarianism and go to another.
They vomit up the former phase of
sectarianism and swallow it in the other.
So also the sow which
wallowed in one heap of mire, comes out, is washed, but returns to
another heap to wallow again as before.
Let children of God turn to
their Bibles and to the God of the Bible, and according to the sure
promise of the Lord, "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall
know of the teaching" (John 7.17).
2Pet3v1,2
Of old God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make a proclamation to
grant liberty to the Jewish people, to return to Jerusalem to build
the house of the LORD, and He also stirred the spirit of the heads
of the fathers' houses of the remnant to go up to build the house
(Ezra 1.1,5).
God stirs some to life and activity and these stir
up others.
We may also stir ourselves up, as Timothy was told to
stir into flame the gift of God which was in him.
Here, in Peter,
it is to stir up their sincere (Eilikrines, which means to judge in
the sunshine, and in consequence of being viewed in the sunshine,
what is seen is pure and bright) minds to remember the words of the
Old Testament prophets, and the Lord's commandments through their
apostles in the New Testament.
How vital it is to us all to have
our minds well-stored with the Scriptures of both Old and New
Testaments!
2Pet3v3,4
"Mockers" and "mockery" are words derived from Empaizo (En,in,
Paizo, "to play in the manner of children").
Paizo comes from
Pais, a child.
Such mockers sported and treated God's things as
child's play.
What folly!
Instead of treating life as real and
earnest, they walked after their lusts, scorning the idea of the
Lord's return, and their accountability to Him.
They were like the
mockers of Noah's time.
Where was the promise, or the evidence of
the promise of His coming?
The certainty of the promise could not
be demonstrated; all things were as they ever had been, and would
be to the end, so they thought.
2Pet3v5,6
Such mockers willingly hide from themselves the work of God, that
there were heavens of old, and an earth which out of and amidst, or
through water, subsisted, when by the word of God it arose from the
waters on the third day of Genesis 1, when God said, "Let the dry
land appear."
Those same waters which receded and were gathered
together, overflowed the world in Noah's time and the world
perished.
No doubt the wicked mockers in the days of Noah mocked
him as he, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of
his family, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of
the righteousness which is according to faith.
Peter thus draws a
parallel between the mockers of the last days and what happened in
the time of Noah.
2Pet3v7
This verse does not teach by the words, "stored with fire" (R.V.marg.
), that the centre of the earth is a burning molten mass.
That is
no doubt perfectly true.
What it does say is that both the present
heavens and the earth are, by the word of God, stored up for fire,
or, as the A.V. says, "kept in store, reserved unto fire."
We
think of what men have discovered in the last few decades about the
atom, that the earth and heavens have in them all the potential for
self-destruction when the day of burning comes.
That time of
destruction is in the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly
men, which carries the mind forward to the judgement of the Great
White Throne (Revelation 20.11-15).
2Pet3v8
Time, as we know it here on earth, given to us by the movement of
the earth in relation to the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 1.14-19),
does not exist with the Lord, as is evident from the statement,
"that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day" (Psalm 90.4).
Thus the fulfilment of the Lord's
promise to return again is not regulated by our clocks and
calendars.
He shall come in His own time, at a time when the evil
servant was
saying, "My lord tarrieth; . . . in a day when he expecteth not, and
in an hour when he knoweth not" (Matthew 24.48-50), He shall come.
We have to be ready for His coming and expecting Him.
2Pet3v9
The "perishing" here is not the perishing of sinners, but that of
saints, in the loss of the lives of saints in service, not the
eternal loss of sinners.
Note the words, that the Lord "is
longsuffering to you-ward."
The Lord's desire is that we should be
anxiously awaiting His coming as He Himself is, who says, "I come
quickly."
He looks forward with keen expectancy to His coming
again and to the joy of that day.
May we respond to His words, "I
come quickly," and say, "Amen: come Lord Jesus"!
With such words
our Bible closes, words which have sung their way from heaven to us,
the sweetest music to the hearts of saints, and which have echoed
back to the throne in that long "Amen," the sweetest sound that
rises from earth in our Lord's ears - "Come, Lord Jesus," we want
Thee to come.
If in any wise our hearts have wandered from Him,
His desire is that we should come to repentance, that with a change
of mind our whole inward being should be properly adjusted to
Himself.
2Pet3v10
The coming of the Lord for His saints, as in verse 9, and the coming
of the Lord with His saints in the beginning of the day of the Lord,
as in verse 10, are two different events.
Note how verse 10 begins
with "but."
The day of the Lord is more than a thousand years in
extent.
It begins with the coming of the Lord to earth as the Son
of Man, and continues to the judgement of the Great White Throne,
when the earth and heaven flee away from the face of the Lord who
shall sit upon that throne, and there will be found no place for
them (Revelation 20.11).
Note the force of the words "in the which,
" that is, in "the day of the Lord."
The heavens are to pass aay
with a great noise.
The great explosions of atomic weapons may
give some faint idea of this "great noise."
We are told that "the
elements shall be dissolved (Luo, to loose or unbind) with fervent
heat."
"Elements" (Stoicheia) is described by Liddell and Scott as
"the first and simplest component parts."
The elements, to the
ancient Greeks, were "water, earth, etc.," but there is no doubt a
depth in the word Stoicheion used by the Greeks which they could
not imagine with their rudimentary knowledge.
What the
conflagration will be when the elements disunite and are dissolved,
we cannot now conceive.
Then the earth and its works shall be
burned up.
Some say, as in R.V.marg., "shall be discovered"
or others "shall be detected," for "burned up," but it is difficult
to understand what is to be discovered when the elements are
dissolved.
2Pet3v11
The present participle does not mean that a thing of necessity is
going on.
Note "delivereth" in 1 Thessalonians 1.10. Quite
evidently the Lord was not continually delivering.
Also see John 1.
29, "beareth," the Lord was not then bearing sin.
How God will yet deal with the earth in that coming day of
judgement, should make us to behave ourselves holily and godly, and
to set our affections on things above and not upon things on the
earth.
Earthly things should be used as a means to an end, not as
though they were themselves the end and objective in life here.
Yet how many seek to build abiding habitations around themselves
with what is yet to be completely destroyed!
2Pet3v12,13
"Looking for" means to wait with expectation; "earnestly desiring"
is rendered by some as "hastening."
The Greek word here, Speudo,
is rendered "hasting unto" (A.V.) and "earnestly desiring" (R.V.)
and "hastening" (in some other translations).
It does not seem to
me that we can hasten, that is lessen as to time between now and
then in any sense in regard to a day which is in the hand of God;
but we can eagerly desire it and long for that eternal day of joy
and rest.
(The thought of hasting doesn't infer the bringing
forward of the day of God, but the Christian's looking forward to
the day of God.
It relates to the zeal and carefulness produced by
the "all holy living and godliness" of the previous verse.
This
manner of living will heighten the believer's anticipation of the
coming (Gk. parousia) and unique splendour of that ultimate and
unending day.)
"Wherein" (A.V.) is quite incorrect, for the
passing away of the heavens and the dissolving of the elements with
fervent heat is in the day of the Lord, as verse 10 shows, and not
in the day of God.
The R.V. is correct when it says, "by reason of
which," that is the coming or presence of the day of God.
The "day
of God" is similar, I judge, to "the day of eternity" (R.V.marg.)
rendered "for ever" in the A.V. and R.V. (2 Peter 3.18).
This day
follows on after the "day of the Lord", which closes with the
passing away of the heaven and the earth and the judgement of the
Great White Throne.
Earth and heaven and material things of
the present order of things having passed away, and the dead having
been raised and judged, things of the eternal order connected with
the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem will then
become the permanent order in the "day of God," the eternal day.
Thus Peter says that "according to His promise, we look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
2Pet3v14
Whilst the Church which is the Body of Christ will be without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing in the day of the Lord's coming, when
He shall present it to Himself in all the perfection of His own
work, the saints as to their behaviour may not be without spot and
blameless, but we have to be diligent to be found in peace and in
this spotless and blameless condition.
This has to do with our
behaviour and service.
2Pet3v15,16
We have here a most affectionate reference by Peter to Paul, his
fellow-apostle.
He does not say, "Paul wrote to you," or "the
apostle Paul," or "our brother Paul," but "our beloved brother Paul.
"
It shows that even though differences may creep in betimes
between the Lord's fellow-workers, as happened at Antioch between
Paul and Peter (Galatians 2.11-21), these should not antagonize
brethren, allowing the flesh to produce a state of bitterness
between them.
Let us emulate Peter's example and think of our
fellow-workers as beloved brethren.
Paul wrote to the same people
as did Peter and the only epistle which answers to this is the
epistle to the Hebrews, the Pauline authorship of which has
unfortunately been disputed by some.
Paul's epistle to the Hebrews
is written on the subject of the salvation of God's saints from the
great evil of falling away from the living God (Hebrews 3.12), by
drifting away from the things that were heard during the Lord's
ministry (Hebrews 2.1-4).
Peter writes his epistles in a similar
strain, that the salvation of saints is through the Lord's
longsuffering, as it says in verse 9, that "the Lord ... is
longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance."
See note on verse 9.
Peter
says that Paul wrote in his epistles some things that are hard to be
understood.
It is interesting to think the apostles read and
pondered the writings of other apostles, even as the prophets read
the writings of other prophets (Daniel 9.2; Zechariah 1.4,5,6; 7.7,
12).
But, sad to say, the untaught, or ignorant, and the
unstedfast or unestablished, wrest, distort (Strebloo, which comes
from the Greek word for a rack, an instrument of torture, on which
the limbs of a victim were racked or distored) the writings of Paul,
as they do the other scriptures.
Note the force of the word
"other" here, which shows clearly that the epistles of Paul were
regarded by Peter, and as Peter was writing by inspiration, were
regarded by God to be part of the Holy Scriptures.
The words
"scripture" and "scriptures" are never used in the New Testament of
any other writings than the Holy Scriptures.
Men who wrest the
Scriptures destroy themselves in so doing, besides destroying others.
2Pet3v17,18
The apostle closes his epistle with a note of warning and an
exhortation.
They were to beware of the error (Plane, deception
which causes wandering) of the wicked, lawless or unrestrained, by
which they would be led away or seduced to follow the example of the
lawless, and so fall from their stedfastness in the Lord's way.
In
contrast to this they were to grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which will ever save us from falling
a prey to evil and to evil men.
To our blessed Lord be the glory
both now and unto the day of eternity.
Amen.
NOTES
OF
ON
THE
FIRST
EPISTLE
JOHN
1John1v1
Here we have the neuter relative pronoun which is rendered "that
which."
In John 1.1, John writes of the Word who was in being in
the beginning, before all things were made, who was with (Pros,
toward) God, in perfect communion and intercourse with God, and that
He was God, truly and fully God in essence, nature and attributes,
for "the Word was God."
By Him all things were made.
But in this
epistle John writes of that which was from the beginning concerning
the Word of life.
That which was from the beginning was in due time
heard, seen, beheld and handled.
In John 1.1, John writes of the
Word "who" was in the beginning, but in this epistle he writes of
"that which" was from the beginning concerning the Word.
The Word
was the One by whom Deity was revealed, and there was that which men
on earth heard of Him.
In due time men saw with their eyes those
things about Him which became indelibly impressed upon them, so that
they said, "We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard"
(Acts 4.20).
He was not only seen with the eyes, but the apostles
and others beheld, that is, viewed with attention, gazed upon, that
which was revealed in the incarnate Word.
Then as He came still
closer to them, they could say that their hands handled the Word who
had become flesh.
From the remoteness of the beginning the Word of
life came ever nearer and nearer to men, and when raised from the
dead, in order that they might be fully convinced that He was still
in the flesh, He said, "Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not
flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having" (Luke 24.39).
In this
place also it says that "He shewed them His hands and His feet"
(verse 40), the very hands and feet that bore the wounds of the nails
by which He was hanged on the cross.
1John1v2
When the Life was manifested or brought to light, the apostles could
say, "We have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the Life,
the eternal, which was with the Father."
Quite evidently the Life
is not an abstract thing, but a blessed Person.
We gather this
from 5.20, where reference is made to God's Son, Jesus Christ;
"This is the true God, and eternal life."
Eternal life is in the
Son, consequently, "He that hath the Son hath the life" (5.12).
And, as Paul says, "The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6.23).
Christ is our life.
"When Christ,
who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be
manifested in glory" (Colossians 3.4).
Whilst the Gospel according
to John was written that "ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name"
(John 20.31), the first epistle of John was written to teach
believers how to live the life that they had obtained through faith
in Christ.
If the apostles were to know the character of this new
life that they might be able to live it and teach it to others, it
was necessary that the Life should be manifested.
The apostles who
lived with and followed the Lord saw the manifestation of the life
in Him.
They saw how He lived and walked amongst men, how He
talked and acted.
The lives of the disciples were such that they
were called Christians (Acts 11.26); they were Christ-like people.
They lived like Him.
Paul, who was one of the chief teachers in
Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians, later
wrote to the Corinthians, "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am
of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11.1).
The apostles, being men of like
passions with us, had the old Adamic nature in their flesh, and they
needed to have demonstrated to them in the life of the Lord how they
were to live to please God.
Paul often emphasizes his manner of
life in connexion with his preaching of the gospel: "Ye know what
manner of men we shewed ourselves toward you for your sake.
And ye
became imitators of us, and of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 1.5,6).
In John's Gospel it is the gift of life, and in this epistle it is
how to live that life.
Many vainly seek to live the life of a
Christian without having obtained life, being yet dead in their
trespasses and sins.
1John1v3,4
The object in the manifestation of the Life is fellowship, first,
fellowship with the Father and with the Son, in that fellowship
which is produced by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God (2
Corinthians 13.14; Philippians 2.1).
Then, as the result of each
walking in the light of God, fellowship with one another (verse
7).
Not only does life issue from the Lord, He is also the Light
that came into the world; He is the one and only Light of this
world.
"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John
1.4).
"There was the true Light ... coming into the world," and
His purpose in coming was to lighten every man.
We first need life
to enable us to walk, and we need light to teach us how to walk,
even to follow the Lord.
No one can possibly walk who has not
first received life.
Fellowship here is fellowship with (Meta,
together with), not that fellowship or community into which those in
the church of God in Corinth and all similar churches were called,
which latter is synonymous with that fellowship in which those in
the church of God in Jerusalem continued stedfastly (Acts 2.42; 1
Corinthians 1.9).
Fellowship means a sharing in common.
It began
with the Father and the Son sharing with the apostles the spiritual
things of the New Testament.
These things the apostles shared with
others in their oral ministry and by their inspired writings in the
books of the New Testament.
These Scriptures are the basis of
divine fellowship.
John wrote this epistle to promote fellowship
and in it he also shows what will hinder fellowship and cause it to
cease altogether.
John tells of the joy he had in writing his
epistle; he says, "that our joy may be fulfilled."
1John1v5,6
All man's works are evil in God's sight.
"There is none that doeth
good, no, not so much as one" (Romans 3.12).
Hence it is, "This is
the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved
the darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil" John
3.19).
Even in those who have been turned from darkness to light
(Acts 26.18), there is much of darkness as to the knowledge of God and
of His will, but in God, who is light, there is no darkness at
all.
This is the message which the Lord taught His apostles.
The
gods of the heathen bear no resemblance to Him, for they have eyes
and see not, and ears but they hear not, and a mouth but they cannot
speak, and, alas, they that make and serve them become like unto
them.
But in contrast, those that know their God, and walk in
fellowship with Him, take on His likeness.
If we should say that
we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do
not the truth.
It would be a contradiction in terms, if we said we
walked with One who is light and walked in darkness at the same
time.
To walk in the light means that we walk according to His
word.
The word of God is the only source of light to men in this
world, and apart from it the darkness is dense and complete.
Walk
signifies the behaviour or deportment of anyone.
We manifest the
inward condition of our hearts by our walk.
Fellowship being an
inward experience of the heart in touch with God, so we may measure
inward condition by outward behaviour.
1John1v7
Man originally lived in fellowship with the LORD God his Creator,
but when he disobeyed the command of God and sin entered, death
spiritually resulted and fellowship ceased.
The Lord came that
we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10.10).
This
opened the way that those who have this new life in Him should so
walk that they might know the experience of Eden again.
The
standard is that we are to walk in the light as He is in the light,
a high standard indeed, but God can only have one standard.
If
each one so walks, then we have fellowship with one another.
Fellowship is not politeness nor is it friendliness; it cannot be
manufactured.
It is the the result of the Lord's coming from
heaven and teaching the truth of God, and if the children of God
walk in the light of that truth then they will have fellowship with
one another.
Remember that as in Eden the breaking of God's
command resulted in the destruction of fellowship, even so it will
be now.
It is this matter of disobedience that has resulted in the
scattering of God's children and the ceasing of fellowship.
Those
who walk in God's light find out their many defects, and realize
their need of cleansing.
Hence we have available the one and only
cleanser from sin, even the blood of Jesus, God's Son.
It is the
same blood-shedding that cleansed the believing sinner on the day of
his salvation, but here it is not the cleansing of the believing
sinner, but the cleansing of God's children.
In 1 John 1 it is not
the matter of union with Christ that is in view, but that of
communion with Him.
1John1v8,9,10
It is needful that the believer should know something of his own
complex person.
On the one hand he is not free from sin, and
cannot say that he has not sinned; if he should say so, then the
truth is not in him and he is a liar.
On the other hand, "whosoever
is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him:
and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God" (1 John 3.9).
Here would seem to be at first sight a head-on collision between two
statements of Scripture by the same writer, if it were not for the
fact that we know that there is still the old man or nature in the
flesh of the believer, as Paul says, "For I know that in me, that
is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7.18), and that
there is also in him "the new man, which after God hath been created
in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4.24).
Judicially our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be done away or annulled [Romans 6.6; the same word
rendered "done away" (R.V.) here, used of the devil in Hebrews 2.14,
Katargeo, does not mean to destroy in the sense of annihilate, but
to render ineffective or unproductive].
The believer has sin in
him, that is in his flesh, and John says that if the child of God
should say that he has not sinned he makes God a liar, a very
serious thing to do, and His Word is not in him.
Confessing sins
is the responsibilityof the child of God.
The sinner is not
forgiven on the ground that he confesses his sins to God, far less
is he forgiven if he confesses his sins to a priest.
No mortal
man, whoever he may be, in whatever office of any church he may be,
can forgive one sin or make atonement by any mass or prayer he may
make.
The forgiveness of sins by man is a hoax, plied with the
devilish arts of the evil one on credulous people who from their
childhood are easily deceived.
The forgiveness of the sinner is on
the ground of fatih in the Sin-Bearer.
The words of Peter to
Cornelius and his household make the matter of forgiveness crystal
clear: "To Him (Christ) bear all the prophets witness, that
through His name everyone that believeth on Him shall receive
remission of sins."
Faith and faith alone in Christ results in the
sinner being forgiven all his sins.
This is clearly seen in the
fact that the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard Peter's word
(Acts 10.43,44) .
Paul's testimony in the synagogue of Antioch is
similar to Peter's, "Be it known unto you, ... that through this
Man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by Him everyone
that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not
be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13.38,39).
The believing
sinner is forgiven [which means that his sins are sent away, never
to return, on Him on whom God laid the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53.
6; 1 Peter 2.24)] and he is justified by God, declared righteous, so
righteous that no charge can be laid against him (Romans 8.33,34).
The sinner believes in Christ and is forgiven and justified, but the
sinning child of God confesses his sins to his heavenly Father and
is forgiven.
Justification is not connected with this
forgiveness.
This is not that he may be saved, but that he might
live in fellowship with the Father and the Son in the fellowship or
communion of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 13.14; Philippians 2.1) who
dwells within him.
We must be careful to distinguish between union
with Christ, which is for ever, and communion with Him, which sin
can affect and sometimes destroys.
1John2v1,2
The gracious provision for the forgiveness of sin should not be
taken as an encouragement, but rather a deterrent, to sin.
Let none
turn the grace of God into licence to do evil, but rather let us be
thankful for God's gracious provision to meet our weaknesses, for
they are many.
A learned scholar says of the verb "sin," which is
aorist 2 subjunctive, "The moods of the aorist usually express
single definite actions not contemplated as continuing."
Then the
writer who makes this quotation from this scholar suggests the
translation of the verse as follows:"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may
commit no act of sin; and if any (of us) shall have committed an
act of sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous."
John wrote to his little children, who were also God's
children, that they might not sin, but if they did, then they had an
Advocate with the Father.
God's children have two Advocates,
Comforters or Helpers, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The Lord
promised His disciples, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give
you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever ... for He
abideth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14.16,17).
Though all
God's children have two Advocates or Comforters, God's people have
but one High Priest.
The office of High Priest should not be
confused with the work of the Advocate.
The Lord as the Advocate
is with the Father on behalf of the Father's children, so that
they might live in fellowshp with their Father, but it is in
connexion with the service of a people that the High Priest makes
propitiation.
Besides being the propitiation for the sins of God's
children He is the propitiation for the whole world.
The words
"the sins of" the whole world shown in italics in the A.V. are not
part of the inspired Word. Thus the Lord is the propitiation (1)
for the whole world in the matter of salvation, (2) for the sins of
the children of God in the matter of fellowship, and (3) as a Priest
to make propitiation for the sins of the people of God in the matter
of service.
The following note is by Mr. William Kelly:"I see
no reason for giving up the common view of Christians, that Jesus is
called the Paraclete, as taking up the cause of believers with the
Father: as for a similar reason the Holy Spirit is so styled by
John, as to His place in and with them on earth, though of course
carried on in a different way (John 14.16).
It is not correct to
say that the propitiation of Jesus is here stated to be for the
sins of the whole world.
The English version says so, I know, but
it is by inserting words which are better left out. He is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the
whole world.
There is provision for it to the uttermost; but
Scripture never speaks of the sins being borne away, save of
believers. And it is as plain as possible that this very passage
discriminates between 'us' and the 'world,' even as to expiation;
while advocacy with the Father is in no way connected with the
world, but with the family of God."
1John2v3,4
Here is the test of knowledge, and the Lord, in John 14.21, made the
keeping of His commandments the test of love.
"He that hath My
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me."
Many
movements of our time, "Youth movements" and such-like,
characterized by such a term as, "all one in Christ," have little
time or place for the sobering Word of the Lord and of John.
Obedience to the commandments of the Lord is set aside and there
seems to be little more than froth and foam of the turbulent
activity of the flesh.
Others seek to sketch a better plan than
that outlined clearly in the Lord's commandments.
The Psalmist
said, "I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt
enlarge my heart" (Psalm 119.32).
But those who are in the
movements indicated characterize those who go in "the way of God's
commandments" as narrow-minded, but instead, they are such as are
narrow, for the word of God can find no way of entrance into their
hearts.
They need enlargement of heart.
John's words are
powerful and plain, that such as say they know God, yet keep not His
commandments, are liars and the truth is not in them.
Strong words
indeed!
1John2v5,6
We are told in chapter 5.3, "For this is the love of God, that we
keep His commandments."
This is not a description of the immensity
of God's love, or of how it has been manifested in our case (1 John
4.9,10), but it is the way in which the love of God is manifested by
us and the way by which we reflect His love to Him and to others.
Without obedience to His word, which is the only way we keep His
word, His love is not perfected in us; it has not effected in us that
which is God's will that it should.
The child of God keeps the
word by doing, just as an electric dynamo keeps electricity in
itself, namely by rotating and by movement.
If it stops then there
is no electricity and consequently no power.
In the obedience of
the Lord unto the death of the cross, we learn the love of God, and
this love which reaches us through obedience should have like actions
in us in our obedience to God's Word.
By this means we know that
we are in Him.
This is the condition of "abiding in Him," not
"being in Christ by being united to Him as members of His Body," the
Church.
Verse 6 shows this to be the case.
The steps John
indicates are plain; (1) keeping His Word, (2) abiding in Him, (3)
walking as He walked.
Walk describes the life and behaviour of a
disciple of the Lord.
Christ is ever our pattern, if we would be
truly Christians.
1John2v7
The old commandment is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,"
which, Paul shows, sums up all the commandments of God in man's
relationship to his neighbour (Romans 13.8,10).
"Love therefore is
the fulfilment of the law."
The Lord in one sentence summed up
the meaning of the whole Old Testament in this matter of man's
behaviour to his neighbour: "All things therefore whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7.12).
1John2v8
The new commandment is that which is contained in John 13.34,35; "A
new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as
I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
"
This commandment "is true in Him, and in you," and cannot find a
place among any but the Lord's disciples.
The old commandment of
the law was "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," but the new
commandment is that we shall love each other as the Lord loved us.
How can this be attained in any measure? only by the abandonment of
self and self-interest by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
This is better expressed in the words of Paul, in regard to himself,
"I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer
I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2.20).
Saul was dead, but
Christ was alive in Paul.
Only by Christ living in us can we in
any measure love as He loved.
The darkness of unbelief, of
jealousy, hatred, and every evil work, passes away where the true
light of the light and love of Christ sheds its health-giving,
purifying rays.
1John2v9,10,11
Hatred and darkness are associates even as love and light.
One
cannot be in the light and yet hate his brother.
John goes
further, we might say, in chapter 3.15, when he says, "Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath
eternal life abiding in him."
He does not say that no murderer has
eternal life, but he says that no murderer hath eternal life "abiding
in him."
All members of the Body of Christ are in Christ and have
Christ in them the hope of glory (Colossians 1.24-27), but many such
may not be abiding in Him (John 15.4,5).
"Brother" here is not a
brother in the flesh, but one who is a brother by the new birth, so
that a child of God may live in the darkness because of his
behaviour.
In contrast to this, a brother who loves his brother
abides in the light, and his correct and praiseworthy behaviour
gives no occasion for anyone to stumble.
But one who hates his
brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and like a
blind man knows not whither he goes, for he is blinded by the
darkness of his own wickedness.
1John2v12
Little children are not expected to know much, but they should know
this quite clearly, that their sins are forgiven through (Dia, by
means of) His name.
The infinite value of the name (which
signifies the Person) of the Redeemer is the ground of divine
forgiveness.
1John2v13,14
Whilst the children know that which is recent in their experience,
even the forgiveness of their sins, the knowledge of the fathers
stretches back over the ages to Him who was from the beginning, but
who had been manifested, as in 1 John 1.2.
It is precious to hear
the exuberant joy of those newly born again over the fact that their
sins are forgiven, but it is pitiful when fathers make no advance
from that state, in whose soul there are no deeper soundings of the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"That I may know Him" was the
yearning of Paul at the end of his life as it had been at the
beginning (Philippians 3.7-12).
Young men should be the warriors, those who join issue with the evil
one.
Those who are here addressed had been in the battle and had
overcome the devil.
"The evil one" describes one who is utterly
bad; one who gives no quarter.
In any battle with him it is war
to the death.
The devil may flee (James 4.7) but let not the
Christian soldier think he will escape if he should flee from him.
There is no armour for the soldier's back.
We have in these verses the subdivision of God's children into
children, fathers and young men.
John says, "I write," and, again,
"I wrote."
The little children whose sins were forgiven know or
have knwon the Father.
The Spirit of His Son has come into their
hearts, whereby they cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8.15; Galatians 4.
6).
Fathers are again said to know or have known Him which is from
the beginning.
The young men were strong because of the Word
abiding in them, and by the power of the Word they had overcome the
evil one.
Satan cannot stand before what is written in the Word of
God.
When the Lord said, "It is written", three times in the
temptation, Satan's power of deception utterly failed.
As light
dispels darkness, so truth overcomes error.
"No lie is of the
truth" (Chapter 2.21).
Young men should diligently read the Word,
store their minds with the sacred writings, so that when the day of
battle and war with the evil one comes it may find them prepared for
the fight.
But if in time of peace they have squandered their time
on questionable employments they may be found quite defenceless
against the foe.
1John2v15,16
Why should children of God direct their affections towards and set
their love upon such a heartless thing as the world?
It has no
heart to return any love bestowed upon it.
Its pleasures and its
things have an appeal to the carnal and material, but afford no
satisfaction, no pleasure to the soul in its higher and spiritual
life.
It can never minister to the human spirit which, freed from
the bondage of sin, stretches its hands upward to grasp heavenly and
eternal things.
The Lord's sheep who seek their pasture in the
world's fields are grazing among weeds which are poisonous to
spiritual life, where there are but the pleasures of sin which are
but for a season.
Of old, Moses turned away from these.
Upon the
palace and upon all that the world had then to offer, he turned his
back and set his face towards the brickfields, the wilderness, and,
above all, toward God.
The world of the Pharaohs has disappeared,
save in the mummified relics of a glory which has passed away, but
that Moses, who despised the world, its glory and its gifts, lives
on in the imperishable record of the divine Scriptures, the first
part of which he wrote 'midst the wastes of the Sinaitic desert.
Men who went outside the world system of their day wrote the
Scriptures, and men who would read and understand these writings
must go outside the world system of their time.
The truths of the
Bible can never mix with the world, and to obey its words we must be
prepared to "go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His
reproach" (Hebrews 13.13), for no one was ever more truly outside
the world system than the Lord Himself.
Two loves cannot exist in
the same heart, just as no man can love and serve two masters, or
love equally two women at the same time, as witness the life of
Jacob.
If children of God love the world, they cannot love the
Father.
The world and God being two opposites, the world hated the
Father and the Son (John 15.24) and crucified the Son, and it hates
the Lord's disciples.
Then we are told what is in the world, (1) "the lust of the flesh,"
(2) "the lust of the eyes," and (3) "the vainglory of life."
These
three things are seen in Eve's temptation and sin, and in the Lord's
temptation without sin.
(1) It is said that "the woman saw that
the tree was good for food."
In the Lord's temptation the tempter
said, "If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become
bread."
"If" here is not the if of doubt, but the premise of an
argument, for the devil knew well who He was, and it had been
plainly declared in the hearing of the devil in the Father's words
at the Lord's baptism, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased" (Matthew 3.17).
The Lord could not be tempted as God or
the Son of God in the wilderness, for the Divine nature cannot be
tempted of evil things (James 1.13); He was tempted as Man, as His
reply clearly shows: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Where Eve failed in rejectng the Word of God, the Lord triumphed by
means of God's Word.
(2) It is told us in Luke that the devil led
the Lord up (the R.V. leaves out "an high mountain" as in the A.V.,
though it is given in Matthew) and showed Him all the kingdoms of
the world in a moment of time.
Was ever such worldly glory and
power flashed before the eyes of man in a moment of time, before or
since?
We believe, never!
All this the devil claimed as his, and
that he had power to give it to whomsoever he would (we may well, I
think, doubt his claim), and all this would be the Lord's on one
condition only, if He would worship before the devil.
The bait
which many myriads have greedily swallowed was utterly and
immediately rejected by the Lord, who said, "It is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."
But Eve in her innocence looked and took and fell, for the forbidden
fruit "was a delight to the eyes."
How easily she was
fascinated!
Colour schemes are still fashionable and fascinating
to her daughters.
We need to be careful about what we allow our
eyes to see, for it is well to remember that the eye is but the lens
of the mind and scenes and pictures may be fixed indelibly for life
on the mind which may be a deadly menace to spiritual life.
Let us
guard against having wandering eyes and a wandering mind.
Remember
that you cannot see clearly through glass which is dipped into a
filthy pool, and you cannot have purity of thought where the mind is
defiled by thngs the believer should not look upon. Was there ever
a day such as the present when the lust of the eyes is catered for
in ever increasing volume?
(3) Then as to the vainglory of life,
we are told that when the woman saw that "the tree was to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and
she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."
Earthly,
natural, sinful wisdom burst in upon the minds of the guilty pair.
The bait of the serpent was swallowed - "for God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods (Mg.), knowing good and evil."
Was ever the glory of
innocence so despised? and in the hand which so easily gave it up
was placed only vainglory!
Pure gold was given up for tinsel.
Inward peace, like the surface of a lake on which is reflected the
glory of heaven, was given away for a dark, storm-tossed, condemned
conscience, which knew what was right to do but had no power to do
it.
Such was the plight of man by the fall and such it is still.
In contrast to this, the devil led the Lord to Jerusalem and set Him
on the pinnacle, the wing or edge of the temple.
Here again he
repeats, "If Thou art the Son of God," and encourages Him in
vainglory to presume upon divine providence, wrongly quoting from
Psalm 91.11,12, by leaving out the words that are vital to the whole
passage - "to keep Thee in all Thy ways."
The Son of God needed no
angelic keeping, or ministration, as He received in the garden of
Gethsemene (Luke 22.43), but the Son of Man was ministered to and
kept by angels in the weakness of His Manhood (Matthew 4.11), even as
saints are the object of angelic ministration (Hebrews 1.14).
The
Son of Man was not vainglorious to cast Himself down into the Kidron
valley, to do what God had never told Him to do, and so He said
again, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
He,
the Man Christ Jesus, is our example in all temptation; adherence
to what is written is the sure defence against all the wiles of the
devil.
The flood-gates of sin and misery were opened upon the
human race by the rejection of and disobedience to the Word of God,
but the flood-gates of mercy were opened by the obedience of the
Lord, obedience which was unto death, the death of the Cross.
Let
us be fully persuaded that all that is in, and is characteristic of,
this world-system, which is not of the Father, and its lust for
power and hatred of what is right, were truly manifested when it
rejected the Father's Son, the Prince of Life.
Remember, the
friendship of the world is enmity with God (James 4.4).
1John2v17
Here we have what is passing and what is permanent, what pas{es with
the using, and what remains by the doing.
The world is like the
daily newspaper, with its reports of the actions of men in the
flesh, and is but fit material to kindle the fire with the next day;
but he who reads the Bible and keeps what is written therein is as
abiding and permanent as the Bible.
"The Word of the Lord abideth
for ever" (1 Peter 1.25).
"He that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever."
The latter acquires his permanence from the former.
1John2v18
The closing days of the apostolic period were days in which many
false teachers arose among God's people, and others crept in
privily, as we learn from the epistles to Timothy, 2 Peter, Jude,
and the Revelation, who made havoc of the work of God, a havoc more
deadly in character than that of Saul of Tarsus, who laid waste the
church of God in Jerusalem. He persecuted the saints, but he did
not corrupt them as these antichrists did.
The work of the
antichrist is in part told us in Daniel 11.32,34: "And such as do
wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert (corrupt, A.V.) by
flatteries: but the people that know their God shall be strong, and
do exploits.
And they, [the teachers of the people (R.V. marg.)],
shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame,
by captivity and by spoil, many days."
Then later we read, "But
many shall join themselves unto them with flatteries.
And some of
them that be wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to
make them white, even to the time of the end" (verses 34,35).
Flattery, the praise of insincerity, is a deadly form of deception
plied by those who are tools of the devil.
Many have been caught
in this spider's web and have never escaped therefrom.
It is a
bait to which the flesh takes readily.
The savage times described
by the Lord in Matthew 24.4-14 will be days of great peril, but
'midst the foul flatteries on the one hand, and the violent
martyrdoms on the other, there will be a people led by men of
enlightenment, grit and courage, who will teach and instruct the
people at the peril of their lives, and will yield not an inch of
truth in the midst of the frightful turbulence and deceptions of the
days of antichrist.
Let us, like them, stand against the perils
and evil teachings of our own day, for if John's time was the last
hour, the clock of eternity is quickly approaching the last minutes
of that hour.
1John2v19
Where had the antichrists arisen, as stated in verse 18?
Acts 20.
30 supplies the answer: "From among your own selves (the elders)
shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the
disciples after them."
The antichrists arose in the churches of
God; they sowed their poisonous doctrines and overthrew the faith
of some (2 Timothy 2.17,18), and then out they went with their
followers.
Thus sect after sect appeared in the first century and
after, each with its own peculiar blend of poison, each pernicious
and deadly.
The verse says, "They went out from us, but they were
not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued
with us."
The doctrines of men (Matthew 15.9) and of demons
(1 Timothy 4.1) cannot mix with the doctrine of the apostles (Acts 2.
42).
Thus the false teachers, the antichrists, went out from among
the Lord's faithful disciples, and it became manifest what they
were.
As it was then, even so it is now.
1John2v20
Peter speaks of Jesus of Nazareth being anointed by God with the
Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10.38).
Saints also are anointed
with the Holy Spirit; "Now He that stablisheth us with you in
Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 1.21,22).
Paul writes in Ephesians 1.13,14, "Ye were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance."
Thus
the gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers in Christ is an
anointing, and by His teaching (John 16.13,14) we shall be guided
into all the truth, know things that are yet to come, and have
declared to us the things of Christ.
The condition laid down by
the Lord is, "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know
(Ginosko, to learn) of the teaching" (John 7.17).
Note, in
contrast, the use of know (Oida, to see), which means, not to learn,
but to know, to see.
By the Spirit's anointing men who are but
babes see things hidden from the wise (Matthew 11.25).
1John2v21,22
By the revelation of the Spirit, by the anointing of the Holy One,
they knew (Oida, to see) the truth, and it was because they knew the
truth that John wrote to his dear little children that they might be
warned against existing lies and liars, for, says he, "no lie is of
the truth."
Lies and the truth can never unite.
It is ever the
devil's aim to coat his lies with a semblance of truth, even as he
seeks to fashon himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11.
14).
Who is the liar?
The answer is, the antichrist.
Why?
because antichrist and antichristian teaching deny that Jesus is the
Christ and deny the Father and the Son.
The truest definition of
who Jesus is was made by Peter when he said who he believed the Son
of Man to be, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"
(Matthew 16.16).
All who believe in Him as such are born again,
and are members of His Body, the Church, against which the gates of
Hell cannot prevail.
This is not the Romish church nor any other
of the so-called churches of Christendom, but one composed of all
believers in Christ throughout this whole dispensation of grace
until the Lord comes.
Who is Christ?
He is, as to His manhood,
"the Son of David."
This answer the Jews gave, when asked by the
Lord, "What think ye of the Christ? whose Son is He?"
But they
were silent, and are to this day, when the Lord asked the further
question, "How then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying,
The Lord said unto my Lord, sit Thou on My right hand, till I put
Thine enemies underneath Thy feet.
If David then calleth Him Lord,
how is He his Son?"
Christ is David's Lord as well as David's
Son.
He is both God and Man.
But in what sense is God the Father,
and Jesus Christ the Son?
The ancient and misleading statement,
"Holy Mary, mother of God," is still the central pillar of the
religion of myriads, the logic of which is that Jesus is God, and
Mary is the mother of Jesus, hence the illogical conclusion that she
is the mother of God.
Did Jesus become God by being born of
Mary?
No, certainly not, for He was God in the beginning (John 1.
1).
There is not, and never was, motherhood in the Godhead, but in
the Godhead there is both Fatherhood and Sonship.
Women are not
the mothers of gods, even though both men (judges) (Exodus 21.6) and
angels (Psalm 8.5) are called in Hebrew Elohim (God plural).
"Mothers of gods" is mythology and paganism, as is the statement,
"Holy Mary, mother of God."
The Scriptures are ever careful, when
speaking of the Lord in His manhood, to use the words "according to
the flesh" (Kata Sarka) (Romans 1.3; 9.5).
The same considerations
arise in the case of those who hold that Christ became the Son of
God through His birth of Mary in Bethlehem.
If this is so, then
the whole argument of Paul as to the Person of Christ disappears,
for the One who is the theme of the gospel which He preached is
God's Son, who was born of the seed of David, according to the
flesh, and who is declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness.
"According to the flesh" and
"according to the spirit of holiness" describe the two natures of
Christ as Man and as God, Son of Man and Son of God.
Who was born
of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem?
The answer is, One who was to be
called the Son of the Most High and the Son of God.
Did He become
the Son of God by that birth? He no more became the Son of God by
that human birth according to the flesh than He became God by that
birth.
He became the Son of David by that birth. To Him shall be
given the throne of His father David (Luke 1.32-35), for He is the
Son of David and the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1.1) and also the Son
of Man (Adam) (Psalm 8.4; Hebrews 2.6-8) in His manhood.
But to
confuse His manhood with His Godhood and to confound His being the
Son of God from eternity, before all ages, with His being born the
Son of Man in time, is a fatal mistake and a heresy of the worst
kind. What happened at His incarnation was that He, the eternal
Son, of uncreated essence and nature took the body
womb of His mother, a body of created substance of
which God had prepared for Him (Hebrews 10.5-7).
Psalm 40.6, "Mine ears hast Thou opened (digged)",
prepared in the
blood and flesh
In contrast to
Hebrews 10.5
follows exactly the LXX rendering of this psalm, "A body didst Thou
prepare for me."
Human ears demanded a human body in which the
will of God, which He heard with His ears, might be done. Jesus
Christ is One person, not two beings, a Man called Jesus, and God
the Son.
He is One Person, the Son of God, only begotten and
eternal, who became Man by a human birth according to the flesh.
The Word, who was fully and truly God in the bginning (John 1.1),
became flesh in time (John 1.14), and was "manifested in the flesh"
(1 Timothy 3.16) "for your sake" (1 Peter 1.20).
To say that the
Lord became the Son of God by His human birth is utterly wrong, and
heretical, and antichristian.
If God had no eternal Son, then God
the Father is not the eternal Father.
The Fatherhood of God and
the eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ stand or fall together.
1John2v23
Anyone who says that the Lord's Sonship as the only begotten Son
began with His birth in Bethlehem has denied the Son and
consequently he has not the Father.
This would make the Fatherhood
of God date from the incarnation, whereas it says, "When the fulness
of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born
under the law" (Galatians 4.4).
From whence did God send Him
forth?
From His presence in heaven undoubtedly.
The Lord Jesus
said, "I came out from the Father, and am come into the world:
again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father" (John 16.28).
Note that it was One called the Father from whom the Son came out,
before He came into the world. Also, "God sent forth His Son," and
this sending forth was prior to His being born of a woman.
Again
it is said, "Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts" (Galatians 4.6).
"Sent forth" in reference to
the Spirit is the same Greek word as "sent forth" (Exapesteilen) in
regard to the Son: it literally means to send out from some person
or place.
The Son came out, because He was sent out from the
Father.
To deny such plain facts in relation to the Father and Son
is to deny them both; this is the spirit of antichrist.
But he
that confesses the Son hath the Father also.
1John2v24,25
What these believers had heard from the beginning of their spiritual
lives was that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God, the
only begotten Son of God in whom they had believed, and in whom and
from whom they had received eternal life (Matthew 16.16; John 3.
16;10.27-29).
If this divine truth were abiding in them, then they
would abide in the Father and the Son, and the promise which the Son
had promised to all who believed was theirs.
Without this life all
are dead in trespasses and sins.
1John2v26,27
The business of these false teachers, these antichrists, was to lead
God's little children astray, that is, to make them wander.
They
had wandered from the truth themselves and they could but make those
that hearkened unto them wanderers also.
Thus Solomon wrote long
ago, "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall
rest in the congregation of the dead" (Proverbs 21.16).
The noun
"anointing" (like the Greek word Pneuma, spirit) is a neuter noun,
hence the definite article and pronoun must be in the neuter
gender.
Thus we have "as it taught you"; but it must not be
concluded that either Chrisma, "anointing," here, and Pneuma,
"spirit," elsewhere, used of the Holy Spirit, describes things,
because in the correctness of grammatical usage, the neuter pronoun
is used both in Greek and English.
(See 1 Peter 1.11 and Romans 8.
26 R.V., etc.)
The anointing is the Holy Spirit whom we have
received, and He is our gracious Teacher, and never at any time does
He depart from the truth.
He is the Spirit of truth (John 14.17;
16.13), hence He is true and is no lie.
Men often depart from the
truth, but the blessed Spirit of God never does.
He can and will
teach God's children, if they are submissive to His will, without
the aid of human instruments, but He uses human teachers, as we
learn from Ephesians 4.11-13, for the perfecting of the saints in
their edification, so that they might attain to unity of the faith,
and the full knowledge of the Son of God, unto full growth.
The
condition necessary to the spirit's teaching is that we abide in
Him, the Lord Jesus.
Whether we are submissive to the Spirit's
teaching or not, one thing is here and elsewhere taught, that the
Spirit or the anointing abides in us.
The Spirit willnot leave
believers though He may be grieved and even quenched in them.
1John2v28,29
Abiding in Him is conditional, whereas being "in Christ," as in 2
Corinthians 5.17, etc., is unconditional for the believer.
We are
responsible to abide in Him.
The R.V. says "If He shall be
manifested," but the A.V. gives "when He shall appear" or be
manifested.
The difference arises from whether it should be "If
(Greek Ean) He shall be manifested" or "when (Greek Hotan) He shall
be manifested."
Alford, who favours Ean, suggests that to give the
sense it might be rendered "in our time," though he does not favour
the words appearing in the text.
There is no doubt about the
Lord's coming, the only doubt existed as to whether He would come
when those in John's time were alive, and the same doubt exists in
our day.
The following is the note I made before I read Alford.
It may, however, be that the measure of doubt in "if He shall be
manifested" may mean if He is manifested during our lifetime, for
undoubtedly the exhortation here refers to the attitude of living
saints on earth, for the condition of having boldness and not being
ashamed before the Lord at His coming or presence refers to the
employments of saints on earth at that time and not to saints who
are with Christ.
It may, alas! be that the Lord's coming may take
many unawares, for some may be occupied with things and be in places
which are quite inconsistent with being brought face to face with
Him.
Will not shame burn deeply in their bosoms and be seen in
their faces then?
Let us rather be doing what is right when He
comes, for, given that we know that He is righteous (many wish ever
to think of His love and grace and forget the attribute that He is
righteous), we know that every one that does or practises
righteousness is begotten of Him.
Unregenerate persons cannot do
what is right in God's sight.
"There is none righteous, no not one.
"
"In this the children of God are manifested, and the children of
the devil" (3.10).
1John3v1
Divine love is manifested in different ways.
"God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3.16).
It was in
this way that the love of God was manifested in our case (1 John 4.
9).
God the Father also loves those who love the Son and obey His
commandments (John 14.21;16.26,27).
"Christ ... loved the Church
and gave Hmself up for it" (Ephesians 5.25).
"God loveth a
cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9.7).
But here, in the verse above,
it is the Father's love for His children, a love which He bears to
all believers, which He has bestowed upon them, in that they are His
own children begotten by Him.
How precious and how close is this
relationship!
We are not merely called children of God, but we are
such.
Then we are told that because the world knew not the Lord to
be the Son of God (John 1.10), even so the world knows not believers
as children of God.
God's work is in mystery now; shortly His
work will be seen in manifestation.
1John3v2
Here John repeats the fact that even now, while yet in mortal body,
we are children of God.
Then the A.V. says, "When He shall appear,
" proclaiming the certainty of the Lord's coming, but the R.V. gives
"if He shall be manifested" as in chapter 2.28 (see note thereon),
the meaning being, if He shall be manifested during our lifetime.
The passage indicates this, and especially so verse 3, in which
saints are contemplated as purifying themselves, which cannot apply
to saints in Christ who are with Christ.
The manifestation of the
Lord here is to His saints, not His revelation to the world, for
when the Lord is revealed to men at His coming as the Son of Man
there will be no bodily change in those who see Him, for every eye
shall see Him.
But when the Lord is manifested to His own they
will take on His likeness as dewdrops on the grass shine and sparkle
in the light of the rising sun.
Then His youth, young men, shall
be to Him as the dew in the beauties of holiness, fresh from the
womb of the morning (Psalm 110.3).
In the darkness of the present
night saints are unseen and unknown, but in the dawn of the eternal
day, in His glory they shall shine for ever.
In the Lord's coming
agian the Lord shall appear even as He now is on the throne of God
as the glorified Man Christ Jesus.
There will be no veiling of His
glory with the veil of His flesh as when He came at the first. This
manifestation of Himself to His own even as He is "shall fashion
anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the
body of His glory" (Philippians 3.21).
"For whom He foreknew, He
also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He
might be the Firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8.29).
How
blessed, to see Him, to be like Him, and to be with Him for ever!
1John3v3
This quite clearly is moral purification.
The hope of the
imminence of the Lord's coming powerfully affects those who set this
hope on Him.
But in the measure in which we allow the thought of
"My Lord tarrieth" (Matthew 24.48) to enter our hearts, we shall
become lax, and may even engage in things which are very
questionable for a Christian to do.
But if we thought that the
Lord is even at the door, how great would be the scurry to put away
questionable employments!
The Lord's purity is to be the standard
and measure of our purity - "even as He is pure."
He is ever the
pattern in all things, and our conduct must in some sense be like
His if we would walk with Him.
1John3v4,5
"Doeth sin" or practises sin shows the habit of the individual.
"Doeth" is from the Greek word Poieo, which means "to make, form,
construct."
It shows the disposition of the mind to make and to do
evil.
The act of sin of which John writes in Chapter 1, which
arises from the corruption of the flesh in us, is what we hate and
detest.
Such as practise sin practise lawlessness, for in its
nature sin is lawlessness, a word frequently rendered iniquity; it
means being without law.
When the Lord came to earth the chief
purpose of His coming was to be the Sin-bearer.
In John 1.29 we
are told, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world" (original sin).
In 1 John 3.5 He lifts, bears and takes
away sins, not sin.
He has taken away our many sins, and the sins
of countless myriads.
But in the Sin-bearer there is no sin, and
never was, and, moreover, He did no sin (1 Peter 2.22).
1John3v6
Here is the sovereign remedy against practising sins of intent, even
by abiding in Him.
But whosoever practises sin, makes it in the
mind and practises it through the flesh, has not seen (Horao, "to
see, discern, take heed"; this need not be confused with Oida often
used "to see by divine revelation") Him, and knoweth (Ginosko, "to
learn, acquire knowledge, find out, come to a knowledge of") Him
not.
This verse does not teach that such as practise sin have
never been saved, but that they have not seen or discerned the
Person of the Lord and His sinless character and ways and
consequently have not learned of or from Him who said, "Take My yoke
upon you, and learn of (or from) Me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart" (Matthew 11.29).
Paul says, "But ye did not so learn
Christ; if so be that ye heard Him, and were taught in Him, even as
truth is in Jesus" (Ephesians 4.20,21).
So knowing, seeing and
abiding in Him is the cure against practising sin.
1John3v7,8
At a time when men were bringing in destructive teaching, the
practice of which led to loose living, and others were turning the
grace of God into lasciviousness, it was necessary for faithful men
to warn the saints against the wiles of the times and to show that
the practice of righteousness was of first importance.
John
repeats here the warning against God's children being led astray or
made to wander.
Righteousness here is the practice of doing right,
not imputed righteousness.
This is what James calls being
justified by works (James 2.21); a man is not only to be justified
by faith, but also by works, the latter should follow the former,
but should never be confused with it (James 2.17-26).
The devil
sins and has sinned from the beginning.
His profound intellect is
engaged in the forming of sin and doing it without cessation.
Not
one good thought has filled his mind since he sinned and fell.
He
who follows a similar course to that of the devil, forming sin and
practising it, is of the devil.
To be "of the devil" is as to the
conduct of the person in view.
Alas, a believer may so allow the
devil to dominate him through sin in the flesh that he exhibits
nothing of the divine likeness.
The Son of God was manifested to
take away sins, but He was not manifested to take away the sins of
the devil, but to destroy the devil's works.
The devil's vast
schemes and plans, his works involving the employment of vast hosts
of wicked spirits and of evil men, will one day crumble to dust.
For "the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and
the kings of the earth upon the earth" (Isaiah 24.21).
The cause
of the complete destruction of the devil's works is Calvary, even as
the Lord said, "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the
prince of this world be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto Myself" (John 12.31,32).
The
loud cry of the Lord, "It is finished," has shaken the devil's works
and kingdom to their foundation and in due time the Lord will march
in triumph to claim His own.
1John3v9
This describes the believer as to his new nature even as 1 John 1.
8-10 describes what is true as to his old nature.
As "the old man,
" the flesh, is ever evil and evil-doing, the new man, the true and
real self of the person who is begotten again, does no sin and
cannot sin, because God's word, the seed by which he was begotten
again (1 Peter 1.23-25), remains in Him.
Thus there is in all
believers, the carnal part which is yet in his flesh, which is
sinful and sinning and must be mortified or made dead (Colossians 3.
5), if the believer is to enjoy peace; and there is the spiritual
part, for the believer, as to his real self, is no longer in the
flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8.9), and cannot sin.
If it were
possible for the person who is begotten again to sin, in the sense
of which John is writing here, then he would have become a sinful,
fallen creature and would require to be born again.
But there is
no such thing in the Scriptures as being born again, and again, and
again, as some of those teachers of the falling away doctrine would
have people believe.
If one new birth is not suffficient, then
there is not another new birth spoken of anywhere in Scripture, and
the person who has fallen away (if this were possible) is doomed;
hell would be his portion.
Fortunately, however, no such doom
awaits the person who is born again, for he cannot sin.
1John3v10
Though the child of God has many a struggle within himself with the
flesh and its works, and casts many a weary glance forward and
upward to that day when he shall be delivered from "the body of this
death" (Romans 7.24,25), the day of adoption and the redemption of
his body (Romans 8.23), yet as to his conduct among men he is seen
to be different from them, because of the new and eternal life that
is in him, by being exemplary and godly in his behaviour.
In this
way the children of God are manifest.
Let it be quite clear that a
child of God does not become a child of God or a Christian by the
life he lives, but that he lives the new life because he is a child
of God.
No one can live as a child of God who is not a child of
God.
As the children of God are manifest by their behaviour, so
also are the children of the devil manifest by their behaviour, each
manifests who his father is.
Sometimes the devil's wolves put on
sheep's clothing, and in other cases the Lord's sheep cannot very
clearly be identified.
The devil cannot change the nature of his
children, but he may fashon the outward appearance to the exact
opposite of what is within, even as he may fashon himself into an
angel of light, though inwardly he is the prince of darkness, and
his ministers also may fashion themselves as ministers of
righteousness, and well does the apostle add, "whose end shall be
according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11.14,15).
We are told in
the above verse of two things which show that a person is not of
God, (1) "whosoever doeth not righteousness," and (2) "he that
loveth not his brother."
We ask, Is it possible for a believer not
to love his brother?
We must, alas! say, "Yes, it is possible."
If it were impossible, why the instruction to love the brethren and
not to hate them?
So also it is possible for a believer not to
practise righteousness, that is, "doing what is right."
Thus we
must come to the conclusion that to be "of God" and to be "begotten
of God" are two quite different things.
The one has to do with
conduct, and the other with birth.
The conduct of a child of God
may be very different from what it ought to be.
1John3v11,12
The command and exhortations to love one another are the most common
in the teaching of the Lord and His apostles.
Those who were
written to had heard this divine message from the beginning.
The
conduct of Cain is held up as a warning to those who would hate
their brethren.
Why did Cain hate Abel and kill him?
The answer
is that he had listened to the voice of the evil one and had rejected
the word of God.
Hence it could not be otherwise than that his
works were evil.
Abel in contrast had accepted and acted upon the
word of God, and as a result his works were righteous.
So God and
the evil one came into collision in these two brothers.
Thus
because Abel did what God commanded and so condemned his brother for
his disobedience, Cain slew him in hatred and malice.
1John3v13,14
The Lord warned His disciples of what would be the atttiude of the
world towards them.
"If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath
hated Me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world
would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15.18,
19).
The more unworldly and the more godly a believer is, the more
will he be hated by the world.
The Lord said in His prayer in John
17.14, "I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
Whereas we were at one time amongst those who hated the brethren,
the children of God, but now, because we ourselves have been born
again, we love those we once hated.
This love assures us that that
great change has taken place, that we have passed from death unto
life.
But should a believer degenerate into a carnal condition and
hate his brother, then he abideth in death, and is in the
darkness.
"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his
brother, is in the darkness even until now" (1 John 2.9).
Life,
love and light form a trinity in John's writings, as do death,
hatred and darkness.
1John3v15,16
Thought is the parent of action, hatred the parent of murder, lust
the parent of adultery.
A person does not need to commit adultery
to be an adulterer, he can be one in heart before the act is
committed (Matthew 5.27,28).
So also one who hates his brother is
a murderer in thought and intent.
Note that it does not say that
no murderer has eternal life, but that no murderer has "eternal life
abiding in him."
It is possible for one to be in Christ, which
describes the unchangeable relationship of all believers of this
dispensation to Christ (2 Corinthians 5.17; Romans 16.7), and yet
for that person not to abide in Him (John 15.4-7).
Having eternal
life abiding in one means that that eternal life, the new life of
the believer, is controlling his thoughts and actions, but if the
new life is not actuating him he will be found thinking and acting
according to the flesh.
Divine love is seen in action in the great
fact that the Lord laid down His life for us.
He is the pattern of
behaviour for believers towards each other, that where need exists
love goes the length that we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren.
The words of Paul in Hebrews 10.32-35 show how the
Hebrews in their early days shared in each other's sufferings.
There have been many examples of this divine love operating in
saints in all ages.
Paul expressed it thus: "Yea, and if I am
offered (poured out as a drink-offering, R.V.marg.) upon the
sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
all" (Philippians 2.17).
1John3v17
Here is a practical test of love.
James speaks of right acting
towards a needy brother as an act of faith, for he says that "faith,
if it have not works, is dead in itself" (James 2.17).
As James
speaks of meeting the need of the needy as a work of faith, John
speaks of it as a labour of love.
The Greek for "the world's
goods" is Bios.
This word means "life, i.e. the present state of
existence," and consequently applies to the substance or sustenance
to maintain that state of existence.
The word is derived from Bia,
force, impetus.
The widow of Mark 12.44 cast into the treasury all
her living (Bios), all her means of sustenance.
Well does John ask
how the love of God can be abiding in one who sees his brother in
need and has no compassion to assist him!
Love, like faith, is
intensely practical.
They show themselves in deeds not words.
1John3v18
Paul speaks of the tongue in 1 Corinthians 13, the most beautiful
treatise on love which was ever written.
He says, "If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal."
He says, among other
things, that love is kind, which means the bestowal on someone of
what is useful and profitable to them.
Kindness is one of the
excellencies of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5.22,23).
Such
as love with the tongue are often little better than a beast
which licks its prey before it devours it.
Love speaks in its
actions, actions in truth which are the expression of the heart.
Let love be seen in action and it is soon identified.
1John3v19,20
"Hereby" refers back to the previous verse, namely, to loving "in
deed and truth," for in this we know we are of the truth.
One who
does not love in deed and truth will eventually find himself where
the truth is not held and obeyed.
Condition of heart will manifest
itself.
We cannot persuade or assure our own heart if we are not
acting aright, and such as go on with a condemned heart will
manifest themselves.
God is greater than our heart and knows all,
and if our own heart condemn us, how will we stand before God, an
infinitely greater Judge?
1John3v21,22
How can we, if our heart condemns us, have boldness in prayer before
God?
Is this not the cause of so many prayerless and powerless
lives?
Believers are found indulging in things which are either
positively wrong or very questionable, and the result is, they have
no boldness before God (Parrhesia, "freedom in speaking, boldness of
speech").
Like a condemned criminal in court, they are silent
because they are condemned in their heart.
But if our heart
condemns us not, then we have boldness toward God, and what we ask we
receive from Him.
What we ask may come at once or it may not come
for a long time, but, as has been well said, "delays are not denials.
"
We have to learn the meaning of the parable the Lord spake when
he exhorted that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18.
1-8).
All prayers that God hears He will answer in His own time
and way. It is ours to pray, but we must leave the answering to
Him.
He knows best what to do, and when to do it.
Praying and
the answering of prayer are conditioned upon, "because we keep His
commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."
1John3v23,24
We have in this verse "His commandment" and "His commandments."
His commandment is twofold, that we should believe in the name of
His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.
The one flows out of
the other, on the principle that "whosoever loveth Him that begat
loveth him also that is begotten of Him."
The R.V. margin says,
"believe the name." which is literally according to the Greek
wording, but the dative case, I judge, implies "believe in (or on)
the name."
Here John reveals who abide in Him, that is in His Son,
and the Son in him, even such as keep His commandments, and this
inward assurance that He abides in us is by the Spirit that He gave
us.
This assurance which is ours of abiding in Him and He in us,
is through the indwelling Spirit.
The Spirit also gives assurance
of salvation, for "the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are children of God" (Romans 8.16).
1John4v1
Here John returns to the same theme as in chapter 2.18-23, to the
antichrists who, he says, "went out from us."
Some seem to think
that because men may be born again evil spirits cannot speak by
their mouths.
If Satan could speak by the mouth of Peter, as he
did, when the Lord said to Peter, "Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou
art a stumblingblock unto Me" (Matthew 16.23), it is no difficulty
for evil spirits to speak by the mouths of professing children of
God, who lay themselves open to this possibility by following
heretical teaching.
Indeed the Spirit said expressly through Paul,
that in later times some would fall away from the Faith, giving heed
to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
Men in hypocrisy
would speak lies (1 Timothy 4.1,2).
The evils of the early
centuries of this dispensation are well advanced in our time.
The
heresies of the early days are masquerading in a different guise
under various aliases, but the doctrines of demons are the same
fundamentally.
The exhortation given here should be followed, that
the spirits that speak by men should be proved, tested by the Word
of God.
1John4v2,3
We have here two spirits, (1) the Spirit of God, and (2) the spirit
of antichrist; both are in the world and are actively engaged in
using men as their instruments.
In every case where men bear a
true testimony that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, that Spirit
is of God.
But every one who confesseth not (the) Jesus, referred
to as Jesus Christ come in the flesh, that spirit is not of God, but
is of the antichrist.
Jesus Christ is Man; He, the etrnal Word
and Son of God, became flesh through the body of the Virgin, so that
He might give His flesh for the life of the world (John 6.51), by
suffering in the flesh (1 Peter 4.1).
Thus He said, "He that
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood (by faith) hath eternal life"
(John 6.47-54).
1John4v4
He who is in you is God, I judge (see verses 13,15,16), and he that
is in the word is the devil.
Because God is greater than the
devil, God's children had overcome the devil's servants, those
through whom the spirit of antichrist was speaking.
1John4v5,6
How soon in this dispensation did Satan introduce, in Christendom, a
counterfeit Christianity, but his teachings were of earth, not of
God or heaven!
The world received neither Christ nor His
teaching.
These false prophets and antichrists were of the world;
their talk was of the world, therefore the world heard them.
But
in contrast, such as John and others were not of the world, and the
Lord had given them God's word and the world hated them (John 17.
14); they were of God, and such as knew (Ginosko, to have assured
knowledge of God, not simply persons who were born again) God heard
(hearkened or listened to) them; whereas those who were not of God
heard them not.
By this, in those that hear and those that do not
hear, we know (Ginosko, acquire knowledge of) the spirit of truth
and the spirit or error.
When the Lord said to Pilate that He had
come into the world to bear witness unto the truth, and that "every
one that is of the truth heareth My voice," Pilate said unto Him,
"What is truth?"
Pilate belonged to a deceptive world where truth,
like the dove which Noah let out of the ark, found no resting
place.
Christ is the truth, and He said of the Scriptures, "Thy
word is truth" (John 14.6; 17.17; 18.37,38).
1John4v7,8
Here again we have the oft-repeated exhortation to love one
another.
Love is of God.
The world without natural love would be
a jungle; indeed men and women seek to make it so, a place of tooth
and claw where it is the survival of the fittest. God has from the
beginning implanted natural love in the breasts of human beings;
this gives a measure of sweetness to human existence in this life.
Satan by many ways works on the lustful passions of men and women,
and especially in these days by cinema, televison, novels, and other
such like things and in other ways, to drive out the vestiges of
natural affection from the hearts and homes of people, and to leave
them with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes.
The blessed Lord
Jesus came to establish a deeper and truer love than that which was
enjoined by the law of Moses, that man shuld love his neighbour as
himself.
He said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love
one another; even as I have loved you" (John 13.34).
This divine
love was to exist among the Lord's own and was to be the mark of
discipleship.
This love is shed abroad in our hearts through the
Holy Spirit (Romans 5.5), and great indeed is the consolation of
this love in the Spirit (Philippians 2.1; Colosians 1.8).
It flows
freely in hearts in which the Spirit dwells ungrieved.
It can be
in those only who are begotten of God, and it operates in those who
know God (Ginosko, such as have acquired a knowledge of God).
The
person who is barren of love knows not God, for God is love.
This
is a true description of the Divine Being; He is essential love;
it is His very nature.
It is also true that God is light,
essential light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
But we cannot
say that love is God, or light is God, making that which is abstract
of the Divine Being as though it were the Divine Being Himself.
God is not simply loving, but He is love.
1John4v9
God's love was manifested "in our case" (R.V.margin) or, perhaps
more literally rendered, "among" us, and that in the fact that He
sent His only begotten Son into the world.
The words of this
passage and many others would lose their meaning if we should
interpret them as teaching that He sent One who was not His Son to
become His Son through incarnation at His coming into the world.
The words plainly mean that He sent One who was, prior to this
sending, His only begotten Son.
To say other than this is a fatal
error in interpretation and is actually heresy.
The object of this
coming was that we who were dead in trespasses and sins might live
through Him, by receiving the Son and having the life that is in Him
(Romans 6.23; 1 John 5.11,12).
1John4v10
We were lovelss, "living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one
another" (Titus 3.3).
We were entirely barren of divine love,
having no love in our hearts toward God, and were enemies of God
(Romans 5.10; Colossians 1.21); yet in that state God loved us, and
sent His Son to be a propitiation for (Peri, concerning) our sins.
Propitiation (Hilasmos, expiation) means to give satisfaction for,
to pay the penalty for.
It means the same as the making atonement
by the blood of a victim according to the law of sacrifice under the
Old Covenant.
Only by the death of a sin offering was the sin of
the sinner forgiven of old. Christ is our propitiatory victim today
(Romans 3.24,25).
Reconciliation must not be confused with
propitiation.
1John4v11,12,13
The spring of all love is in that God has loved us.
The channel of
that love by which it reaches us is the gift of His Son.
The power
by which it flows is the Holy Spirit.
If God so loved us, then
that puts those who have received His love in the gift of His love
under the obligation to love each other.
If this is not so, then
something has gone wrong.
We should search and know what causes
the lack of love.
Though no one has ever beheld God, yet such is
the marvel of divine grace, that if we love one another the unseen
God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us, that is, it has
reached its end or objective, in that we love God's children.
Love
is not perfected until it finds its expression in loving others.
We would just be like a water main that is blocked, which is useless
for its purpose until the blockage is removed and the water it
receives from the fountain-head passes freely through.
It is by
the inward instruction of the Spirit, ungrieved within us, that we
know that we abide in God and He in us.
1John4v14
As the Son was the Son before He was sent, we learn here that it was
the Father who sent Him.
If the Son became the Son by His Virgin
birth, then the Father could not have been the Father when He sent
Him.
According to the view of some, He could not be the Father
until the incarnation of His Son.
What a tangle of human reason is
this!
Fatherhood and Sonship stand or fall together.
We believe
emphatically what the Lord Himself said, that the Son had a glory
with the Father before the world was (John 17.5), and that the
Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world (John 17.
24).
The object of the Father in sending the Son was that He, the
Son, should be the Saviour of the world; this is His character and
God's purpose. Full provision is made for all in Christ.
He died
for all (2 Corinthians 5.15), gave Himself a ransom for all (1
Timothy 2.5,6), and tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2.9).
1John4v15,16
1 John 5.10,11, says, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in him ... and the witness is this, that God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
But here, in verse 15,
it is not he that believeth, it is "whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God."
Confess (Homologeo) means literally "to
use the same language or words of another."
Our confession of the
Son of God is in using the words of the apostles and others, who in
turn received them from the Lord, and He in turn from God (John 12.
47-50).
If any one publicly confesses that Jesus is the Son of God
he has more than eternal life, for God abides in Him, and he in
God.
This is wonderful indeed, and an encouragement to the public
confession of the Son.
John repeats what he says in verse 9 about
the love God has had in us, or in our case, and also repeats that
God is love, and adds that he that abideth in love abideth in God,
and God abideth in him.
(1) If we love one another God abideth in
us; (2) if we confess that Jesus is the Son of God, He abideth in
us; and (3) if we abide in love, He abideth in us.
This abiding in
God and He in us calls for heart exercise on our part in regard to
such matters.
Believers who live careless, indifferent lives,
indulging themselves in material and carnal pleasures, know nothing
of God abiding in them and they in Him.
1John4v17
How happy a man was Paul when he said: "I know nothing against
myself," but he wisely added, "yet am I not hereby justified: but
He that judgeth me is the Lord"! (1 Corinthians 4.4)
Moses who was
so well used to the presence of God and with whom the Lord spoke
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend (Exodus 33.11),
said, "Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in
the light of Thy countenance" (Psalm 90.8).
Yet despite our
imperfections in this body of our humiliation (Philippians 3.21), in
which we should know the plague of our own hearts (1 Kings 8.38),
there may be perfect love in us by which we may have boldness in the
day of judgement (at the judgement-seat of Christ) when "each man's
work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because
it is revealed in fire" (1 Corinthians 3.10-15).
The judgement-seat
of Christ is one of reward, not of punishment.
All who are present
there are persons who have been saved by grace, and though their
works may be burned up, they themselves shall be saved, yet so as
through fire.
Boldness means freedom of speech, which comes from a
heart that is uncondemned, the exact opposite of a convicted and
condemned person who stands in silence.
If saints keep before them
that as He is in this world, the One who is despised and rejected of
men, even so are they in this world, and take their place with Him in
His rejection (Hebrews 13.12,13; 1 Peter 2.3-5), then they can look
forward with joy to meeting Him and standing before Him in the day
of judgement.
That love for Him which led them to go outside the
camp to Him will support their hearts in that day.
1John4v18,19
Phobos (fear) is derived from Phebomai, "to flee or run from, and
signifies fear, terror, affright."
This must be distinguished from
that proper fear of God which is reverential fear, awe, veneration,
which is akin to godliness.
Very much is said in the Scriptures of
that reverential fear of God which produces in those who fear Him
the worship of God and a life of reverence of God.
John is writing
of fear as terror, by which love for their parents may be quite
driven from children's hearts.
Instead of love begetting love,
cruelty produces terror, and they may tremble with fear when their
parents come near to them.
There is no terror in love.
This is
easily understood, and perfect love casts out terror.
Instead of
terror causing the saint to flee from God, as terror will cause the
wicked to flee in the day of judgement (Revelation 6.12-17), the
saint flees in all his troubles to God his Faher as a child does to
a loving parent.
But he that is affrighted at God is not made
perfect in love.
When our hearts condemn us not, we come to God as
to our home and resting place.
So said Moses of the righteous of
all times: "LORD, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all
generations" (Psalm 90.1).
We love because He first loved us.
The parent by love begets love in the heart of his child.
1John4v20,21
John is very forthright and definite when he says that a man is a
liar who says he loves God and at the same time hates his brother.
It would seem that in that deceptive day, as in this, there were
those who claimed to be right in their hearts toward God, and yet
were wrong in their behaviour toward their brethren.
Inward
condition is easily measured by outward behaviour.
"Even a child
maketh himself known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and
whether it be right" (Proverbs 20.11).
The Lord said, "A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit" (Matthew 7.18).
We may seek to cheat ourselves,
but we cannot cheat God, nor even our neighbours.
We always reveal
what we are by what we do.
We cannot be lovers of God who are not
lovers of our brethren.
God's commandment is "love God and love
your brother."
This is the same in principle as the meaning of the
whole law and the prophets; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This
is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is
this, Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself.
On these two
commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets"; thus spake
the Lord (Matthew 22.37-40).
1John5v1
How beautiful a thing on earth is that family where parents love
their children and children love their parents, and the children
love each other!
So God ordained it in the beginning.
But how
soon sin and Satan blasted family life!
The pleasure that might be
among God's children has been much destroyed by sin. First of all,
in the verse above it is explained to us how we become children of
God, by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who was
promised in the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1.1-4).
Those who love the
Father who begat them love also those that are begotten by Him.
1John5v2,3
Here is a very important consideration in the matter of love for
God's children.
We learn (Ginosko) that we love the children of
God by loving God and doing His commandments.
What can be more
destructive of love in a family than children being disobedient to
their parents?
One of the characteristic evils of the apostasy of
the last days is, "disobedient to parents" (2 Timothy 3.1,2).
It
is also one of the evils of the Gentile world (Romans 1.30).
Under
the law, a stubborn and rebellious son was stoned to death in Israel
(Deuteronomy 21.18-21).
The Lord said to His disciples, "If ye
love Me, ye will keep My commandments" (John 14.15).
We are told
here, that "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
"
Keeping His commandments is not a definition of the love of God,
but is the effect of the love of God upon us and how it is
manifested by us.
Love which does not result in obedience to God's
commandments is not true love.
We are not to love in word, neither
with the tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3.18).
We are to
love by doing.
It is not difficult to obey God, for "His
commandments are not grievous."
Any difficulty that arises comes
from disobedience.
Disobedience ever spoils the picture, and dark
indeed is the record of disobedience revealed in the Scriptures.
1John5v4,5
We have already seen that "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is begotten of God" (5.1), and that "whosoever is begotten of
God doeth no sin ... and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of
God" (chapter 3.9), but in the verse above, it is not "whosoever"
but "whatsoever is begotten of God."
We know that in certain
places of the Word men are called "things" as, for instance, in 1
Corinthians 1.27,28, and in Romans 4.17.
But here in verse 4 it
does not appear to be persons that are in view, but every thing
begotten of God.
Some have thought that this refers to a "church
of God" which is truly as much "of God" as a child "of God" is, but
I am doubtful of the correctness of this interpretation, for a
church of God may be overcome by the world, as witness the letters
to the seven churches of God in Rvelation 2 and 3.
It seems rather
to indicate whatsoever is begotten of God in a child of God by the
operation of the Word and Spirit of God, whatsoever act of faith
that is so produced in him overcomes the world.
This thought seems
to be reinforced by what follows, "and this is the victory that hath
overcome the world (the apostle looks back to the past victory of
faith), even our faith."
Dr. Westcott in his notes on John's
epistles, on this matter of "whatsoever is begotten of God," states
"John chooses the abstract form in order to convey a universal
truth.
The thought is not so much of the believer in his unity,
nor of the Church, but of each element included in the individual
life and in the life of the society."
This seems similar to the
views expressed above, though in a much more scholarly way.
It
seems to me that what John is saying is, that each act of faith,
produced in the believer by the Word and Spirit of God, overcomes
the world; it rises supreme above all the world's forces.
The
same consideration arises when God's people act together in faith in
the carrying out collectively what God has commanded them.
We can
look back to the victory of faith in the many of Hebrews 11, of the
victory of men in the New Testament, and of the princely Leader and
Perfecter of faith, and such victory as we ourselves may have won in
a hostile world.
Who is the overcomer? he only who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God.
Though this defines who the overcomer is,
it does not describe how the victory is won, nor does it describe
the phase of evil the world has plied upon the believer in regard to
which he has overcome.
That the world may overcome one who does
believe that Jesus is the Son of God is not in doubt, for, alas, the
world has swallowed many believers as to their life of service for
the Lord.
1John5v6,7,8
We do not tarry to speak of the three that bear witness "in heaven"
(A.V.), which words eminent authorities say do not form part of the
Holy Scriptures.
Jesus Christ came to men "through" or "by means
of" water (baptism) and blood (His death), not by water (baptism)
only.
He could never have reached us by baptism only, which is but
a figure of death and resurrection (Romans 6.3-5); He had to
undergo death in all its awfulness whereof He said, "I have a
baptism to be baptized with: and how am I straitened till it be
accomplished!" (Luke 12.50; Mark 10.38).
The Spirit has borne
witness to such facts, even as the Lord said, "When the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of
Me: and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the
beginning" (John 15.26,27).
The Lord said, "I am ... the truth"
(John 14.6).
"The Spirit is the truth" (verse 17).
"Thy word is
truth" (John 17.17), and God is the "God of truth" (Psalm 31.5).
Woe unto those who challenge the Scriptures in any of their words,
and who would make God, who cannot lie, a liar in any part of His
inspired Word!
Here is the sure foundation of faith, the living
Oracles of God.
There are three who bear witness, the Spirit, who
came upon the Lord at His baptism (Matthew 3.16,17), and who came,
as in Acts 2, as sent by the Son from the Father (John 15.26), the
water (His baptism) and the blood (His atoning death), and these
three are a perfect oneness in their testimony.
1John5v9,10
Here we have contrasted the witness of men and the witness of God.
We receive continually the witness of men in their acting, speaking
and writing, but God's witness must ever be greater than that of men,
infinitely so.
He has borne witness concerning His Son.
In a
lying world we can rest here with certainty and safety.
Besides,
he that believeth hath the witness in him, the witness of divine
life, as stated later, but the unbeliever has made God a liar, by
not believing the witness God hath borne concerning His Son.
Into
what responsibility and peril the unbeliever has launched himself in
his unbelief to make the God of Truth a liar!
Alas, there are many
who do this.
1John5v11,12
The witness is that God gave us the life that is in His Son.
This
is what Paul says in Romans 6.23, "The free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord," note "Through Jesus Christ," as in
the A.V.
Christ is the eternal life which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us (1 John 1.2).
The reception of Christ the
Son of God by faith implies tht we receive the life that is in Him
and thus He becomes our life (Colossians 3.4).
Many Scriptures
clearly show that the believer has in possession now the gift of
eternal life.
He is one in life with Christ now and will shortly
be one in glory with Him.
Eternal life and immortality should
never be confused.
Eternal life is given to the sinner who
believes, who has been dead in trespasses and sins, but though he
has eternal life, he is still mortal, that is, subject to physical
death.
Mortal and immortal both relate to the body, never to the
soul, in the New Testament.
He who has the Son by faith has the
life, and he who has not received the Son of God by faith has not
the life.
1John5v13
The assuring words of the previous verses, that believers have
eternal life, having received the Son by faith, are here
reinforced.
These things John wrote that they might know (Oida,
see) that they have eternal life, the only condition being belief on
(Eis,into) the name of the Son of God.
To believe on the name is
all one with believing on the Person who owns the name.
The name
and the Person are one and the same.
How assuring this verse is to
all who believe on the Son of God!
1John5v14,15
In chapter 3.22 the answering of prayer rests on the doing of God's
will in the keeping of His commandments, but here it is conditioned
upon asking for what is according to God's will to give; both
things need to be borne in mind in asking from God.
James says,
"Ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because
ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures" (James 4.2,
3).
From such we gather that (1) we may cease to ask, (2) we may
ask
not
may
not
amiss to squander God's gifts in an unworthy manner, (3) we may
be doing God's will, and thus our condition is wrong, and (4) we
not know His mind so as to ask according to His will.
Have we
felt, sometimes, as we listened to the prayers of some, like
saying, "Ask something!"
How needful for God to awaken us to our
need and the need of others!
Hannah when she prayed for a son wept
sore, but when she knew that her prayer was heard she went her way,
and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
In due time her
prayer was answered and she called her son Samuel (asked of God).
Hannahs and Samuels are needed in our time.
If we subscribe to the
conditions of doing God's will and asking according to His will,
then God will hear us, and every prayer that God hears He answers in
His own time and way.
He said to Moses, when the latter requested,
"Let me go over, I pray Thee, and see the good land that is beyond
Jordan," "Speak no more unto Me of this matter" (Deuteronomy 3.25,
26).
David, too, though he was told that his child by Bathsheba
would die, "besought God for the child" (2 Samuel 12.14,16).
Great
men though these were, they prayed for what was not God's will to
grant.
Samuel, too, mourned for Saul and was asked by the LORD
"How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from
being king over Israel?" (1 Samuel 16.1).
In each of these cases
God had revealed His will, and hence to ask what was contary to His
will was wrong.
1John5v16,17
"Sin unto death," "unto" here is Pros, which with the accusative, as
here, means, that to which anything tends.
Sin in its nature is
lawlessness (chapter 3.4), and all unrighteousness is sin, but all
forms of sin are not of the same gravity; some sins are much worse
than others.
Adam's sin was unto death.
King Saul's sin, by
turning back from following the LORD in not fulfilling His
commandment (1 Samuel 15.11), was unto death.
The sin of the
numbered men of the twelve tribes of Israel in refusing to enter the
land of Canaan was sin unto death (Numbers 14.28-34).
This serious
event in the history of Israel is taken up in Hebrews (chapters 3
and 4) as a warning against failing to hold fast the boldness and
glorying of the hope firm unto the end, and against falling away
from the living God, which is sin unto death, as Hebrews 6.1-8
shows.
Sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of
the truth (Hebrews 10.26-31) is sin unto death.
What we have in
James 5.19,20 is similar to what is contained in the above verse,
about asking life for such as sin not unto death.
"If any among
you do err from (or is seduced from) the truth, and one convert
him; let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error
of his way shall save a soul from (Ek, out of) death, and shall
cover a multitude of sins."
Paul also speaks similarly in 2
Timothy 2.24-26 of the work of the Lord's servant in seeking to
correct those that oppose themselves that they might recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil.
Let us ever fear to sin,
and especially to sin this sin, of rebellious stubbornness against
the will of God, which is sin unto death.
In cases other than this
we are to pray for, and seek, the restoration of such as go astray.
1John5v18
We have here the statement of chapter 3.9, repeated, but the cause
of not sinning is different.
In chapter 3.9 the reason given why
one who is begotten of God cannot sin is because His (God's) seed (1
Peter 1.23-25) abideth in him.
Here we are told that He who was
begotten of God keepeth him.
The whole analogy of Scripture
supports "him" of the R.V. and not "himself" of the A.V., and in
particular the words of the Lord in John 17.12.
The Keeper of the
souls of His saints is the Lord, He who was begotten of God, God's
only begotten Son.
He keeps the one who is begotten of God so
securely that the evil one cannot even touch him to do him harm.
1John5v19
Here is a great contrast to what is stated in the previous verse.
There, the one who is begotten of God is free from even the touch of
the evil one, but here we are told that the whole world lies in the
evil one, not in wickedness as in the A.V., although that is
nevertheless true.
Should we not be abundantly thankful for that
love of God through which we are now His begotten children?
1John5v20
These three verses (18,19,20) begin with "we know" (Oida, see), a
knowledge which is ours by revelation.
We know the Son of God is
come and hath given us understanding.
"Who hath given
understanding to the mind?" asked God of Job (Job 38.36).
"The
Lord" is the answer, and the same Lord came to give understanding to
such as were "darkened in their understanding, alienated from the
life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the
hardening of their heart" (Ephesians 4.18).
The object in giving
this understanding to the child of God is that he might "know
(Ginosko, to acquire a knowledge of) Thee the only true God, and Him
whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ" (John 17.3).
The believer
has in the life which he has received the ability to know God.
This is the true God, the Fathr, and Eternal Life, the Eternal Life
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us (1 John 1.2)
even the Son of the Father.
Some, however, delete the definite
article before "eternal life" and treat eternal life here as the
revelation of God in Christ.
About this there is much difference
of mind.
Many have even regarded the true God to be Christ.
1John5v21
In contrast to the heavenly and sublime teaching of John concerning
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, idols are gross, dead, useless
things.
Paul said, "We know (Oida, see) that no idol is anything
in the world."
It is blind, deaf and dumb and suits the blind,
deaf and dumb among men.
"They that make them shall be like unto
them; yea, every one that trusteth in them" (Psalm 115.8).
Living
saints need only the living God, but at the same time they need to
guard themselves from idols.
NOTES
OF
ON
THE
SECOND
EPISTLE
JOHN
2Johnv1,2
John writes of himself as "the elder," as he does in 3 John to
Gaius.
He does not claim to be an apostle in his wiritings.
He
writes to the elect lady and her children.
We may safely follow
the A.V. and R.V. text that lady (Kuria, the feminine of Kurios,
lord) is correct, and not that it is Kyria, a proper name.
We may
also dismiss the thought that Kuria signifies a church that is
addressed; if Kuria is the church, who can the children of the
church be, for the children are distinct from Kuria?
John loved
this lady and her children in truth with a similar love to others
who knew the truth, and for the truth's sake which abode in them and
would be with them for ever.
This shows a bond of affection
existing amongst those who know the truth beyond that which is true
of those who are begotten of God (1 John 5.1).
We are told in John
8.31,32, "Jesus therefore said to those Jews which had believed Him,
If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Those
who are sanctified (set apart) in Christ Jesus, Christ having
become their sanctification, as He is their wisdom, righteousness,
and redemption (1 Corinthians 1.2,30), should afterwards be
sanctified in the truth, and for this the Lord prayed, "Sanctify
them in the truth: Thy word is truth ... And for their sakes I
sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in
truth" (John 17.17,19).
The Lord walked a sanctified, separated
path in this world and His example is our pattern.
The will of God
is "that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the
truth" (1 Timothy 2.4).
Some may be "ever learning, and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3.7).
Paul was
an apostle of Jesus Christ, "according to the faith of God's elect,
and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness"
(Titus 1.1).
But if we sin wilfully after that we have received
the knwoledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for
sins" (Hebrews 10.26), hence there is no forgiveness and restoration
for such as wilfully sin against the truth.
Those who have bought
the truth should never sell it: "Buy the truth, and sell it not"
(Proverbs 23.23).
"The house of God, which is the church of the
living God," is "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3.
15); it is where the truth is to be found.
It was from the house
of God of old that God sent forth His light and truth to lead men
thither (Psalm 43.3,4).
It was "out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined forth," and He said, "Gather My saints
together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by
sacrifice" (Psalm 50.2,5).
It will be even so in the millennium as
in the past (Isaiah 2.3).
Let us remember that the truth which we
make our own now and which abides in us "shall be with us for ever.
"
May we have a heart to say like David,
"Shew me Thy ways, O LORD;
Teach me Thy paths.
Guide me in Thy truth, and teach me;
For Thou art the God of my salvation;
On Thee do I wait all the day" (Psalm 25.4,5).
2Johnv3
This is not a salutation merely, but an assurance, that this
excellent trio of blessings, grace, mercy, peace, shall be with us
from both the Father and the Son, in truth, for it is no lie, and in
love, for such is the attitude of Father and Son toward us.
2Johnv4
This verse further strengthens the thought that it is not a church
that is addressed, but a lady, for John speaks that he found certain
of (Ek out of) her children walking in truth.
"Certain" though in
italics in the R.V. is implied in the preposition Ek, "out of."
The
truth in which they walked was according to the commandment which
they had received from the Father and not according to what they or
others thought to be truth.
Truth is to be found only in God's
word.
2Johnv5,6
What John writes here to this lady, that love finds its true
expression in those who are God's children in their obedience to His
commandments, is what he wrote in 1 John 5.2,3, and this also the
Lord taught from the beginning:
"He that hath My commandments, and
keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (John 14.21).
Some talk of
loving God though they pay no heed to keeping His commandments. We
need to learn to speak as the Lord and His apostles have spoken and
not from a fleshly mind.
Where there is no obedience to God there
is no real love for Him.
Let us learn that we love the children of
God when we love God and keep His commandments.
This is a
corrective and sobering truth.
2Johnv7
In 1 John 4.2 we have the words, "Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh"; this refers to His coming at His birth in Bethlehem.
But
here it is His coming again; He is the coming One in the flesh.
He was raised in that body of flesh in which He died on the cross,
whereof He said, "Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye behold Me having.
And when He had said this, He
shewed them his hands and His feet" (Luke 24.39,40).
Those same
hands He lifted up when He blessed them on the slopes of Olivet ere
He returned to heaven: "He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.
And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He parted from them, and
was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24.50,51).
Two angels told the
disciples, "This Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven"
(Acts 1.11).
He went to heaven in the flesh and shall so come
again.
The followers of Mrs. Mary Eddy (so-called Christian Scientists),
and the followers of self-styled "Pastor" Russell (so-called
Jehovah's Witnesses) and others, deny these facts of Holy Scripture
and are deceivers and antichrists.
2Johnv8
It may be impossible to say with certainty whether it should read
"we have wrought," that is, the divine doctrine which the apostles
had so carefully taught, or "ye have wrought," the things which the
elect lady and her children, and others, had wrought through their
obedience to the truth contained in God's commandments.
Their
reward would be seriously affected if they turned away from the
truth.
A full reward would be affected if they lost the things the
apostles had wrought or what they themselves had wrought.
It gets
back to the important matter of holding fast the truth which has
been committed to us.
This is what the Lord meant in Revelation 3.
11, "I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown."
One is reminded of the words of Boaz to Ruth,
when he said, "The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be
given thee of the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings thou
are come to take refuge" (Ruth 2.12).
She had left her own land
and people and god, and had come with Naomi to the land and people
of Israel and, more than that, to the God of Israel.
Hers was a
great decision, and a great reward.
2Johnv9
The A.V. says "whosoever transgresseth," but the R.V. follows
another reading of the Greek, Proago, which means "to go before," or
"taketh the lead," R.V. Marg.
We learn from this verse how vital
it is to be sound in the teaching of Christ, for if we abide in the
teaching we have both the Father and the Son.
This is what the
Lord Himself promised to His disciples if they were obedient to the
words of the commission of Matthew 28.16-20, "Lo, I am with you
alway (all the days), even unto the end of the world (age)."
It is
solemn indeed in the case of those who have taken the lead but not
faithfully held to the teaching of Christ, and have in consequence
led many out of the way.
Such things abound on all sides.
2Johnv10,11
We cannot be faithful to the Lord and hospitable to destroyers of
souls by their evil teaching.
The comment of the apostle is
clear; they are neither to be received into our homes nor are we to
greet them as though we encouraged them in their evil works.
If we
love truth we shall hate evil.
It becomes us to be like the
Psalmist who says, "I hate every false way" (Psalm 119.104,128).
2Johnv12,13
To speak face to face, or more correctly "mouth to mouth" (Newberry,
Mg.), is much the better way of communication at any time, but what
would we have done without the permanent record contained in the
letters of the apostles?
Writing has an abiding value which
conversation and oral ministry have not, however excellent these are
at the time.
We thank God for the inspired Scriptures.
Writing
at times may be irksome, but Paul said that to him it was not
irksome and for the Philippians it was safe (Philippians 3.1), and
we have in his writings safety too, by holding to them we are safe
from falling.
By John's letter, the children of the elect sister
of this lady sent their salutation.
It is a beautiful family
greeting sent by the aged John to those who were not only relatives
in the flesh, but also in the Lord.
NOTES
OF
ON
THE
THIRD
EPISTLE
JOHN
3Johnv1,2
It may be quite impossible to say who this Gaius is, whether Gaius
of Macedonia (Acts 19.29), Gaius of Corinth (Romans 16.23: 1
Corinthians 1.14), Gaius of Derbe (Acts 20.4), or another Gaius.
It was presumably a common name in those days.
He was evidently
one who was well known to John and beloved by him and others; the
words "whom I love in truth" are similar to his words of address to
the elect lady of the former epistle.
It was John's wish that his
physical health and his prosperity might be equal to his soul's
prosperity (Euodoomai, from Eu, good, Odos, way).
Prosperity of
soul is to be desired beyond all forms of prosperity.
3Johnv3,4
Elders worthy of that name must similarly rejoice when they hear of
their fellow-elders and others walking in truth and not in error.
The truth in which Gaius walked is called "thy truth," truth which
this beloved brother had made his own, truth "which abideth in us,
and it shall be with us for ever" (2 John 2).
Gaius evidently had
bought the truth.
It is well when brethren can bear witness of
each other's steadfast adherence to the truth.
There is joy in
heaven (and on earth too) over one sinner that repenteth (Luke 15.
7); there is joy over brethren walking in the truth (2 John 4) and
there will be exceeding joy when the Lord sets us before the
presence of the glory of God (Jude 24).
To John the joy over the
salvation of sinners was no greater than his hearing of his
spiritual children walking in the truth.
Often the former is so
magnified above the latter as to make the latter of small
importance.
Let us hold a just balance in the things of God, for
"A false balance is an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 11.
1).
We are sure that John's balance in joy is correct, that there
is no greater joy than that over children of God walking in the
truth.
3Johnv5,6
Here we have a class of brethren who moved about from place to place
in the work of the Lord, after the pattern set by the Lord and His
apostles.
The Lord "went about through cities and villages,
preaching" (Luke 8.1).
"Peter went throughout all parts" (Acts 9.
32).
Paul said that "from Jerusalem, and round about even unto
Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ" (Romans 15.
19).
Gaius did a faithful work in his love for the Lord and His
workers in caring for them, and as Titus in Crete was exhorted to
"set forward Zenas the lawyer and Appolos on their journey
diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them" (Titus 3.13), even so
John encouraged Gaius that he did well to set forward these servants
of the Lord, who are described as "brethren and strangers withal,"
on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
This manifest love of
Gaius was borne witness to before the church where John was at that
time.
3Johnv7,8
The difficult and often dangerous work of those days was undertaken
by those men who had been called by the Lord to it, because of the
love they bare to the Name, the name of their Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.
They went out not to be supported by wordly organisations
or Gentiles or by gentilish ones, such as those who had to be
treated as the Gentile and the publican (Matthew 18.17), that is, as
persons outside the Fellowship.
Those who preached the gospel
and ministered the word were to be ministrered to by those in the
Fellowship, as Paul ordained in the churches (1 Corinthians 9.9-14;
1 Timothy 5.17,18).
John says in regard to these servants of the
Lord, "We therefore ought to welcome such" (as well as set them
forward on their journey worthily of God), "that we may be
fellow-workers with the truth."
3Johnv9,10
Here we have a character the opposite of Gaius, namely Diotrephes,
who loved to have the preeminence (Philoproteuo - to love to be
first), not perhaps, because he was chief in spiritual growth or
ability, but he was a place-seeker; he loved the chief place, like
the Pharisees of former times, who loved chief seats in the
synagogues, salutations in the market places, and to be called
"Rabbi."
Such a course was to be eschewed by the Lord's disciples,
among whom the person with the least opinion of himself was in the
Lord's view the greatest.
The result of this pride of place in
Diotrephes was that he refused to receive John or others of the
Lord's servants, because their spiritual power would immediately
challenge his opinion of the place he thought himself to be
competent to fill.
He not only would not receive them, but those
who would he forbade, and cast those out of the church who dared to
receive them.
To what lengths does impudent pride go!
The church
here is, of course, not the Church which is His (Christ's) Body
(Ephesians 1.22,23), but is the church of God (1 Corinthians 1.2).
There were many churches of God in the days of the apostles, but
there was and is but one Church, one Body of Christ. Diotrephes was
not to be allowed to continue his lawless ways, for John anticipated
a visit to the church where he was, when he would bring to
remembrance his words and works.
Such a state of things could not
be allowed to continue in a church which was "of God."
3Johnv11
The English word "mimic" is derived from the Greek Mimetes, "an
imitator."
"to imitate" means "to strive to resemble."
"Be ye
imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 4.16:
11.1).
Seek to have a good ensample or pattern to work to.
"Be
ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in
love" (Ephesians 5.1,2).
"He that doeth evil hath not seen God,"
says John.
He has not seen the perfect Pattern of all good, for,
as the Lord said, "None is good save one, even God" (Mark 10.18).
He is essentially good, others may be imitating His goodness and be
relatively good.
The Lord again said, "Love your enemies, and pray
for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father
which is in heaven: ... Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5.44-48).
John's teaching
here about doing good is in alignment with that of the Lord and
John's fellow-apostles.
3Johnv12
Demetrius, of whom John says but little, had the witness of all and
of the truth as to his well-doing, behaviour the exact opposite of
the proud evil-doing of Diotrephes.
3Johnv13,14
What John had to write to Gaius about we may imagine, but we do not
know.
He said that it was not his will to write concerning many
things.
He hoped to come shortly, or immediately, and to speak with
him mouth to mouth.
He sends the Hebrew salutation of peace. The
saints in the church where John was he calls friends (Philoi), and
sends their salutation to Gaius, and the saints, the friends with
Gaius were to be saluted by name, personally.
NOTES
ON
THE
EPISTLE
OF
JUDE
Judev1,2
Who Jude was who wrote this epistle cannot be dogmatically stated,
whether he was the brother of James the brother of the Lord
(Galatians 1.19), there being a James and a Judas among the Lord's
brothers (Matthew 13.55), or whether he was an apostle, as there was
also a James and a Judas among the apostles (Acts 1.13,14).
James,
the brother of John, was killed by Herod before the epistle of Jude
was written (Acts 12.2).
Jude does not call himself an apostle,
but simply a bondservant, as also does James, the writer of the
epistle of James.
Jude writes to the called ones, who are also
beloved (the A.V. says, "sanctified") ones in God the Father, and
kept ones in (R.V. says "for") Jesus Christ.
The Lord in John 17.
11, in view of His being about to die, prayed that the Father might
keep them in "Thy name which Thou has given Me," which name is the
name of Jesus, not "in Christ," in which name there is eternal
security for all believers.
"In Jesus" is a term in which we see
saints on earth seeking to carry out the truth of God (Ephesians 4.
21; Revelation 1.9).
In John 17.12 the Lord says that while He was
with them He had been keeping them in that name, the name of
Jesus.
The Lord not only kept them, but He gaurded them.
Here we
have not only the thought of keeping or preserving His disciples in
the matter of service, but also of guarding them in the matter of
salvation, for as to eternal salvation all believers are in His hand
and in His Father's hand, so that they can never perish (John 10.28,
29).
Thus it was that the Lord said that not one of them perished,
save the son of perdition; Judas was never one of His.
I am of
the view that "preserved in Jesus Christ," as in the A.V., is the
correct rendering of Jude 1, and not "kept for Jesus Christ," as in
the R.V.
Jude's salutation of mercy, and peace and love be
multiplied, is what we all feel the need of, and an increase of such
excellencies of peace and love is greatly to be desired.
Judev3
Here we have an evidence of what Peter wrote, that "no prophecy ever
came by the will of man" (2 Peter 1.21), for while Jude had intended
to write on the sbuejct of salvation, he was constrained to write on
contending for the Faith.
This controlling power of the Spirit
over the words of the Scriptures is never more truly seen than in
the case of Balaam the soothsayer, who, though intent on cursing
Israel for the glittering rewards of Balak, king of Moab, was told
by the angel of the LORD, "Go with the men: but only the word that
I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak" (Numbers 22.35).
Of Balaam's words Balak said, "What hast thou done unto me?
I took
thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them
altogether" (23.11). Balaam said later to Balak, "Spake I not also
to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balak would
give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the
word of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; what
the LORD speaketh, that will I speak?" (24.12,13).
The common salvation simply means the salvation which is common to
all believers, and does not mean something that is common or
inferior.
Because of the need amongst God's people at that time,
the Spirit turned Jude from his original purpose, from writing of
the common salvation to writing on the Faith, and on the need of
contending earnestly for it.
The reason for this was that certain
men had crept in privily amongst the saints.
They were to contend
as athletes who were trained for the contest.
The Greek word for
"contend" is an athletic word.
It is derived from Agon, "a place
of contest, stadium."
To what purpose would anyone enter the
stadium to contend with athletes, if he had not first been under
training?
It would be futile. The Faith is the body of doctrine
committed to, and to be kept by, the saints of this dispensation,
wherein is contained the will of God.
It answers to the law of God
which was given through Moses in Horeb for all Israel (Malachi 4.
4).
By the time that Jude wrote, the Faith had already been given
to the saints.
It was given "once for all," but it was not given
"all at once."
It was given like the teaching of the Lord, who
gave His disciples His word according as they were able to bear His
teaching.
The Faith is called the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
(James 2.1).
The fundamental principles of the Faith were given
at the beginning of this dispensation, but certain matters were
revealed and more clearly understood as time went on.
It was so
also with the law that was given on mount Horeb with its statutes and
judgements, for Moses spoke of his doctrine coming upon Israel like
the rain and the dew:
"My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
My speech shall distil as the dew;
As the small rain upon the tender grass,
And as the showers upon the herb"
(Deuteronomy 32.2).
Judev4
Jude does not say what Peter says about the false teachers of whom
he writes; Peter's words concerning them are - "denying even the
Master that bought them" (2 Peter 2.1).
Peter views the false
teachers as men who had been bought by the Lord.
This I would
understand means buying in the sense of 1 Corinthians 6.20, "Ye were
bought with a price."
Some have thought that because they were in
the field, the world, they were bought, but the Lord bought the
field because of the treasure that was in it, that is, His saints
(Matthew 13.44).
He did not buy the wicked that were in the
world.
Jude, in contrast, does not refer to these ungodly men as
having been bought.
They had crept in privily, disguised as sheep,
whilst they were actually wolves.
Paul said in his parting message
to the elders of the church of God in Ephesus, "I know that after my
departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the
(little) flock" (Acts 20.29).
He did not stop there, he continued
to say, "And from amongst your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (verse
30).
Thus we see that, as the apostles were disappearing from the
scene, two classes arose among God's people, elders who taught
things which were destructive of the Faith, and ungodly,
unregenerate men, who crept in as wolves, men who did not spare the
flock.
Jude has the latter class specially before his mind as he
writes, and, perchance, Peter has the former, though it might be
difficult to detect a difference between them.
Even Judas was not
detected by the rest of the apostles until the end, when he came out
in his true colours.
The Lord warned His disciples with the words,
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wovles" (Matthew 7.15).
These ungodly
men turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, that is, lewdness,
debauchery.
They changed the freedom that believers enjoy, through
divine grace, into an occasion for the flesh to run riot (Galatians
5.13).
In contrast to this the grace of God teaches us to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world (age) (Titus 2.12).
Instead of
denying ungodliness, these ungodly men denied the Lord, whose
example and teaching ever point in the direction of godly living.
Judev5
Jude cites a few of the judgements which came upon those who
rebelled against God, and he begins with the 603,548 men of Israel
who were numbered at Sinai, who entered into a covenant of obedience
to obey all that the LORD commanded them.
All these later
disbelieved and disobeyed God at Kadesh-barnea and were sentenced to
death in the wilderness, and were not allowed by God to enter His
rest in the land of Canaan.
The Arabah became the graveyard of
those rebellious men.
Such are held up by Jude as a warning to the
saints not to fall after the same example of disobedience (Numbers
14.29).
Judev6
The fallen angels, presumably the angels of the devil (Matthew 25.
41; Revelation 12.7), who kept not their "first or original state,
or state of dignity" and of their own volition left their own
dwelling or habitation which was assigned to them by God, have been
kept in everlasting bonds under darkness to the judgement of the
great day.
The devil will not be cast into the eternal fire of
the Lake of Fire until after the Millennium (Revelation 20.7-10),
and the judgement of the great day possibly refers to the judgement
of the Great White Throne (Revelation 20.11-15).
See my notes on 2
Peter (2.4).
It is a great difficulty to apprehend how the angels
that sinned who were cast down to hell (Tartarus, R.V.marg.) are in
heaven, in Revelation 12.7, if the passages refer to the same angels.
Judev7
This verse has been used by those who hold that the sons of God, in
Genesis 6.2, were fallen angels who married wives of the daughters
of men, and had hybrid children by them, half angelic and half
human.
These words, "having in like manner with these given
themselves over to fornication, and gone after strange flesh" - that
as Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. went after strange (other) flesh, they
say, that the angels went after strange (Heteros, different) flesh,
flesh of another kind.
The whole case breaks down when we remember
that angels are spirits (Hebrews 1.7,14), and have not got bodies of
flesh at all; hence they could not go after other flesh when they
themselves are not flesh.
The whole idea of persons who are
spirits marryng women with a body of flesh is a wild dream.
Angels
neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matthew 22.30).
What the
verse says is this, that Sodom and Gomorrah, and the contiguous
cities in like manner with Sodom and Gomorrah, gave themselves over
to fornication and bestial practices (see Leviticus 18.23;20.15,16;
Deuteronomy 27.21).
These cities were veritable sinks of iniquity,
and their punishment was such as is an example of God's wrath on
such as similarly defile themselves.
The inhabitants of these
cities are suffering the punishment of eternal fire from then till
now.
"In like manner" does not refer to the angels that sinned at
all.
Judev8,9
These carnal dreamers defiled themselves by their dreamings, and
were like those of whom Peter writes, who had eyes full of an
adulteress and could not cease from sin (2 Peter 2.14).
They also
set aside, or at nought, all lordship.
They would be under
authority to no one, having denied the lordship, the absolute
authority, of Christ (verse 4).
They also blasphemed or railed at
glories.
In contrast to their carnal and rebellious behaviour, so
high a person as Michael, the archangel, durst not bring a railing
judgement against the devil.
Yet puny men often speak
disparagingly of this great and dread being who is the deceiver of
the whole world.
The Scriptures do not reveal when this contention
took place between Michael and the devil, but the body of Moses was
the matter, or one of the matters, about which they disputed.
Daniel 10.12-21 sheds some light on what takes place in the realm of
the unseen.
The Lord alone may rebuke the devil (Zechariah 3.2).
We do well not to go beyond the Scriptures when we speak of the evil
one whose judgement and destiny are fixed by God.
Judev10
A more gross and rebellious state could hardly be described, than for
men to be compared to beasts or creatures without reason, who in
their railing at things which they do not understand corrupt and
defile themselves.
Judev11
What was the way of Cain?
It was the way of a man who listened to
the devil and rejected the way of God, who spoke to Cain twice at
least before he committed the terrible act of slaying his brother.
"And wherefore slew he him?
Because his works were evil, and his
brother's righteous" (1 John 3.12).
What were his evil works?
First in importance of these was Cain's bringing of the fruit of the
ground as an offering unto the LORD, whereas he should have brought
a like offering to that of Abel his brother, an offering, the blood
of which had been shed.
The devil was behind Cain's act.
What of
Balaam?
He went hurriedly and rashly against the word of God
also.
He thought to enrich himself with the hire of wrong-doing.
A dumb ass rebuked him for his mad folly, but he went on to sin and
to reap the consequences of his sin.
Then of Korah's pride and
rebellion we are well acquainted. He perished in the revolt which
he headed against God and His servants Moses and Aaron.
In the
case of each of these men, Cain, Balaam and Korah, we see the same
spirit at work; men, who knew the will of God, gave themselves to
the evil one and rebelled against the plain word of God.
These
evil men of whom Jude writes would perish too in their sin and
rebellion.
Judev12,13
Here we have a number of similes describing the character and works
of the ungodly men who had crept in privily amongst the saints.
They were sunken rocks, a danger to voyagers even in a calm sea, and
the danger was more abundantly present, for they ingratiated
themselves with the saints as they feasted with them in
love-feasts.
They fed (there is no word for shepherds) or
shepherded themselves and cared not for the flock.
They were
clouds without water.
Their ministry was just words, words, and
afforded no water for the thirsty and weary.
They were autumn
trees, trees of the harvest, but barren of fruit.
Thy were said to
be twice dead, a difficult description indeed!
The words must bear
relationship to autumn trees, plucked up by the roots.
In Romans 4.
19 Paul speaks the thoughts of Abraham when he considered the
deadness of Sarah and of himself to produce naturally the son of
promise.
"And without being weakened in faith he considered his
own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old),
and the deadness of Sarah's womb."
In the light of this,
unfruitfulness is no doubt regarded as deadness, and besides, the
barren fruit trees were actually dead.
Thus we have a double state
of deadness.
The result is, such trees are not cut down, but
pulled up by the roots.
The Lord said, "Every plant which My
heavenly Fathr planted not, shall be rooted up" (Matthew 15.13).
These evil men who had crept in privily had not been planted by God
in His house, and, consequently, they were in due time rooted up.
They were also wild waves of the sea, full of action and turbulence,
but only foaming out their own shame (or shames).
They were as the
wicked of Isaiah 57.20,21, as a troubled sea that cannot rest, whose
"waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to
the wicked."
Then we have the fearful end of these ungodly men,
"for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever."
They were on earth like wandering stars (the planets, some suggest
comets), always on the move, and they will be wanderers for ever in
utter darkness.
If Judas Iscariot could company with the apostles
and was chosen by the Lord for the fell work of betraying Him, the
Lord knowing his character from the beginning that he was a devil,
it was no wonder that the wrong kind of material got in among the
saints, persons who were inside only for what they could get.
Judev14,15
Certain have thought that this prophecy of Enoch is derived from the
apocryphal book of Enoch, which is thought to have been written
about the time of Herod the Great, but this is thought by others to
be very uncertain.
I myself think it to be very uncertain.
If a
traditional account of Enoch's prophecy existed in the time of Herod
the Great, so as to be recounted in this apocryphal book of Enoch,
then it would be equally well known to the apostles and the Jewish
Christians of the early days then the Lord was on earth.
Whence
Jude's knowldege of this prophecy is derived is a matter of mystery
about which it is impossible to be dogmatic.
As to the truth of
the propehcy there can be no doubt, as Jude's epistle is an inspired
epistle like the rest in the New Testament.
Jude sees the same
characteristics in the judgement of God which will overtake the
ungodly, as overtook the ungodly in Noah's day, when they were swept
away by the flood.
Jude gives us a view of what existed in the
Fellowship at the close of the apostolic period or shortly
afterwards, when Judaism and other fatal doctrines of demons were
taught by ministers of Satan.
These were in a frenzy of haste to
bring to an end the testimony of the Lord which the apostles and
their co-workers had raised in the churches of God.
Four times
Jude writes of "ungodly" and "ungodliness."
In view of the
oncoming tide of ungodliness no wonder that Paul wrote to Timothy of
the need for godliness, and wrote to him of the Mystery of
Godliness, even Christ, who was manifested in the flesh, in whom we
learn what is proper conduct in the house of God.
To be ungodly is
to be bereft of the fear of God, that reverence and awe that is due
to the Divine Being.
There is no fear of God before the eyes of
the ungodly (Romans 3.18).
Judev16
Murmurers are persons who "utter secret and sullen discontent,"
which has a most harmful effect on the peace of any community.
The
world was never more full of this than it is today, and, woe to the
Fellowship of God's Son if such people become numerous, for they
will drive out peace before them.
Complainers, these are
fault-finders, persons such as the Lord described, who see motes in
their brother's eye and do not see that they have a beam in their
own (Matthew 7.4,5).
"Thou hypocrite!" the Lord said to such.
Jude said that such were walking after their own lusts.
They were
such as would put restrictions on others with their complaints, but
would seek full scope for their own licence.
David writes, in
Psalm 12.2-4, of those who spoke to their neighbours with flattering
lip and a double heart, and who claimed the right to speak as they
would.
Such were the men of Jude's time as indicated here.
They
were men with a glib tongue who uttered great swelling words, and
showed respect of persons, that is, they admired persons for profit,
a foul and nauseating course of conduct.
Judev17,18
These words are similar to those of 2 Peter 3.2,3.
Paul, Peter and
now Jude, show the character of the last days of the apostolic
period; the shades of night were falling and the wolves, of whom
Paul spoke in Acts 20, were ravishing the flock.
Not only were the
last days of the apostolic period in view, but the last days before
the Lord's coming also are indicated.
Who can doubt that these are
upon us?
Our safety is found in the words which Paul spoke when he
commended the elders of Ephesus to God and to the word of His
grace.
Here Jude calls upon the saints to remember the words of
the apostles of the Lord which had been spoken to them.
This is
ever the safeguard of saints in dark days.
If we fail to read and
to adhere to the Scriptures, we leave ourselves open to become a
prey to the evil one and to the character of the times in which we
live.
Judev19
Here is further proof that these men had never been born again.
They were mere natural (Psuchikoi, soulish) men; men such as Paul
describes in 1 Corinthians 2.14.
"Now the natural (Psuchikos,
soulish) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for
they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because
they are spiritually judged."
They had no powers of discernment,
for they had not the Spirit.
Hence, being led by mere natural
reason, they caused separations.
Paul speaks of certain, in Romans
16.17, who were causing divisions and occasions of stumbling,
contrary to the doctrine which the saints had learned, and the
saints were to turn away from such.
What could be expected from
men who had not the Spirit, than that they would blunder in
spiritual things in the darkness of their own natural minds?
Judev20,21
The Faith here is the same Faith, as in verse 3, which was once for
all delivered to the saints, and for which they were to contend
earnestly.
It is here viewed as a foundation, and is the base of
Christian conduct, both individual and collective.
This is the
foundation, and we are to be the builders.
Then we are to be ever
praying in the Holy Spirit.
This is similar to Paul's words, in
Ephesians 6.18, "praying at all seasons in the Spirit."
Prayer, we
learn from Ephesians 2.18, is to be made through the Lord Jesus, in
the Spirit, unto the Father.
"For through Him we both have our
access in one Spirit unto the Father."
We are to keep ourselves in
the love of God, a continuous act of keeping ourselves in divine
love by building ourselves upon the Faith and praying in the Holy
Spirit.
Does not this simply show to us that we keep ourselves in
God's love, by listening to Him and doing what He says to us in the
words of the Faith, which is His revealed will, and by seeking the
ear of our God in prayer?
If these two lines of communication are
kept open and clear, God speaking to us and we to Him, then we shall
indeed keep ourselves in His love, that love which He bears to those
who are obedient to Him, "Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life": this is to be our present continuous
experience.
Great will be that mercy of God to us, for there
before us lies that eternal life, that condition of life for which
we who have the gift of eternal life are already prepared (Romans 6.
23).
Then life within and life without shall be in the fullest
accord.
The study of the words "eternal life" will be found
fruitful to those who give time to it.
Judev22,23
The R.V. marginal reading says that the Greek text here is
uncertain.
It would seem that the better rendering is, "And some
who dispute, convict, but others save, from fire snatching them."
Of old Joshua the high priest was described as "a brand plucked out
of the fire" (Zechariah 3.2).
See also John 15.6.
This use of
fire, in a figurative way, shows a present destruction of the lives
of believers, lives which might have been lived to God's glory.
On
some they were to have mercy, but they were to hate the garment, the
habits of the persons, which had been defiled by the flesh.
They
were to carry out this work in fear.
Thus each case was to be
treated on its merits, the contenders were to be convicted; those
whom the fire was consuming were to be saved; and those whom the
flesh had defiled were to be shown mercy.
Such as seek to restore
others are exhorted by Paul - "looking to thyself, lest thou also be
tempted" (Galatians 6.1).
Judev24,25
What a day of exultation it will be when the Lord brings His saints
in before His Father!
"Wise" before God in the A.V. is omitted by
many authorities and is omitted in the R.V.
The Spirit-given words
of Jude in his ascription of praise to God our Saviour of glory,
majesty, dominion and power, will never cease throughout eternity's
unending ages.
Here is one of the finest of doxologies, comparable to that with
which Paul ends the epistle to the Romans.
It is difficult to say
who is referred to as "Him," whether it is God the Father or the
Lord Jesus.
"Him" may refer to the Lord Jesus, and "His" in "His
glory" is, I think, the Father's glory.
So that the Lord Jesus is
able to guard us from stumbling with the object in view of setting
us in the presence of the Father's glory without blemish and that
with exceeding joy.
We sometimes sing of this in the hymn,
"When Christ shall bring us in to Thee,
We'll praise Thy grace more worthily."
NOTES
ON
THE
BOOK
OF
THE
REVELATION
The book of the Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, not of
St. John the divine.
God gave to Him this revelation of events
which must shortly (shortly or speedily as God speaks of time) come
to pass.
The object was to show to God's bondservants in the seven
churches in Asia, first of all, the course of coming events, events
which had primarily to do with the time immediately prior to the
millennial reign of Christ and afterwards stretching on into
eternity.
This outline of events is preceded by things which John
saw, as in chap.1. and which were then existing, as outlined in the
seven messages or letters which were written in one book, which was
to be sent to the seven churches in Asia.
Jesus Christ sent it by His angel (17.1,15; 19.10; 22.8,9), and
signified (that is, gave it by signs or symbols) to His bondservant
John.
John was a faithful witness of the word of God, and of the
testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
He with
Peter said earlier, "We cannot but speak the things which we saw and
heard" (Acts 4.20).
Rev1
Blessed is he that readeth.
This evidently is public reading, for
the hearers also are blessed by the reading, but reading and hearing
fail in their purpose unless there is the keeping of the things of
this prophecy.
John to the seven churches.
The seven churches were in the Roman
province of Asia, not the Continent of Asia, nor what is called Asia
Minor.
These are not seven churches selected from among other
churches in Asia.
John addresses this book "to the seven churches"
(Tais Hepta Ekklesiais).
The churches of God in Troas (Acts 20.
5-7), Colossae and Hierapolis (Colossians 1.2; 4.13) were churches in
Asia at one time, but were no longer in existence, or perchance no
longer acknowledged by the Lord, when the Revelation was written.
Laodicea, which formed with Colossae and Hierapolis a group of
churches in the south east corner of Asia, was, alas, in a wretched
state (Revelation 3.14-17), and unless they repented would be
disowned as a church of God by God.
Grace to you and peace.
This salutation of grace and peace is from
the Trinity.
God the Father is here described as the
self-existing, eternal Jehovah, One who is, who was, and who is
coming, a Being Ineffable, to whom past, present and future are an
eternal NOW, and as is the Father so are the Son and the Spirit.
Jehovah is a name proper to all three Persons.
The Spirit is described as "the seven Spirits which are before the
throne", seen in Revelation 4.5 as seven Lamps of fire.
Again in
Revelation 5.6, the seven Spirits are the seven Eyes of the Lamb
sent forth into all the earth.
There is one Holy Spirit (Ephesians
4.4).
Seven, it has been suggested, shows "His plenitude and
perfection," though it is wiser betimes not to use words to cover
our ignorance.
Seven in Ephesians forms a unity or oneness; the
unity of the Spirit is (1) one body, (2) one Spirit, (3) one hope,
(4) one Lord, (5) one faith, (6) one baptism, (7) one God and Father
of all.
Henotes (unity) is derived from Hen neut. of Heis (one).
So the seven Spirits are, I judge, one Spirit.
The mystery of the
Divine Being shall in time to come be more fully understood by us.
We do well in these our childhood days (1 Corinthians 13.9-12) not
to darken counsel by words without knowledge (Job 38.2).
We feel
that much of what has been written about the book of the Revelation
comes within the meaning of the LORD'S words in Job.
The seven
lamps upon the Lampstand in the tabernacle are, we judge, symbolic
representations of the seven Lamps of fire, which are the seven
Spirits.
No book in the Scriptures has so many groups of sevens:
seven Spirits, seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven
trumpets, seven heads of the beast, seven angels which have the
seven bowls with the seven last plagues.
Jesus Christ is described in a threefold way, which is of universal
application: (1) "the faithful Witness," (2) "the Firstborn of the
dead," and (3) "the Ruler of the kings of the earth."
He is the
faithful Witness conveying a world-wide message to men, which, as
Luke shows in Acts 1.1, He continued through the apostles
and prophets (Hebrews 2.3,4; Ephesians 2.20) after His resurrection.
He is the Firstborn of the dead, that is, the Firstborn of all the
dead.
He is also the Firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1.18),
that is, He is the Firstborn of all the blessed dead who shall be
raised prior to the millennium.
He is also the Ruler of the kings
of the earth, being King of kings, and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6.
15).
"Firstborn" describes one who is supreme, pre-eminent, who
has priority in rank (Psalm 89.27).
The Lord is Firstborn of all
creation (not the first to be born, as though He were Himself a
creature), for in Him, through Him and unto Him were all things
created (Colossians 1.16; John 1.3).
He is the Cause of all
creation.
He is also the Cause of all resurrection.
"For as in
Adam all die, soalso in Christ shall all be made alive" (1
Corinthians 15.22).
He is also the Firstborn among many brethren
(Romans 8.29).
"Unto Him that loveth us:" the present participle
for "loveth" describes the characteristic action of Jesus Christ;
He is the loving One who loves His own and will for ever love them
(John 13.1).
"Loosed" in the original is an aorist participle
which shows that He is the One who loosed or freed us in the past
from our sins.
The loosing from sins is a past event but the
loving is present and continuous.
And He made us to be a kingdom.
In this note of praise we have
definite allusion to what took place at Sinai, in Exodus 19.24, in
its anti-typical meaning, when the terms of the covenant which God
was about to make with Israel, who had already been redeemed, were
read in their hearing.
Upon their acceptance thereof, they were to
become a kingdom of priests, as well a a peculiar people and a holy
nation.
This same truth is implied here in Revelation 1.6. We
have in Titus 2.14, and in 1 Peter 2.5-10, a peculiar people and a
holy and royal priesthood.
The seven churches, though a people in
much failure and weakness, were still owned by Him, and the Lord
walked in their midst and ruled over them.
Whilst we believe
all born-again persons have a birthright to priesthood, as the sons
of Aaron had, not all who are born again are gathered together
according to Acts 2.41,42, subject to the Lord's will and authority
(Matthew 28.18-20).
Consequently they are not a kingdom and
priests to God.
Those who have a birthright to priestly service
should be together, as in 1 Peter 2.5-10, as a holy and royal
priesthood to be built up as a spiritual house.
Of old the
priesthood of the house of Aaron served God in His house and temple
and could not render service to God apart from His house.
Kingdom,
priesthood and house are linked together both in the past and
present dispensations.
It should be carefully noted that it was
those who were gathered together in the seven churches in Asia who
were made a kingdom and priets by the Lord to God His Father.
Behold He cometh with the clouds.
Here we have graphically
portrayed the coming of the Son of Man to earth in judgement, of
which Matthew 24.27-31, Revelation 19.11-16, and many other
portions, speak.
Every eye of men on earth shall see Him then, and
the Jewish people shall look upon Him whm they pierced, as we learn
from Zechariah 12.10; and besides the mourning Jews all the tribes
of the earth shall mourn over Him.
Many, alas, will be ill
prepared for His coming, for many in that day shall call on the
mountains and the rocks to fall on them and hide them from His face
and His wrath (Revelation 6.15-17).
I am the Alpha and the Omega.
These are the first and the last
letters of the Greek alphabet.
If we place the letters of the
alphabet in a circle and place A over Z, then whichever way we move
round the circle we come to A and Z.
So that if we go backward in
thought over the ages then God is there, and forward, God is there
also.
David the psalmist said, "Thou hast beset me behind and
before" (Psalm 139.5).
"In Him we live, and move, and have our
being," said Paul (Acts 17.28).
Happy are those who can say with
Moses that "The eternal God is thy dwelling place" (Deuteronomy 33.
27; Psalm 90.1).
The One who is the Alpha and the Omega is the
eternal Jehovah, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty.
What is true of the eternal Father, is true of the
eternal Son, and of the eternal Spirit.
The Son also says in
Revelation 22.13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the
last, the beginning and the end."
I John, your brother.
This describes the abiding relationship of
all who are born again, they have all one Father.
John was also
their companion, fellow or fellow-partaker. Whilst all born-again
persons are brethren, not all such are companions or
fellow-partakers in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in
Jesus.
Those "in Christ," new creatures or a new creation in Him,
are united to Christ their Head by ties of life and love which never
can be severed, but "in Jesus" shows saints on earth in a scene of
tribulation, trial and temptation, for the kingdom of God in such a
scene ever involves suffering (2 Thessalonians 1.5,6).
Truth, we
are told, is in Jesus (Ephesians 4.21), the blessed One who is the
Truth and who taught it during the days of His earthly sojourn and
also suffered for it (John 18.37,38).
John was knowing that
tribulation which comes through obedience to the truth, for he was
in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of
Jesus.
He adhered to what God's word said and to what Jesus
tetified.
He was in God's kingdom, though for the time being he
could not meet with God's gathered saints.
The kingdom of God,
that favoured position which Israel occupied as His people under His
rule, was taken from them upon their rejection of the Lord and given
to another nation, as we learn from Matthew 21.43, which should
bring forth the fruits thereof.
That nation was the little flock
of Luke 12.31,32, to which the Lord said, "Howbeit seek ye His
kingdom," (the kingdom of God, A.V., R.V.margin) "and these things
shall be added unto you.
Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Of the kingdom of
God Paul reasoned and persuaded in the synagogue in Ephesus, but
because of Jewish opposition Paul had to separate the disciples from
the synagogue (Acts 19.8,9).
Paul says again in Acts 14.22 that
through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of Revelation 1.9 is the same as that of verse 6, "He
made us to be a kingdom."
As in Acts 14.22 and 2 Thessalonians 1.
5, tribulation and suffering are connected with the kingdom of God
which those are called upon to endure who are subject to the Lord's
authority.
Thus "in Jesus" shows saints on earth in the place of
suffering in obedience to the authority of Christ, whereas "in
Christ" applies to saints of this dispensation, who, by baptism in
the Spirit, are members of His Body (1 Corinthians 12.13), and "in
God" is true of all men, for in Him we live, and move, and have our
being (Acts 17.28).
John, according to tradition, had been banished to the rocky Isle
of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. Why he was there he states was because
of the word of God and the Testimony of Jesus.
I was (became) in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
"In the Spirit,"
according to Romans 8.9, is true of all believers in Christ; "Ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
God dwelleth in you."
"In the flesh" describes that naturally
sinful, immoral state in which all unbelievers are; but at the time
of regeneration believers are delivered from being in the flesh to
being in the Spirit, when the Spirit of God enters into them, making
their body His temple (1 Corinthians 6.19).
"In the Spirit," in the Revelation, was that ecstaic state into
which John entered (became), something he was not in before (on the
Lord's day).
It was not in spirit, denoting merely a condition of
mind, nor was it in his own spirit, but "in the Spirit," that is,
the Holy Spirit, to whom his whole being was tuned and in harmony;
he was alive to spiritual realities of which men contiguous to him
were entirely unaware.
Paul's experience as he lay on the ground,
stoned, outside the city of Lystra (Acts 14.19), at which time it is
thought he was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable
words, as he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12.1-4, seems to be a
somewhat similar experience to John's.
Peter's experience in Acts
10 seems to be similar also.
Daniel too, in Daniel 10, tells us of
his experience when he was brought into contact with intense
spiritual realities.
In Daniel 8.27 we are told of the physical
effects of Daniel's experience in receiving divine revelations: "I
Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days."
The day on which John became "in the Spirit" was the Lord's day.
The word rendered "Lord's" here is only twice used in the New
Testament.
This word in the Greek is an adjective, not a
possessive noun.
It is used here to describe the day, and in 1
Corinthians 11.20 to describe the supper; the day and the supper
are linked together, the latter is proper to the day.
The word
"Lordly" has been used to give the meaning of the Greek adjective.
"The Lord's day" is not "the day of the Lord," which is referred to
frequently in both the Old and New Testaments and is of more than a
thousand years in extent (2 Peter 3.10); it commences with the
Lord's coming as Son of Man and continues till the judgement of the
Great White Throne.
I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet:
This
trumpet-like voice commanded John to write what he heard in a book
and to send it to the seven churches.
There was but one book for
all the seven churches, but in chapters 2 and 3 there was a special
message which was given by the Spirit to each from the Lord who
walked in their midst.
Whilst it was the Lord who spoke to the
churches, it was equally true that the Spirit spoke, as we read, "He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
churches" (Revelation 2.7).
The seven churches in the province of Asia are specifically
mentioned as located in seven well known cities at the time of the
writing of this book.
Some have embarked on a system of exposition
based on the interpretation of the meaning of the names of these
cities which were given to them by pagans, names which have no
spiritual significance whatever.
Again, what is said in certain of
the messages to the churches is spiritualized, as, for instance,
Jezebel of chapter 2.20 is made to mean the church of Rome, whereas,
quite evidently, she was a woman in Thyatira, who taught the same
doctrine as certain in Pergamum held, even the teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of
Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.
May we mention what has been written by certain expositors?
In
dealing with the name Philadelphia it is said, "Philadelphia
signifies 'brotherly love'; and brotherly love is one of the
special features of the acting of the Spirit of God as formative of
the Philadelphian church."
Smith's Bible Dictionary (Book 2, page
830) says this about Philadelphia: "A town on the confines of Lydia
and Phrygia Cataceaumine, built by Attalus II, king of Pergamus," it
is "still represented by a town called Allahshehr (city of God)."
Philadelphia receivd its name from its founder Attalus Philadelphus,
and what king Philadelphus, who lived before any apostle came to
Asia with the message of divine ove, had to do with Christian
brotherly love leaves one in bewilderment.
This method of
interpreting the word of God is simply grasping at shadows and
losing the literal, plain and evident meaning of the Scriptures.
Think also of the exposition based on the meaning of Laodicea:"Laodicea probably means 'righteous people.'
The seventh and last
church corresponds with the seventh parable in Matthew 13 - the
parable of the net.
There are two things which characterize the
last stage of the Church's history - outwardly, increasing activity
in Gospel work; inwardly, self-righteous, spiritual pride, and
lukewarmness as to the truth and authority of Christ."
"Righteous people" by a stranger juggling with words becomes
"self-righteous people," and, stranger still, the name Laodicea has
some connexion with an implied spiritual significance with "the last
stage of the Church's history."
But what church can this be?
Is
it Christendom, that Babel of confusion which with lip service
acknowledges Christ, but does no more? or is it the Church which is
Christ's Body?
It cannot be the latter, for the sins of
self-righteousness and spiritual pride can never enter there, for
that Church will be presented by Christ to Himself "not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5.27).
We are left to
guess what church was before the writer's mind, and what is meant by
the church's history.
It is this loose method of using the word
"church" that has led to the hopeless confusion that exists in
regard to church truth.
How did the city of Laodicea get its name?
The answer is, it
"derived its name from Laodice, the wife of Antiochus II, king of
Syria."
Here again the name comes from pagans who had no connexion
whatever with "the last stage of the Church's history."
Then as to
the Laodicean church answering to the parable of the net, in Matthew
13, it has no similarity to that parable whatever, other than that
they are the seventh in order in each case.
Let us adhere to and state unequivocally the fact that the book of
the Revelation was sent by John to the seven churches which were in
Asia at the time that John wrote the book, and were located in the
cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, and so forth, cities which were well
known in the world then.
The book was not written to and sent to
seven stages, epochs or developments of what expositors have been
pleased to call "the church," a use of the word "church" which is
nowhere found in the New Testament.
Christendom is no church at
all.
If God's children would be right as to church truth let them
study the uses of the word church in the New Testament, and they
will find that there are no such ideas there, such as that the
church is composed of people who make a nominal profession of
Christianity, or that the church is composed of all believers on
earth at any one time, or that because they are not together
therefore the church is in ruins.
If believers would be right they
require to see the clear distinction between the Church which is
Christ's Body, which includes all believers from Pentecost until the
coming of the Lord for that Church, and the church of God which is
ever a local gathering of God's separated saints, such as were the
seven churches in Asia.
The book of Revelation is first of all a book which contains
messages to the seven churches concerning their state at that
time.
But like all Scripture, which was written to people who
lived when the books were written, it contains a message for all
time.
The principle on which the Scriptures were given is laid
down by Paul in Romans 4.23,24: "Now it was not written for his
sake alone, ... but for our sake also."
And I turned to see the voice which spake with me:
As was natural
John turned in the direction whence the voice came, and what met his
gaze were seven golden lampstands, not candlesticks.
There was one
lampstand in the tabernacle and ten in the temple.
The lampstand
had six branches and a central stem, on these were set seven lamps.
These with the lampstand and the vessels thereof were made of a
talent of pure gold.
The lamps were dressed and filled in the
morning at the time of the morning sacrifice and of the offering of
the incense on the golden altar, at the hour of prayer.
They were
lit at the time of the evening sacrifice.
"Candlestick" for
"lampstand," "bishop" for "overseer," and "baptism" for "dipping,"
are some of the defects in translation in our English Bibles.
Gold
lamps signify children of God, such as are born again.
Alas, many
who are children of God, who strenuously uphold the need for the new
birth, are not so careful about seeing that they are set on a gold
stand (gold speaking of that which is divine and of divine glory);
a silver, brass or wooden stand serves well enough for them.
But
children of God should not be satisfied with anything less than being
in a church of God.
Gold speaks of the divine character of each of
the seven churches.
Children of God and churches of God - "of God"
shows their divine origin and character.
In the New Testament
children of God are not contemplated as being in anything else than
a church of God, but alas, the devil has scattered the children of
God in almost all the sects of Christendom.
Though the seven
churches were equal in preciousness as to their position, they were
very diverse as to their condition.
Condition may vary greatly in
different churches and in the saints therein, but position admits of
no variation, the position is either divine or it is not.
A church
is either a golden lampstand or it is not.
The seven lampstands
were the seven churches of God in Asia.
In the midst of the lampstands One like unto a son of man:
The
Lord appeared to John like a son of man.
In Philippians 2.7 we are
told that He was "made in the likeness of men."
He was clothed
with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a
golden girdle.
As the high priest of old was to judge God's house
and to keep His courts (Zechariah 3.7), even so the Lord in the
midst of the seven churches, in Revelation 1-3, is viewed as judging
God's house, as seen in the seven churches.
All judgement has been
given by the Father to the Son, because He is Son of Man, that all
may honour the Son even as they honour the Father (John 5.22,23).
In due time He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17.31;
Matthew 25.31-46), but judgement begins at the house of God, "at us"
who are described as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2.5; 4.17).
It is not His loins, the seat of strength, that are girt with a
golden girdle, but His breasts, the place of affection.
Of old the
breastplate of judgement was upon the breast of the high priest; he
bore the names of the children of Israel upon his heart
continually.
The Lord's judgement of His own is ever tempered by
love.
His head and His hair were as white wool, white as snow.
Such was the appearance of the Ancient of Days to Daniel (Daniel 7.
9).
This bespeaks infinite purity and holiness.
The mind of
Christ is infinitely pure and holy as is the mind of God.
The
thought of sin never enters the mind of Deity.
His eyes were as a
flame of fire.
In the Lord's case, unlike that of men, it is not
light from without that enters and illuminates Him; He sees by
light from within.
He is Himself Light (John 1.4). He is the
Light of the world (John 8.12).
From His eyes proceed rays of
divine fire piercing and entering into the recesses of the heart,
and all the processes of human thought, hidden from human sight, are
naked before Him.
Paul describes such divine sight in the words,
"There is no creature (angelic or human, fallen or unfallen) that is
not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4.13).
His feet were like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined
in a furnace.
Brass speaks of judgement, and righteousness is
intimately associated with this.
Whilst on earth the Lord walked
in the paths of judgement (Proverbs 2.8), and in the paths of
uprightness (verse 13), and in the paths of righteousness (Psalm 23.
3). He loved righteousness, and hated iniquity (Psalm 45.7; Hebrews
1.9). His feet were beautiful upon the mountains (Isaiah 52.7).
There ws no defilement in His walk on earth.
Now as Judge His feet
are as refined brass.
Who has the right to judge but One who is
Himself perfectly just?
In matters of judgement Paul exhorted
Timothy, "Keep thyself pure."
A judge who judges others but
practises the same things will not escape the judgement of God
(Romans 2.1-3).
His voice was as the voice of many waters.
Such
was the sound of the voice of the Almighty, in Ezekiel 1.24, and the
voice of the God of Israel, in Ezekiel 43.2.
Such a voice keeps
the ear listening and is indicative of the infinite mind and depth
of thought which lie behind such a voice. David, in Psalm 29.3,4,
describes the voice of the LORD thus:"The voice of the LORD is upon the waters:
The God of glory thundereth,
Even the LORD upon many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty."
He had in His right hand seven stars:
These, we are told, are the
angels or messengers of the seven churches (verse 20).
They are in
(En, in) His right hand (verse 16), but in (Epi, upon) His right
hand (verse 20), as though He had opened His hand to show them to
John.
Out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.
When
the Lord comes to earth in judgement He is called "the Word of God.
"
In John 1 He is shown as the Word in three ways.
(1) In verse
1 He is shown as the Word in the beginning in full fellowshp with
(Pros, towards) God. (2) In verse 2 He is seen as the Maker of all
things, the One through whom all things became, that is, came into
being. (3) In verse 14 it is said that the Word became flesh, that
is, He was born of a woman to become Kinsman-Redeemer.
He appeared
in grace so that men might of His fulness receive grace for grace.
Then last of all He will appear as the Word of God in judgement.
Then shall He speak unto men in His wrath (Psalm 2.5).
"Out of His
mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the
nations" (Revelation 19.15).
"He shall smite the earth with the
rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the
wicked" (Isaiah 11.4; 2 Thessalonians 2.8).
How different it will
be then from His lowly earthly life, when He moved about as the Man
of sorrows and the One who was well acquainted with grief!
He
said, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting"
(Isaiah 50.6).
Men may be as stars in His right hand, lights to be
seen and to give light in this world's night, but the Lord's
countenance was as the sun shining in its strength: before this
light, intense, strong and beautiful, all other lights are as
nothing, even as stars disappear in the light of the sun.
Here
indeed is the glory that excelleth.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead.
This is the
same One in whose bosom John lay at the last supper in the upper
room, but how different He is now from then!
As it was with John,
so was it with Daniel, who, when he saw the vision by the river
Tigris, said, "There remained no strength in me: for my comeliness
was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength ...
then was I fallen into a deep sleep on my face, with my face toward
the ground" (Daniel 10.8,9).
It such was the effect on human flesh in John and Daniel, how true
must be the words of the LORD to Moses! - "Thou canst not see My
face: for man shall not see Me and live" (Exodus 33.20).
Here is
One who dwells in light unapproachable; "Whom no man hath seen, nor
can see" (1 Timothy 6.16); who veils His glory in His manhood so
that men may bear the glory in His manifestation as the Divine
Son.
He laid His right hand upon John and told him not to fear,
for He was the first and the last.
Here is one of the many "fear
nots" of Scripture, the first of which was spoken to Abram: "Fear
not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward"
(Genesis 15.1).
The Lord said to John, "I am ... the Living One;
and I was (became) dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I
have the keys of death and of Hades."
Millions follow Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and venerate popes many
in number, but they are all dead.
Jesus Christ is alive.
Here is
an infinitely important and vital difference.
What can the dead do
for either living or dead men?
Nothing, absolutely nothing!
Our
case is most pitiable if Christ is not raised from the dead (1
Corinthians 15.19).
The Lord became dead by an act of His own
will; He laid down His life of Himself, no one took it from Him
(John 10.17,18).
The living One has the keys of death and of
Hades; He has complete control and authority over the dead in the
realm of the unseen.
("Hades" is a Greek word composed of the
negative A and Eido - I see, and means literally "what cannot be
seen, the place of the unseen, where the sight of man cannot
penetrate."
It is not the grave, the place of the interment of the
body; that we can easily see. Hades is the invisible abode of the
souls of the dead.)
None of the saints of the Church which is
Christ's Body go to Hades at death; when they are absent from the
body they are at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5.6-8); they are
with Christ, which is very far better (Philippians 1.23.)
Old
Testament saints were delivered from it, from the place therein
called Paradise, by the Lord (Luke 23.43; Ephesians 4.8-10; Hebrews
2.14,15).
See also Psalm 16.8-11, quoted by Peter in Acts 2.27,
where the Lord says that His soul would not be left in Hades (that
is, He Himself, see verse 31, R.V.).
Saints of both Old Testament
and New Testament times who have died, are now in heaven.
Write therefore the things which thou sawest:
Here we have a
threefold division.
(1) The things which John saw were the visions
of the Lord, the lampstands and the stars. (2) "The things which
are": these were the things which were existing in the seven
churches, as revealed by the Lord to John, contained in chapters 2
and 3. (3) "The things which shall come to pass hereafter" are the
things which will transpire after the Church which is Christ's Body
is complete, and the Lord has come to the air for all in Christ, the
living and the dead.
Then churches of God will cease to exist;
for though the Church which is Christ's Body is an eternal purpose
which God purposed in Christ (Ephesians 3.4-11), churches of God are
local gatherings of God's gathered people, which may come into being
or cease to exist, and they will certianly cease to exist when the
Lord calls His saints away from this earth to meet Him in the air.
Much has been written which is spurious and thoroughly unscriptural
as to this dispensation of grace being divided into seven periods,
beginning with the Ephesian period and closing with the Laodicean.
One expositor writes thus:"A special, but by no means exclusive, application of the first
three chapters to the Asiatic assemblies named must be admitted.
Thus, John greets 'the seven assemblies named which are in Asia'
(verse 4); he has them equally in view in verse 11; while to each
of the seven a special epistle is addressed (chapters 2 and 3).
But while a primary application to the seven Asiatic assemblies is
undoubted, it is equally clear that they are representatives of the
whole Church, not only at any given moment, but also in the
successive moral stages of her history."
Here we have three propositions placed before us by the writer: (1)
the primary application to the seven churches in Asia existing at
the time of the writing of the book of the Revelation; (2) that the
seven churches in Asia are representative of the whole Church at any
moment in this dispensation of grace; and (3) that these churches
represent seven successive moral stages in the history of the Church
throughout its entire history, from Pentecost, I presume, until the
Lord's coming.
We differ entirely from this writer, and others also who have
repeated the same thing, as to there being any application other
than the primary one. It would be foolishness to deny that the book
of Revelation was written to the seven churches in Asia, two of
which are referred to elsewhere in the New Testament (Ephesus and
Laodicea).
Then, by a strange confusion of thought which we cannot
accept, the writer alluded to gives two further interpretations in
points (2) and (3), for if the seven churches show the Church (one
Church) "at any given moment," then they cannot show seven
successive moral stages in the Church's history as well.
For
instance, if we are now in the Laodicean stage we cannot also be in
the Ephesian stage.
What is this Church which has a history to
which this writer refers?
The Church which is Christ's Body has no
history whatever.
This Church is comprised of all believers from
Pentecost who have been baptized in the Spirit into the Body.
Most
of these are in heaven, and many of those members still on earth,
even in the same town, are quite unknown to one another.
It has
been described by theologians as the invisible Church.
What is the
visible church which has a history?
Where is this history? Where
was this church prior to or at the time of John Huss of Bohemia and
Martin Luther of Germany, or even after the Reformation?
Is this
the union of professing Christians, many of whom are not born
again?
It is this unscriptural use of the word church which has
led to all the confusion as to church truth which exists among
would-be instructors of the uninstructed, leading to such ideas as
that the church is in ruins.
There is no such idea in the New
Testament Scriptures as that "the whole church" is composed of
believers who are scattered in almost every sect in Christendom. As
this is a most important line of truth, we plead with the reader to
examine the use of the word church in the New Testament.
These
first three chapters of the Revelation have a simple, primary
meaning, namely, that they were written by John in Patmos and sent
to the seven churches in Asia to correct certain disorders therein:
the remainder of the book was to make known to God's servants the
things that must come to pass hereafter.
The mystery of the seven stars:
The seven stars are said to be the
angels of the seven churches.
Who were those stars or
messengers?
(1) Were they angels and not men? (2) Was the angel a
bishop over each church? (3) Were they the elders (or overseers)
of each church viewed as one, each church being ruled by a plurality
of elders together? (4) Do they symbolize the ministry (in the
hands of the elders and deacons) in each church? (5) Was the angel
a man who acted as the messenger of the church to which he
belonged?
We may dismiss (1) in the light of the fact that the
angel who was written to by John was a person who belonged to a
church.
We may also dismiss (2), as nowhere in the New Testament
is a church (of God) ruled by one bishop or overseer.
Even Peter
the apostle, in his capacity of ruler, calls himself a fellow-elder
(1 Peter 5.1).
As to (3), while a lampstand shows a number of
lights placed together to shed one light, stars are individual
lights; thus we judge that a star or angel does not speak of a
group of overseers acting together.
(4) The ministry of a church
in the hands of the elders and deacons is too impersonal and could
not be written to; so we judge that the angel does not refer to the
ministry of a church.
(5) The book of the Revelation does not
contain general ministry of the word, but is a book of special
revelation from God which was committed to persons to be conveyed to
the seven churches in Asia, as in chapter 1.4: "John to the seven
churches which are in Asia."
The angels were as definitely
indicated as the churches.
It seems to me that some help on this
subject may be derived from the case of Epaphroditus who came from
Philippi to Paul at Rome with the bounty of the Philippian church.
Paul calls him "your messenger (apostle) and minister to my need"
(Philippians 2.25).
He also calls him his "fellow-worker" and
"true yoke-fellow": "I beseech thee also, true yoke-fellow, help
these women, for they laboured with me in the gospel (chapter 4.
3).
Such a reference seems to support the generally-accepted view
that Epaphroditus carreid back to Philippi this wonderful epistle,
in which Paul acknowledged with gratitude the tangible expression of
their thought for him.
Without seeking to fill in what God has
left out, it seems, from the case of Epaphroditus, a reasonable view
to take of those angels or messengers, that they were men sent by
the seven churches to John, whether for spiritual help or with a
material gift to meet his need; and that they carried back to the
churches from which they came the book of the Revelation, and caused
its contents to be read in each of the seven churches, special
emphasis being given by each messenger to the particular epistle for
the church to which he belonged.
See Matthew 11.10, Mark 1.2, Luke
7.24,27, 9.52, James 2.25, where the word Aggelos (angel) is applied
to a human messenger.
Had this been done in Revelation 1,2,3, it
would have saved much confusion of thought among commentators on the
book of the Revelation.
"Angel" in these chapters means a human
messenger.
Rev2
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
As the church in
Ephesus was a definite group of saints, capable of loving and
hating, working and enduring, hearing and repenting, so it seems
that the angel of the church was a man who could be addressed.
In
each of the several epistles the Lord presents Himself in a special
character.
Here He speaks of Hmself as One who holds the seven
stars in His right hand, and walks in the midst of the seven
golden lampstands.
Being present in the midst He knew exactly the
condition of the Ephesian church.
He says, "I know" (Oida, I see,
not Ginosko, I learn); He saw with eyes as a flame of fire,
therefore He knew perfectly their works, labour and endurance. He
knew that they could not bear evil men, and had tried those that said
that they were apostles, perhaps by such tests of apostleship as Paul
applied to himself (1 Corinthians 9.1,2; 2 Corinthians 11.5-15), and
found them liars.
They had borne with endurance, had laboured and
not grown weary.
All this was to their credit, and the Lord ever
praises and will praise that which is worthy in His saints.
Alas,
there was that which overshadowed all the good that they had done;
they had left their first love.
There are some who think that the
leaving of their first love means that they had left their first
Lover, the Lord.
I am of the opinion that "love" here means a
state, not a person, though it must be conceded at once that leaving
their first state of love must affect their relationship with their
Divine Lover.
Ephesus had had a great past, from the days when
Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos unto them and expounded unto him
the way of God more carefully (Acts 18.24-28).
Then came Paul and
found the twelve disciples who were following the teaching of John
the Baptist, as Apollos had been, and Paul brought them up to date
in the progress of the work of God.
Paul continued in the work of
the Lord in the synagogue until he found it necessary, because of
the opposition of the Jews, to separate the disciples from the
synagogue.
After this he continued to reason in the school of
Tyrannus.
Special miracles were wrought by Paul, diseases
departed, evil spirits went out, and books of magical arts, valued
at fifty thousand pieces of silver, were publicly burned.
The
Spirit's comment through Luke is, "So mightily grew the word of the
Lord and prevailed" (Acts 19.1-20).
But, alas, other days fell upon
Ephesus, as Paul prophesied in Acts 20.29,30, when from among the
elders, men arose speaking perverse things to draw away the
disciples after them, and grievous wolves entered in, not sparing
the flock.
Paul's three years' work was attacked by Satan.
Later, Timothy was left by Paul in Ephesus to charge certain men not
to teach a different doctrine (1 Timothy 1.3).
Then came the
separation of 2 Timothy 2.21, when those who were faithful to the
Lord and the truth which they had learned were called upon to purge
themselves out from the false teachers and their followers, such men
as Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Whilst there can be no valid excuse for
leaving one's first love, yet we need to have the whole picture of
the Ephesian church before our mind to see possible causes why such
a condition had befallen them.
We are all liable to look back on
the past and to say that "the former days were better than these"
(Ecclesiastes 7.10).
The darker the day and the harder the way the
more we should lean on the strong arm of our Beloved.
Men change,
times change, but He changes not.
Changes in Ephesus had told
their sad tale. Paul was now with the Lord, and also most, if not
all, of the other apostles had gone, like Paul, to a well-earned
rest.
The aged John was confined in Patmos for the word of God and
the testimony of Jesus.
The days were grim, both within and
without the Ephesian church, and the once sparkling lustre of the
love of the saints had grown dim.
Though many had gone and their
loss was sadly felt, the Lord was still present, walking in their
midst.
If the mighty happenings and the powerful preaching of past
days were gone, yet the Lord was near to love and be loved.
He
felt the loss of their love.
The atmosphere of the assembly was
cold and clammy.
He would leave unless there was a change.
The
lampstand would be removed.
They would be unchurched.
To remove
the lampstand does not mean that He would remove all the saints by
death from earth, the scene of testimony.
The Lord compares the
loss of first love to a fall; "Thou art fallen," He said. Their
inward attitude to the Lord was changed, as was the attitude of Adam
and Eve, who when they sinned no longer walked and talked with the
LORD as formerly.
The Lord calls upon the Ephesian church to
repent (that means, to change their mind and their whole attitude to
Him), and to do the first works; these are the works wrought in the
power of first love, the strongest and sweetest emotion which fills
the breasts of God's people.
The Lord commends them for their hatred of the works of the
Nicolaitans, "which," He said, "I also hate."
Who were the
Nicolaitans?
Some in early times said that they were the followers
of Nicolas of Antioch (Acts 6.5), but others deny this.
There is
no certainty whence these people sprang, but there is a general
agreement on this, that they were heretical, an impure sect whose
works were hated by the Lord and by the Ephesian saints.
It is
futile to follow a specious interpretation of who the Nicolaitans
were from the meaning of their name, which is derived from Nike,
victory, and Laos, people, and think of them as a victorius people,
for they were otherwise than that.
To follow still further in this
specious interpretation into the difference between "clergy" and
"laity," however unscriptural the ideas in these terms may be, can
lead to no definite conclusion as to who these people were or what
they believed.
To the repentant overcomer the promise of his reward is this, that
he will be given the privilege of eating of the Tree of Life that
is in the Paradise of God.
The word Paradise has three uses in the
New Testament
(1) It is used by the Lord to describe that part of
Hades (called by the Jews, Abraham's bosom - Luke 16.23) to which
the Lord and the repentant robber went after death, and where were
all the blessed dead of past dispensations.
(2) In 2 Corinthians
12.2-4, it is the third heaven to which Paul was caught up.
(3) In
Revelation 2.7, the Paradise is the city of the New Jerusalem, where
the Tree of Life grows on each side of the river of Water of Life,
which flows in the midst of the street of the city.
"Paradise"
literally means "a pleasure garden with various kinds of trees, a
place of delight."
And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
Here the Lord
speaks of Himself as the First and the Last, which became dead and
lived.
What can give greater comfort than the knowledge that the
One who became dead by His own act of laying down His life for us is
alive for evermore?
It is a living Lord who saves and keeps. The
Lord speaks little of the works of the church in Smyrna, butamuch of
tribulation and poverty.
He says, "Thou art rich"; although poor
as to this world's goods, yet rich in faith (a rich faith means a
rich saint), and heirs of the kingdom which the Lord promised to
them that love Him (James 2.5).
Tribulation is a refiner: gold
becomes more precious as it is refined.
In Daniel 11.33-35, it
speaks of the wise instructors of the people falling "by the sword
and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days."
Then we are
told, "Some of them that be wise shall fall, to refine them, and to
purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end."
Such
will be the experience of many during the time of the Great
Tribulation.
This suffering church has no accusation laid against
it by the Lord. In this respect it is like that of Philadelphia,
though the emphasis is laid on the lack of strength in
Philadelphia.
The Jews who frequently and viciously attacked Paul
in his day, and were enemies of the gospel, were still at their work
in Smyrna, for here we read of the blasphemy of them which say that
they are Jews, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Far from being Jews,
as Paul defined a Jew in Romans 2.28,29, they manifested the same
spirit as when they cried, "Crucify, crucify," in regard to the
Lord; so here they blaspheme His followers.
The devil was about
to cast some of the suffering saints into prison, and their
tribulation was to extend ten days, but whether this was for ten
literal days, or for ten, "the unknown quantity," it is perhaps
impossible to say.
We believe that this tribulation has nothing
whatever to do with the persecutions from A.D.249 to A.D.284, as
some have taught, under Roman emperors Decius, Valerius, Aurelius,
and Diocletian.
The tribulation of the church in Smyrna was before
the end of the first century A.D.
The special promise to the
sufferers is, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the
crown of life."
This crown is promised to such as endure
temptation, whether from fleshly lusts, as in James 1.12-15, or from
external trial and persecution, as here in Smyrna.
Here is another
of the "fear nots" of Scripture.
The promise to the overcomer is,
"He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."
What
does it mean to be hurt of the second death, which we are told in
Rvelation 20.14; 21.8, is the lake of fire?
Some help may be
derived from the use of the word "perdition" or destruction.
It is
used of the "man of sin" (the beast), who is called the "son of
perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2.3), who will with the false prophet be
cast into the lake of fire (19.20). This same word is used in
connexion with the destruction of the life of the believer, for it
is possible for a saved person to have a lost life, a life which has
gone to perdition.
Paul says, in Hebrews 10.39, "But we are not of
them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith
unto the saving of the soul (or life)."
It is only in such a sense
that a believer, saved with an eternal salvation (Hebrews 5.9), can
be hurt of the second death.
See also 1 Corinthians 3.13-15;
Matthew 16.24-26.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
Here the Lord
speaks of Himself as having a sharp two-edged sword.
He adopts a
warlike attitude because there were those in Pergamum who held the
teaching of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans.
Satan's throne, we are
told, was in Pergamum.
Here was the seat of Roman government, and
here had been erected a temple in which divine honours were given to
Augustus.
Many, many thousands of Christians throughout the Roman
empire suffered death rather than give divine honours (due to God
alone) to Roman emperors.
Satan and his hosts are called "the
principalities ... the powers ... the world rulers of this
darkness ... the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places (Ephesians 6.12).
From Pergamum, the place of Satan's
throne and dwelling, he carried on his baleful work against the
saints of God, but those in Pergamum had stood firm. The Lord said,
"Thou holdest fast My Name, and didst not deny My faith."
They had
been true to Him and to His word.
Antipas had been valiant in the
fight against the powers of darkness, and touchingly the Lord refers
to him as "My witness, My faithful one," who had been killed for his
faithful testimony.
If Satan does not manage to destroy God's
saints by evils without, he will sek to destroy them by evils
within.
In Pergamum were those who were playing the traitor's
part.
They held the teaching of Balaam, who, though the Lord would
not allow him to curse Israel, taught Balak how to destroy Israel,
by the daughters of Moab being let loose among the sons of Israel,
with the result that those women through their lust enticed the sons
of Israel to sacrifice to their gods.
The result was that Israel
was joined to Baal-peor.
Fornication and idolatry have ever been
wedded evils.
We are not told that certain in Pergamum practised
these evils; they held the teaching, and it is only a step from
holding teaching to practising it.
Others held the teaching of the
Nicolaitans in like manner.
Now that such sin had been discovered
by the Lord, action by the church was called for, and the church was
called upon to repent or the Lord would make war with them with the
sword of His mouth.
The case was somewhat like to the sin of
Achan.
The Lord said that Israel had sinned, not that all the
people had committed the sin of Achan, but there was sin in the
camp, and defeat was theirs until the devoted thing had been removed
and judgement had fallen on Achan and his house.
The sword of His
mouth is the word of God (Revelation 19.13-15,21; Hebrews 4.12,13).
Here again the reward to the overcomer is different - the hidden
manna, and the white stone upon which is a new name which only the
overcomer knows.
The hidden manna of wilderness times is what is
referred to in Exodus 16.33,34: "Take a pot, and put an omerful of
manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your
generations ... so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
"
This, we learn from Hebrews 9.4, was a golden pot wherein was
this manna, which was placed in the ark of the covenant. As the
manna speaks of Christ, the overcomer is destined to have a very
special portion of that blessed one to delight his heart above other
believers.
What is the white stone or pebble?
It is said that in
the past in criminal cases a white pebble was given in the case of
acquittal, and a black in condemnation.
A white stone was also
given to the victors in the games.
The Greek word for "stone" is
only twice used in the New Testament, here, and in Acts 26.10 where
it is the voting stone of persons in authority.
Paul says that
when the saints were put to death he ever gave his vote, or "stone"
against them; that was in his unconverted days.
Here the white
stone indicates the Lord's approval, and possibly the appointment of
the overcomer to a place of authority.
And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
To this church
the Lord speaks as the One whose eyes are like a flame of fire, and
His feet like burnished brass.
Whilst to Ephesus He is the One who
is present in the midst, and to Pergamum He is ready to make war
with them with the sword of His mouth, here He is seen in the role
of the Judge.
By the inherent light which streams from His eyes He
sees all.
He needs no evidence to be led to arrive at a
judgement.
Brass speaks of judgement, and here it is burnished
brass.
He knows perfectly and His judgement is just.
He says, "I
know (Oida)" thy works: - love, faith, ministry, patience, - and He
knew that their works now were more than at the beginning.
All
this was highly commendable.
The whole church was not corrupted,
but there was one evil allowed, and that was, that they suffered an
evil woman whom the Lord called Jezebel, because she had the
characteristics of that daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians,
who had married Ahab and led her husband and Israel into the sin and
immoralities of the worship of Baal (1 Kings 16.30-32; 2 Kings 10.
19-28).
Jezebel in Thyatira taught the same as her ancient
namesake, even idolatry and fornication.
The church in Thyatira
was responsible to deal with this evil woman and her followers.
A
number of expositors think that they see in Jezebel the church of
Rome.
What has this woman to do with the rise of the papacy?
Nothing whatever!
She lived at the time of John, towards the end
of the first century of the Christian era, when political Rome was
in power and papal Rome did not exist.
So many bring their ideas
to the Scriptures and cram them in, in order to take them out,
instead of allowing the Scriptures to mould their thoughts.
Jezebel was a woman who taught literal idolatry and fornication to
those who listened to her; those in Pergamum also held this
teaching.
She was a woman; she is called, "the woman Jezebel,"
and not a church (so called).
If this woman did not repent, and
the Lord had given her time to do so, the Lord would take direct
action toward her, and deal with her and her paramours who committed
adultery with her.
He would also kill her children with death.
One can understand the simple, straightforwad words of the Lord, but
how all this can be wrought out in regard to the rise of papacy in
Rome is quite inexplicable.
It is like so many sermons and books
that are written on the Bible; the Bible itself is often simple
enough, but the preaching and writing of men are like dark clouds
that shut out the light.
The world would be well blessed if many
of the sermons and books about the Scriptures were taken and
publicly burned as was done with the books of magic arts in Ephesus
long ago.
Note here that the Lord speaks to all the churches;
"and all the churches shall know."
He is the one who searches the
hearts and gives to each according to his works.
If the woman
Jezebel is the church of Rome in the early or middle centuries of
this dispensation, what churches were these that were outside of
her, who were to know that the Lord was the Searcher of hearts and
the Judge of actions?
We are left in an inextricable maze by this
unscriptural periodic interpretation of these chapters and
churches.
Think of the words of the Lord, "But to you I say, to
the rest that are in Thyatira."
There were Jezebel and her dupes
in Thyatira (not in Rome or anywhere else), and "the rest in
Thyatira".
The Greek preposition en, in, here shows clearly the
location of those who are written to.
Upon the rest in Thyatira
the Lord cast none other burden than to clear themselves of the
teaching and practices of the woman Jezebel, and to take such action
toward her as was necessary.
To defame the whole church in
Thyatira, as some have done with their teaching concerning the Roman
Jezebel, is to do injustice to the church in Thyatira and the
faithful therein.
The church in Thyatira was still a church of God
where the Lord walked; it was not apostate Christendom.
He that overcame, and kept the Lord's words to the end, was promised
a place of authority over the nations in the coming kingdom.
When
the Lord would rule or shepherd the nations with a rod of iron and
break them as a potter's vessel, He would give the overcomer the
same honour as His Father had given to Him.
The overcomer would
also be given the morning star.
Peter speaks of the Day (or
Morning) Star arising in our hearts, not in the heavens, a reference
to the Lord's coming for the Church (2 Peter 1.19).
This is no
doubt in contrast to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness upon
those who fear God's name at the Lord's coming as Son of Man to
earth (Malachi 4.2).
The Lord calls Himself the Bright and the
Morning Star (Revelation 22.16).
The giving of the Morning Star to
the overcomer is some special distinction that will be given at the
Lord's coming again; even as those will be rewarded who have waited
for Him to reappear (Hebrews 9.28; 2 Timothy 4.8).
Rev3
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
Here the Lord
speaks of Himself as having the seven Spirits and the seven stars.
His having the seven Spirits is no doubt an allusion to what is said
in Revelation 5.6, "I saw ... a Lamb standing, as though it had been
slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."
The Holy Spirit is
seen as seven Lamps of fire burning before the throne (Revelation 4.
5).
The Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son (John 15.
26).
The Spirit, according to Psalm 139.7-10 is everywhere, in
heaven, in hell, and in the uttermost parts of the sea.
He is
omnipresent as all the Persons of the Godhead are (Jeremiah 23.
24).
See also 2 Chronicles 16.9; Proverbs 15.3; Zechariah 4.10, as
to the eyes of the LORD being in every place, keeping watch.
Such
as spiritualize away the whole sense of the Lord's messages to the
seven churches think that they see Protestantism in the church in
Sardis.
Portestantism was a protest at the first against the
iniquities of the Romish church, in which a demand was made for the
cleansing of that church and its priesthood.
Where is there any
protest made by Sardis against the evil woman Jezebel (said to be
Rome) in the church in Thyatira?
No such allusion is made to such
a thing.
To speak of Thyatira as Rome and Sardis as Protestantism
is an interpretation forced into these passages of Scripture.
It
is pure imagination.
The church in Sardis was in the first
century, and not in the time of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Zwingle, and
others in England, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, etc.
By such
spiritualizing the clear teaching of church truth in the New
Testament has been lost to many chidlren of God.
Such teachers
seem to come under the apostle's stricture, "They understand neither
what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm" (1 Timothy 1.
7).
Think of some of the birds that roost under the cover of
Protestantism today, with doctrines as foul and unclean as have ever
been hatched in Rome.
Is this to be thought of as the church of
God in Sardis?
Having said so much about the erroneous
interpreataion of certain, let us now hear what the Lord says to
those saints in Sardis who lived in the first century.
The church in Sardis had a name that they were alive, but they were
dead.
Still they were a golden lampstand, and the Lord walked
among them as He did in Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Their position
was right, but their condition was wrong.
Their works were dead, a
lifeless formality had set in.
They were called to be watchful,
that the things that yet remained, in which there was life but no
movement, might be strengthened and stablished.
Of old we read
that the hair of the shorn Samson began to grow.
Life in the once
strong man began to manifest itself.
Recovery was slow and
gradual.
Samson could never have his eyes again, but his hair
grew.
In time the evidence of his separation to the Lord was
seen.
A church may get far down spiritually, but if the matter of
separation to the Lord and His service is attended to, there will be
an evidence of life, of revival.
Let not saints allow everything
committed to them to die, for if so, then they themselves will die,
and a church that once existed will exist no more.
Let us soberly
ask ourselves, "What works of ours does God see before Him?"
May
we listen to what the Lord said to those in Sardis, "Remember
therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and
repent."
Received, hear, keep, repent!
Is there not ever room
for repentance, a change of mind which will result in a change of
conduct?
We may all change for the better or the worse.
It lies
with ourselves, and there is ever grace available for a change for
the better.
If the saints in Sardis did not watch, then the Lord
would come upon them unexpectedly as a thief, and they would learn
to their sorrow what such a visitation would mean for them.
But in contrast to the many, there were a few names in Sardis known
to the Lord, who did not defile their garments.
Garments speak of
habits.
Their behaviour was clean.
Such the Lord said were
worthy and would wclk with Him in white.
Walking with the Lord in
unsoiled garments will lead to a closer walk with the Lord in the
ages to come.
We must walk with Him in His ways; He will not walk
with us in our ways.
Enoch walked with God.
Noah too walked with
God.
Walking with Him demands that there shall be nothing in our
lives that causes our hearts to be at a distance from Him.
The promise to the overcomer in Sardis was, that his name will not
be blotted out of the book of life, and that the Lord would confess
his name before His Father, and before the angels.
The second part
of the promise is similar to what He promised to those who confessed
Him before men (Matthew 10.32; Luke 12.8).
As to the first part,
it seems to me that there is a double writing in heaven, (1) the
writing of all born-again persons (Psalm 87.6; Luke 10.20), and (2)
a writing of such as serve the Lord (Philippians 4.3).
Only in the
latter sense is it possible for names of redeemed persons to be
blotted out of the book of life.
We must ever distinguish between
the new birth and service.
In human affairs there are records kept
of persons who are born, and also records of servants.
These are
not confused in men's affairs.
Here is an honour for the
overcomer, to have his name confessed by the Lord in heaven, and
shame for those who do not overcome, to have their names expunged
from the record of the Lord's servants.
May we have an ear to hear
what the Spirit says to the church in Sardis and to each of the
other churches also.
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
Of Philadelphia
one writer says, "Philadelphia signifies 'brotherly love,' and
evidently points to the characteristic feature of the work of God
in our days."
"The revival of long-forgotten truths, and their
application to the souls and lives of God's saints, was the
Philadelphian work of eighty years ago."
Here we are supposed to
get the meaning and intent of this periodic teaching of the seven
churches.
Philadelphia is derived from Phileo, I love, and
Adelphos, brother, and means "brotherly love".
So the teachers of
the "Brethren" movement apply this to themselves, as to what took
place in Dublin and Plymouth.
We have already pointed out that
this city was called after its founder Attalus Philadelphus who
lived before the Christian era began.
What the name of the city of
Philadelphia had to do with brotherly love among the Christians who
formed the church in Philadelphia is a mystery.
But it becomes a
bewildering mystgry when it is applied to the "Brethren" movement,
as is done by the writer whom I have just quoted, and by others
also.
It is easy enough to write piously about brotherly love
amongst so-called "Plymouth brethren," but what are the facts?
Are
such writers serenely oblivious of the cruel division between Darby
and Muller, which separated these two men's followers into two camps
even to this day?
We need not refer to lesser divisions which have
taken place from time to time in both camps.
The exposition
regarding Thyatira, that the woman Jezebel is the Papacy, is bad;
that concerning Sardis, that this is Protestantism, is equally bad;
but, if possible, the claim by "Brethren" writers that Philadelphia
is the "Brethren" movement is worse.
Philadelphia has nothing to
do with the "Brethren" movement.
It was a city in which there was
a church of God in the days of John the apostle in the first century
of this dispensation.
The Lord writes to the angel of the church in Philadelphia as "He
that is holy, He that is true."
He is the Holy One of God, of
absolute holiness, equal to that of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
He is also true, for He is the Truth.
It is impossible for Him to
lie.
He could not say what was untrue from ignorance or by
intent.
He said, "He that sent Me is true," and "My witness is
true" (John 8.14,26).
He also speaks as the One who has the key of
David, who opens and none shuts, and shuts and none opens.
He knew
the works of those in Philadelphia, and that they had kept His word,
and had not denied His name.
They had also a little power left, as
though to indicate to them that they had had greater power at an
earlier time.
He set before them an open door.
He would assist
them; He would open a door for them to enter.
How needful it is
in the work of God that the Lord should open doors for the entrance
of His word!
See what Paul said about a great door and effectual
being opened to him at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16.9; see also Acts
14.27; 2 Corinthians 2.12; Colossians 4.3).
In Isaiah 22.20-25 reference is made to the key of David, and to the
work of Eliakim, on whose shoulders it was laid in the past.
Shebna the scribe and treasurer was to be thrust from his office,
and Eliakim exalted to the place of authority.
Such indeed is the
Lord; no one else but He is worthy to occupy the seat of having all
authority in heaven and on earth.
He will shut and He will open as
seems right to Him.
There was a synagogue of Satan in Philadelphia as there was in
Smyrna, those who, like their master, were opposers of the truth and
work of God.
See how Satan opposed the work of God in the returned
remnant from Babylon (Zechariah 3.1,2).
Where God is working Satan
will also be found working in opposition.
Those who composed the
synagogue of Satan, Jews according to the flesh, but not Jews
according to Paul's judgement in Romans 2.28,29, were in due time to
be brought and made to worship at the feet of those in the church in
Philadelphia, and to know that the Lord loved these saints.
This
does not mean that these saints would be worshipped as God is
worshipped, but the Lord would honour them in this way, because they
had kept the word of His patience.
Patience here means endurance "the word of My endurance."
James says, "We call them blessed
which endured" (5.11).
There was a present reward for the
Philadelphian church, that, because of their endurance, the Lord was
going to keep them from the hour of trial that was coming on the
whole inhabited earth to try the inhabitants thereof.
This has
nothing to do with the time of the Great Tribulation, for those
saints with all the saints of the Church which is Christ's Body,
will not pass through the Tribulation, whether they have kept the
Lord's word or not.
The Lord will have come to the air for the
Church before the seventieth week of Daniel 9 begins; this applies
to Israel, and the second half of it is the time of the Great
Tribulation.
The New Testament writers wrote in the strain that
the Lord's coming was imminent, and so here the Lord speaks of
coming quickly, as also in chapter 22.7,12,20.
The Greek word Taxu
here may mean speedily, hastily, or soon, shortly.
It seems
gravely possible that, through our failing to hold fast what has
been entrusted to us, the crown we might have received may be given
to another who has been more faithful.
The promise to the overcomer in Philadelphia is very outstanding.
The Lord says, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God,
and he hall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the
name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own
new name."
We might say that it is a galaxy of promises.
First
the Lord says, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God."
But we read of the new Jerusalem, that John says, "I saw no temple
therein," that is, no material temple; yet there is a temple, "for
the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof."
Evidently faithful men will have a close and permanent asociation
with Deity in that coming city and in the worship therein.
Let
none despise or mar God's present-day temple (which is not the Body
of Christ) in the light of what is coming (1 Corinthians 3.16,17; 2
Corinthians 6.16; Ephesians 2.21,22).
God's temple is God's
house.
On this pillar will be written three names; the name of
His God, that is, the God of the Son of Man, who in His Manhood
became a worshipper, the name of the new Jerusalem, and the Lord's
own new name.
If the name of the new Jerusalem will be written on
certain of the saints of this dispensation, we can from this see who
will compose the Bride of the Lamb, which is the new Jerusalem.
Though the names of the twelve tribes of Israel will be on the gates
of the city, this does not prove that the Bride is the redeemed of
Israel, or that Israel is incorporated with the Church to form the
Bride. We expect to deal with this point later on.
The Lord's new
name is not revealed as yet.
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
The state of the
church in Laodicea is supposed to set forth the last phase of what
some are pleased to call "the professing church".
But what is the
professing church, and what does it profess?
Is it Christendom,
that Babylonian conglomeration which pays but lip-service to
Christ?
The writer before referred to says, "Whatever the general
condition fo the church may be at any period, Christ never deserts
it."
Again he says, "The true and the false may enter the
'House' ... 'caught up' and 'spued out' intimate the respective
destiny of the true and the false, of true believers and mere
professors."
The church in this writer's view is a mixture of
saved and unsaved people, a view of the church never once found in
the New Testament Scriptures.
Indeed the call of God condemns such
an idea. God's call to the church of God in Corinth was, "Be not
unequally yoked with unbelievers ... Wherefore Come ye out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean
thing; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6.14-18).
The confusion of Darbyism as to "the church of God" and "the house
of God" is utter and complete.
No unsaved people are contemplated
as being in the church in Laodicea, nor in any other church of God.
"Lukewarm" shows that the saints had some measure of warmth, though
such a state is detestable to the Lord.
An unsaved person has no
warmth at all, he is dead in his trespasses and sins, and as cold as
death.
If "lukewarm" means mere profession, the whole church was
lukewarm, and therefore there was not a saved person in it.
Let us
think for a moment of the church of God in Corinth as giving
guidance on the composition of a church of God.
We are told in 1
Corinthians 15.2 that they were saved by the gospel that Paul
preached.
Also, the body of each of the saints therein was "a
temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6.19), and they had each
been baptized into one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) into one Body (of
Christ) (1 Corinthians 12.12,13).
Where are the false believers
here?
Then, God's spiritual house is built of persons who have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, and, as living stones, have come
to Christ, the living but rejected stone, to be built up a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God thrugh Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2.2-5).
All these
had been redeemd with the precious blood of Christ, and were born
again (1 Corinthians 1.18,19,23).
Where are these false believers
and mere professors in the church and house of God?
Laodicea does
not present a professing church at the close of the dispensation of
grace, but was the church of God in the city of Laodicea, of which
we read in Colossians 4.13-16, "the church of the Laodiceans."
The character in which the Lord presents Himself to this church is
that of "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of
the creation of God."
God is "the God of truth" (Isaiah 65.16,
Amen, R.V.Marg.).
The first words that God put into the mouth of
Balaam were concerning His truthfulness.
"God is not a man, that He should lie;
Neither the son of man, that He should repent:
Hath He said, and shall He not do it?
Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"
(Numbers 23.19).
God is not yea and nay.
As to "the promises of God, in Him (Jesus
Christ, the Son of God) is the yea: wherefore also through Him is
the Amen, unto the glory of God through us" (2 Corinthians 1.19,
20).
God speaks down to us in His Son and says, "Yea," and we say
back to God "Amen" through His Son.
The Lord Jesus is the Amen in
all the work of God, whether in creation (John 1.1-3), or in grace
(John 1.14,16,17), or again in judgement (Revelation 19.11-16).
He
is the true expression and response, the Amen, to the mind and will
of God.
Hence He is the faithful and true Witness.
He, the
incarnate Word full of grace and truth, came to tell God out or
declare Him.
He is the beginning of the creation of God, though He
Himself has no beginning nor end.
He is, as the Almighty Himself,
the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1.8; 22.13), the Alpha and the
Omega.
In Him and through Him and unto Him were all things created
(Colossians 1.16), and He is before all things, and in Him all
things consist or exist (verse 17).
It is the rankest heresy to
hold that there was a time when the Lord was not, and a time when He
was created.
This was the doctrine of Arius, a doctrine which was
condemned in the early centuries.
His followers, the Jehovah's
Witnesses (so-called), and others, are with us at this day.
The
Lord is the eternal Son of the eternal Father.
God, the Father,
and God, the Son, are co-existent.
Many, many scriptures proclaim
the true and full Godhead of the Son.
Why had the Laodiceans become lukewarm?
The answer is that they
had turned from the Lord to things.
They had become rich in
material things and they had need of nothing.
They were well-found
as to worldly things, but, alas, in the heavenly things they were
poor.
They had temporal and material wealth, but they seriously
lacked that which was spiritual and eternal.
They did not even
seem to need the Lord.
Once they were hot, that is boiling, boiling
with vigour and enthusiasm, but now the fire was burning low and
they were tepid and insipid.
The Lord was about to vomit them out
of His mouth; His portion in them had lost its pleasantness.
They
only thought that they were rich, while they were poor, wretched,
miserable, blind and naked.
They had not learned the teaching of
the Lord, that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things that he possesseth.
The wealth of a man is in what he is,
not what he has.
His wealth is in his soul, not his pocket.
The
Lord spreads His riches before them like a merchant in the market
place, and calls on them to buy from Him. He has for sale fine
gold, white garments, and eyesalve for their blindness.
They are
deaf to the cry of the divine Merchantman, so He packs together His
goods and makes His way to their homes, and as a pedlar stands at the
door and knocks.
He will come in to them with His riches, if they
will but open the door to Him.
Moreover, He is prepared to sup
with them and they with Him.
What an enriching Christ is this!
Some there are who think that the Lord's words set forth a day of
individual testimony at the close of the dispensation.
Nothing can
be further from the truth. The saints here addressed were such as
were in the church of God in Laodicea, not saints sitting at home
and in fellowship in no church at all.
We know that in the last
days perilous times will come, as Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, but
we must not allow ourselves, because of this, to dose off into
sleep, thinking that the church in Laodicea prophetically sets forth
a time of apathetic indifference to collective testimony at the
close of the dispensation.
The truth regarding the church in
Laodicea was for that church towards the close of the first
century.
We, of course, may learn lessons therefrom as we can from
what is said to the church in Ephesus, and to the other churches as
well.
All these churches have words ofinstruction for us, if we
have ears to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
He said
to the Laodiceans, "As many as I love, I reprove and chasten."
He
loved them.
They were His born-again people, not false professors,
mere tares to be cast out and burned.
He called upon them to hear
His voice through the Spirit. He spoke, but it is equally true that
the Spirit spoke His message.
He holds out to the overcomer a glorious promise.
He says, "I will
give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and
sat down with My father in His throne."
We can never sit on the
throne of the Father; only Deity may sit there.
Of old David and
Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah in Israel.
It says, "Then
Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD (Jehovah) as king instead of
David his father and prospered" (1 Chronicles 29.23).
This is
Messiah's throne in which the overcomer will sit with the Lord, as
He promised.
For the sake of those who are exercised of God about church truth,
we give our understanding of the subject, as revealed in the New
Testament.
(1) There is a secular use of the word church, as applied to the
free citizens who ruled the city of Ephesus, called "the regular
assembly" or church (Acts 19.39).
It is also applied to the
irregular assembly or church of Demetrius, who had gathered the
church of silversmiths together (Acts 19.32).
(2) It is applied to Israel, the church in the wilderness,
comprised of that called-out and gathered-together people (Acts 7.
38).
(3) It is used of the Church which is His (Christ's) Body, which He
is building on Himself, the Rock, and which He will present
to Himself without spot or blemish or any such thing, when He comes
to the air for all who are in Christ (Matthew 16.17,18; 1
Corinthians 12.12,13; Ephesians 1.22,23; 5.22-32; 1 Thessalonians 4.
13-18).
The building of this Church began at Pentecost (Acts 1.4,
5; 2.1-4), and it comprises all believers in Christ who are baptized
in and indwelt by the Holy Spirit from Pentecost until the Lord's
coming for the Church.
(4) It applies to the church and churches of God, which describe
local gatherings of God's called-out and gathered-together people,
for the purpose of divine service Godward in praise and prayer, and
divine service manward in testimony to men.
Such a people must be
separate from the sects of Christendom, whether ritualistic or
evangelical.
There was a church of God in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1.
2; 2 Corinthians 1.1), in Jerusalem (Acts 8.1; Galatians 1.13), in
Antiosh (Acts 11.26; 13.1), and in many other cities and towns.
The
churches were linked together in Roman provinces for the
administration of God's will among His people.
Thus we read of the
churches of God in Judaea (1 Thessalonians 2.14; Galatians 1.22); of
the churches of Galatia (Galatians 1.2; 1 Corinthians 16.1); of
Macedonia (2 Corinthians 8.1); of Asia (1 Corinthians 16.19;
Revelation 1.4,11).
Then churches of God are mentioned without
being viewed as grouped together in provinces (1 Corinthians 11.16;
2 Thessalonians 1.4).
(5) We have the churches of Christ (Romans 16.16), and the churches
of the saints (1 Corinthians 14.33), and also the church at the
house (Romans 16.5; 1 Corinthians 16.19; Philemon 2).
These uses
of the word church, apply, in our opinion, to groups of saints
forming the one church of God in the place, as in Rome, Ephesus, and
Colossae, and, of course, Jerusalem, where there were thousands of
saints who could not be accommodated in one building.
Nowhere do we
read of the church of Christ or of the church of the saints.
The
definitions are found twice and in the plural in both cases.
(6) In 1 Timothy 3.15 we read of "the house of God, which is the
church of the living God."
Though we frequently read of the
churches of God, we never read of the houses of God.
There is but
one house of God at any one time, whether in Israel, in the days of
the apostles, or now.
God's house is where men require to learn to
behave themselves.
Being in it is conditional, the condition
being, "if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope
firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3.6).
This should not be read, "seeing
we hold fast"; that would violate the plain meaning of the Greek,
also the A.V. and R.V. versions and any other version of value.
The house of God must not be confused with the Body of Christ; the
former is conditional, the latter unconditional.
The house of God
is both a holy and a royal priesthood, to render divine service
Godward and manward (1 Peter 2.3-10).
Each church of God bears the
character of the house of God, and altogether they form the one
house, the dwelling place of God on earth. This unity is seen very
early in the work of God in the Acts, for we read of "the church
throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria," (He ... ekklesia
kath holes, "the church throughout all" or whole, from which words
"the church catholic" is derived.
It shows the unity which existed
among the divinely gathered disciples wherever found. (See Acts 9.
31, R.V.).
(7) "The church of the firstborn (ones)," of Hebrews 12.23, is a
company of heavenly beings who are called-out and are distinct from
the general assembly of innumerable hosts of angels.
A picture of
this is seen in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
The outer circle
of those around the tabernacle was composed of the twelve tribes;
the inner circle of the sons of Levi. Moses and Aaron and his sons
were on the east, and on the other three sides were the three
branches of the Levitical family, Kohath, Gershon and Merari.
The
Levites were taken instead of the firstborn of the sons of Israel,
who, but for the serious incident of the Golden Calf would have
occupied the inner place.
This inner circle of the Levites
instead of the firstborn is a copy of things in the heavens to which
those in the house of God have come.
Rev4 and 5
As chapters 4 and 5 present heaveny scenes and are integrated
together, we shall seek to deal with them accordingly.
Chapter 4
begins with the words, "After these things."
The truth contained
in the letters to the seven churches is truth proper to the churches
of God during the dispensation of grace, as is the truth in other
epistles of the New Testament.
Whilst the New Testament Scriptures
contain many things that have a bearing on men in general, and many
things apply to all born-again people, yet we must recognize that
the epistles were written to the divinely gatheed saints in the
churches of God and house of God.
From chapter 4 onwards the Lord is beginning to unfold events which
will transpire after He has come for the Church, that is for all
who are in Chirst, the dead and the living.
We shall find, as we
proceed from chapters 4 to 19, that the events are not given always
in serial form in the order in which they will transpire.
There
will be found to be an overlapping.
We may briefly point out what
we mean, when we indicate that at the end of chapter 6 with the
opening of the sixth seal we come to the time of the coming of the
Lord in the great day of His wrath.
At the end of chapter 11 we
come again to the Lord's coming to earth, when the kingdom of the
world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He
shall reign for ever and ever.
Then in chapter 19 we come again to
the Lord's coming in judgement, and to the battle of Armageddon.
In chapter 4.1 we are told that a door was opened in heaven, and
John was commanded by one with a voice like a trumpet to come up
hither and he would be shown the things that would come to pass
hereafter.
"Straightway," he says, "I was (or became) in the
Spirit."
He describes what he saw.
He saw a throne set in heaven
and One sitting upon it, who was like a jasper stone and a
sardius.
There was no form or similitude, only the flashing
splendour like in character to these precious stones.
Jasper is
said to be as clear as crystal, in Revelation 21.11, and sardius is
a stone of blood-red colour.
This was the glory of God, the glory
of Him who is the Father of lights in whom there is no darkness at
all.
This is the light unapproachable in which the Man of Sorrows
now dwells, in the glory which He had with Him before the world
was.
There was a rainbow round about the throne like an emerald to
look upon.
Who has not been entranced by a glorious sunrise or
sunset as he viewed the streaming light paint the heavens with the
exquisite colours of created light? or again been captivated by the
colours of the rainbow?
But what will it be to see the glory of
God in any manner or measure?
Those who will see the rainbow
around the throne will be such as will be in covenant relation with
God, even as those are who have watched the rainbow from Noah's
time.
The blessings are far, far greater in the former than the
latter.
Round about the throne are four and twenty thrones, on which sit
four and twenty elders, with crowns on their heads.
Some may agree
with the following statement of an expositor of the book of the
Revelation: "The thrones and crowns point to a royal company of the
redeemed and glorified saints in heaven."
He also says, "By the
elders we understand, therefore, the innumerable company of the
redeeemed saints, raised, changed, and caught up to meet Christ in
the air (1 Thessalonians 4.17)."
Thus, the four and twenty elders
are identified as the Church which is Christ's body.
It is easy to
make such statements, but we are anxious to know how this is worked
out.
The throne of God is one.
Is not the number twenty-four as
definite?
Do the millions of saints in the Church, the Body of Christ, crowd
on the twenty-four thrones, or are the twenty-four thrones symbolic
of millions of thrones? Again, will all the saints of this
dispensation be crowned with crowns of gold?
Several reasons have been adduced as to why the twenty-four elders
are all the redeemed of this dispensation:
(1) that angels "say," but saints "sing";
(2) that these twenty-four elders are old, mature persons, which
points to a previous life;
(3) that they are crowned with gold crowns, the word crown
(Stephanos) being used of a victor's crown, showing that they have
been victorious in their previous life on earth;
(4) that in the A.V. they sing a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God with Thy blood," us showing that
they are redeemed persons; the angels not having sinned do not need
to be redeemed.
There may be other reasons for supposing that the twenty-four elders
form the Church which is Christ's Body, but those given may be
sufficient for examination at the moment.
(1) Note that in chapter 4 the elders say, and in 5 they both sing
and say.
Moses both sang and spoke in Exodus 15.1; and David
spoke in the words of his song, in Psalm 18.
See the inspired
heading of the psalm.
But the whole case for angels not singing
breaks down completely before the words of the LORD, in Job 38.4-7,
where we read of the time of creation,
"When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy."
We may dismiss entirely the thought that angels do not sing.
(2) As to the elders being old, mature persons, one would think
from this that the saints of the Church were older than the angels,
but this is not the case.
Elders amongst God's people are not
necessarily the oldest men.
Younger men are often among the elders
that rule because of their geater gifts and spiritual wisdom and
experience.
If for the moment we think of the elders as heavenly
beings, who can say that all the angelic beings were created at the
same time?
May there not be some who are older than others?
Whatever be the answer to such thoughts, the fact is, that angels
were not all created equal in rank.
Among celestial beings there
are thrones, dominions, principalities and powers (Colossians 1.
16). There are fatherhoods in heaven as well as on earth (Ephesians
3.14,15), though there is neither marriage nor birth in heaven (Luke
20.34-36) like what is on earth.
In Colossians 1.16 we have
thrones, and in Revelation 4 we have the twenty-four thrones of the
elders.
(3) Then as to crowns, it is contended that the Greek word for
crown (Stephanos) always means a garland, chaplet, wreath, conferred
on a victor in the public games and it is always used in the
Scriptures in the sense of the honour conferred on a victor.
We
might ask, "Will all the saints be victors and wear a victor's
crown?"
Even with a very limited knowledge of the Scriptures we
would have to confess that that will not be so.
If all saints are
victors and overcomers, why those letters to the seven churches
which we have just considered?
Why Paul's words to Timothy in 2
Timothy 2.1-13?
Will all saints wear the crowns of life,
righteousness and glory?
Have these not to be won?
In Revelation
6.1,2, the rider on the white horse was given a crown (Stephanos)
before he went forth to conquer.
It is not a reward for victory
achieved, but a mark of honour inview of the work he was given to
do.
The same is true of the woman, in Revelation 12.1-6; she is
crowned with a crown (Stephanos) of twelve stars.
The woman is
Israel.
The twelve stars are the twelve tribes.
What victory had
Israel won?
None at all!
They had even crucified the Lord, who
is seen as the Man-child that the woman, Israel, brought forth.
Nevertheless such was the honour, according to God's electing grace,
that He conferred upon her, that she should be the chosen vessel by
whom the Lord would enter this world, as Paul says in Romans 9.5.
"Of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God
blessed for ever."
Israel is still honoured in the purposes of God
and has before her a great future, and that because of the
Man-child, the Lord, who is now upon the throne of God.
I judge
that it is right to say that both Adam and the Lord were crowned
with glory and honour by God before the work they were given to do;
Adam, as set over all the work of God on earth, and the Lord in that
He was to taste death for every man, and of course to reign as the
Son of Man afterwards (Hebrews 2.6-9).
How often we hear Hebrews 2.
9 quoted as though it had a NOW in it, "Jesus, because of the
suffering of death (now) crowned with glory and honour"!
There is
no "now" in the verse.
It is helpful, I think, to quote what
Liddell and Scott say as to the Groek word Stephanos: "Mostly, a
crown, wreath, garland, chaplet, whether given as a prize, mark of
honour, or festal ornament."
In the case of the elders, I judge
that the crowns of gold are marks of honour befitting their being
seated on thrones round the throne of God, and are not indicative of
their having been victors on earth.
(4) As to the insertion of the plural pronoun "Us" in Revelation 5.
9, it all depends on whether the Greek plural pronoun Hemas in this
verse is part of the Scriptrues.
As to this, authorities differ.
Some textual critics of weight exclude it, and in consequence it is
read as in the R.V.; other textual critics include it, and
consequently it is to be read as in the A.V.
Chapter 5.8-10
reads: "And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures
and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having
each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints.
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy
art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou
wast slain, and didst purchase unto God (A.V. has, "hast redeemed us
to God") with Thy blood men (A.V. "out") of every tribe (A.V.
"kindred"), and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to
be (A.V. "hast made us") unto our God a kingdom (A.V. "kings")
and priests; and they (A.V. "We shall") reign upon (A.V. "on") the
earth."
There is no doubt that verse 10 should read as in the R.V. "and
madest them (Autous, them, not Hemas, us) unto our God."
Thus the
four living creatures and the four and twenty elders are not
speaking of themselves in verse 10.
If this is so in verse 10,
they cannot be speaking of themselves in verse 9 either;
consequently the weight of grammatical evidence in the passage is
for the omission of Hemas in verse 9, for you cannot have Hemas in
verse 9 and Autous in verse 10.
It is a great weight to put on a
disputed text, to conclude that the four living creatures and the
four and twenty elders are human beings who have been purchased with
the blood of Christ, a very great weight indeed.
This is
nevertheless what some have done.
If the four and twenty elders
are the saints of the Church which is Christ's Body, it is strange
that in Revelation 19.4 they are mentioned as a different company
from the Lamb's wife, mentioned in verses 7 and 8.
Again, how are
we to understand the matter when we read of "one of the elders" (5.
5), in the light of the interpretation that the twenty-four elders
signify millions of saints?
We read also in 7.13 of "one of the
elders."
If the four and twenty elders are myriads of the
ransomed, then so must also be the four living creatures, for they
with the four and twenty speak the words of 5.9,10.
We do not
accept that the four living creatures are redeemed beings.
We
shall write of this matter later.
We are told by John in 4.5 that "there were seven Lamps of fire
burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God."
In
regard to the interpretation of such a statement it is well to give
heed to the LORD'S words to Job:"Who is this that darkeneth counsel
By words without knowledge?" (Job 38.1,2).
In Ephesians 4.4 we are told that there is one Spirit.
The Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Divine Trinity - one God
(Matthew 28.19).
The tabernacle with its service was a copy of the
things in the heavens.
In the tabernacle was the lampstand with
its seven lamps of fire.
In the vision shown to Zechariah there
was a lampstand with a bowl on the top of it and seven pipes to the
seven lamps, and the explanation of the vision, of the continuous
flow of oil from the bowl to the lamps, was - "Not by might, nor by
power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of Hosts" (Zechariah 4.
2-6).
The two live trees, which were Joshua and Zerubbabel, on
whom rested the responsibility of leadership in the LORD'S work in
the remnant which had returned from Babylon, poured out the golden
oil to maintain the lamp of testimony.
They were empowered for
this work by the Spirit of the LORD of Hosts.
As in the tabernacle
and the temple, the lampstands upheld seven lamps of fire, giving
light for divine service.
The seven gave one light, not variegated
lights.
We learn from Ephesians 4.3-6 that the seven ones
mentioned form the unity of the Spirit.
Unity is a state of being
one, a oneness.
Thus, I judge, that the the seven Spirits are one
Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
We may learn later why the Spirit is
seven.
Those who are instructed in Scriptural numerics speak of
seven being the Spirit's number, and of seven being a perfect
number, but even when this has been said, how much are we instructed
in the fact that there are seven Spirits?
Before the throne was also a glassy sea like unto crystal.
What
are we to learn from this?
It does not say that the sea was either
glass or crystal, but it was like in appearance to crystal.
I see
no need to enter into a discussion of the difference between glass
and crystal, that glass is the product of the hand of man, but
crystal is a natural product got from the earth.
In 15.2, this sea
is mentioned again, and in this passage John says, "I saw as it were
a glassy sea mingled with fire."
The sea appears to be a solid
substance, at leastit had that measure of solidity, that those who
came triumphant from the beast stood upon it.
But whatis the
message of the sea?
In the court of the tabernacle was the laver,
and in the temple there was a molten sea of brass which held three
thousand baths of water.
The water in both of these vessels was
for the priests to wash themselves (2 Chronicles 4.2-6; Exodus 30.
17-21).
The laver was made of fine brass (or copper), of the
mirrors of the serving women who served at the door of the
tabernacle (Exodus 38.8).
The laver speaks of the laver or washing
of regeneration, which is the word of God, by which every believer
is bathed, and in consequence is clean for ever.
The water of the
word is afterwards to be used for the cleansing of the hands and
feet in service for God (John 13.1-17; 15.3; Hebrews 10.22; Titus 3.
5; Ephesians 5.25-27; John 3.5).
If we think of the laver being
made of fine burnished copper, we may think of it revealing
defilement and also providing the water for cleansing of the
defilement.
Similarly, the word of God reveals defilement and
cleanses it, when the word is applied.
When we think of the glassy
sea we have reached a place where there is no defilement.
The sea
before the throne provides no water for cleansing.
It is something
of intense purity in which the least spot of defilement would be
revealed.
It seems to me that this is like what Ezekiel calls the
terrible crystal (1.22), terrible indeed for man apart from the
cleansing power of the blood of Christ and the word of God.
Ezekiel says, "And over the head of the living creature there was
the likeness of a firmament, like the colour of the terrible
crystal, stretched forth over their heads above."
I leave the
reader with the result of my meditations. (The Hebrew word rendered
crystal in Ezekiel is rendered ice in Job.)
"In the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living
creatures full of eyes before and behind" (4.6).
Because of the
insertion of "us," in chapter 5.9 (A.V.), "for Thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God," some have concluded that the four living
creatures are the Old Testament saints, and the four and twenty
elders the saints of the church which is Christ's Body.
It is
difficult to see how this is arrived at, and how the distinction is
made between the Church and the saints of the Old Testament.
For
ourselves we are of the opinion that the four living creatures are
four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders are four and
twenty elders.
This we think is the simple and straightforwad
explanation of who these beings are.
The likeness of the living
creatures in Ezekiel 1, which we know from chapter 10 to be the
cherubim, is very similar to that of Revelation 4, in that they have
faces like a man, a lion, a calf, and an eagle; they are also
connected with the throne of God.
From this we are led to conclude
that the same holy beings are in view.
There are slight
differences, truly, in the descriptions given, but those differences
need not necessarily lead one to think that they are different
beings.
Differences in the Gospel narratives need not lead us to
think that different narratives are in view.
If the glassy sea
reveals perfect purity in those who are privilged to stand before the
throne of God, here are beings with countless eyes, which penetrate
to depths far beyond mortal sight; with untiring and ceasless
energy they proclaim the thrice holiness of their Creator.
It may
be difficult for us to say with our present knowledge whether the
cherubim and seraphim are the same beings.
The seraphim, in Isaiah
6, are the burning or fiery ones, and there is likeness in this
respect to the cherubim of Ezekiel 1.13.
We may
in God's good time, and until then it is well not
speculation. We are nevertheless strongly of the
living creatures of Revelation 4 are the cherubim
10.
learn who they are
to indulge in
view that the
of Ezekiel 1 and
It is a grievous fact that Satan fell from his place amongst these
holy beings, for he was the anointed cherub that covereth (Ezekiel
28), and God commanded the prophet to take up a lamentation for
him.
From amongst the twelve apostles there was one who fell away
too, Judas Iscariot, whom the Lord called a devil (John 6.70).
It
is perhaps of more than ordinary interest that the faces of the
living creatures are those of four distinct classes of earthly
creatures; the lion, the king of beasts; the ox, the greatest
among cattle; the eagle, the chief among birds; and man, the
greatest of all.
These symbols have from ancient time been used to
set forth the different characters of the Lord in the four Gospels;
Matthew, the lion; Mark, the ox; Luke, the man; and John, the
eagle.
The old Rabbis taught that the standards of the four
encampments of the tribes of Israel round about the tabernacle were
those of the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle, but the
Scriptures reveal nothing of this.
When the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to Him
that sits upon the throne, the four and twenty elders fall down
before Him and worship, and cast their crowns before the throne
saying, "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory
and the honour and the power: for Thou didst create all things, and
because of Thy will they were, and were created."
The R.V. gives
the correct rendering of the verse here.
Here we have clearly
stated that nothing came into being of its own will or through
fortuitous chance.
The great Dagon of evolution here lies beheaded
befoe the Ark of God's word, by one single verse.
This verse says
that all things were created by God and were created according to
His will.
Nothing could be plainer than these words.
Which shall
we believe, God or man?
The answer is obvious!
The wheel of
chance may do for the gaming table, and here the devil and his
votaries may seek an elusive fortune, but the God of heaven works
according to plan and purpose.
All will be effected "according to
the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of
His will" (Ephesians 1.11).
Woe to those who set aside His will in
any age.
His object in creation was that He might have pleasure in
His creatures and they in Him.
Worship is an abbreviation of
worth-ship.
It is the shape or acknowledgement that worth produces
upon another.
In the Greek it signifies bowing down or prostrating
oneself.
We see this demonstrated in the act of the four and
twenty elders who fell down before Him that sitteth on the throne
when His worth or excellence was proclaimed by the four living
creatures.
When God reveals Himself the proper attitude for angel
or man to take is to bow before Him.
David expresses the thought
of worship when he says in Psalm 95.6,
"O come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker."
There is the bowing of the body and also the bowing of the spirit
(John 4.24).
Job cursed the day when God gave him being, but we shall for ever
bless God, we who are redeemed, that we ever were born; though some
may wish that they had never been born.
In chapter 5 we come to events in heaven necessary to the revelation
of the events which are recorded in the following part of the
prophecy of this book.
These events begin to be unfolded with the
opening of the seven seals.
The reference in verse 1 to a book
casts us back to what is said in 1.1, where we read of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him.
In the hand of
the Almighty is a book which is close sealed with seven seals.
A
strong angel proclaims with a great voice, "Who is worthy to open
the book, and to loose the seals thereof?"
No one in heaven, on
earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look
thereon.
Upon this John wept much.
One of the elders said to
him, "Weep not: behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, hath overcome, to open the book and the seven seals
thereof."
In Jacob's oracular blessing of Judah, he called him a
lion's whelp (Genesis 49.9), that is a young lion.
Here is the
Lion Himself from whom Judah sprang.
In Isaiah 11.1,10, we read of
both the Shoot and the Root of Jesse, and, in Revelation 22.16, the
Lord calls Himself "The Root and the Offspring of David."
The Lord
is the Root of David, as to His Deity, and the Offspring, as to His
humanity.
The Lord ovrcame because of who and what He was.
Hence
to Him the Overcomer is given not only the work of unfolding the
future to His servants, but, having authority in heaven and on
earth, of fulfilling all that is revealed.
John says, "And I saw
in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in
the midst of the elders, a (young) Lamb standing, as though it had
been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."
It was not a ram
that John saw, but a young Lamb, which speaks of weakness and
tenderness; and having been slain, it bore the marks of death, but
it was not lying dead, it was standing in the midst of the throne of
God.
Resurrection means the upstanding of one who has fallen in
death.
Here is the Lamb in resurrection in the midst of the throne
and of the living creatures who are in the midst of the throne and
round about the throne, and in the midst of elders who are round
about the throne.
Once He was enclosed and compassed about by an
assembly of evil doers (Psalm 22.16; 88.17); He spoke of being in
the midst of two or three of an assembly gathered into His name
(Matthew 18.20); He walked in the midst of the seven churches of
Asia (Revelation 1.11-13); He is now in the midst of the throne of
God and of heaven's greatest beings and innumerable hosts.
His
place is ever in the midst.
The seven horns and eyes of the Lamb
are the seven Spirits of God.
These are sent forth into all the
earth.
The horns speak of strength by which He will execute His
will and defend His saints.
The eyes tell of His infinite
and accurate knowledge of all.
In 2 Chronicles 16.9, we are told
that "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward Him."
(See also Proverbs 15.3; Zechariah 3.9;4.
10)
Whilst it was ever true that the Spirit moved about everywhere
in Old Testament times, effecting the will of God, there was a new
sending forth of the Spirit as sent by the Son from the Father,
which took place at Pentecost (Acts 2), and He ever proceedeth from
the Father and the Son.
What a comfort it is to know that the Lamb
knows all and His strength is ever availing on our behalf in every
contest of the battle of life!
Such was the One who came and took
the book out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne.
When the Lamb had taken the book, the four living creaturs and the
four and twenty elders fell down before Him, an act of worship in
the light of the infinite worth of the lamb.
They had each a harp
and golden bowls full of incense.
Certain say that the harps and
bowls apply to the elders, but not to the living creatures, but
there is nothing in the Greek to support such a conclusion.
Those
who fell down before the Lamb were such as had harps and bowls. The
Lamb is here worshipped by these heavenly beings as God is
worshipped (4.11).
He is "of full Deity possessed."
The golden bowls are full of incenses, of sweet odours of various
kinds.
These are the prayers of the saints who are on on earth.
The prayers of the saints are of manifold variety, yet all of them
are viewed as sweet odours.
They sing, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders, not
simply the elders.
In contrast to the song of creation of 4.11,
the substance of their new song, the song of redemption, is:
"Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood
(men) of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest
them (to be) unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign
upon the earth."
We have already, in our notes on chapter 4, dealt
with the exclusion of "us" (Hemas), in verse 9 here in the R.V., and
the change from "us" (Hemas) to (Autous) "them."
In keeping with
this the R.V. also changes "we shall reign" of the A.V. to "they
reign."
Our view is that we can safely follow the R.V. reading of
verses 9 and 10.
Doing this we conclude tha