Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up. For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7 2. Let indeed every one of us, etc. He…
2. Let indeed every one of us, etc. He teaches us here, that we are under obligations to others, and that it is therefore our duty to please and to serve them, and that there is no exception in which we ought not to accommodate ourselves to our brethren when we can do so, according to God’s word, to their edification.
There are here two things laid down, — that we are not to be content with our own judgment, nor acquiesce in our own desires, but ought to strive and labor at all times to please our brethren, — and then, that in endeavoring to accommodate ourselves to our brethren, we ought to have regard to God, so that our object may be their edification; for the greater part cannot be pleased except you indulge their humor; so that if you wish to be in favor with most men, their salvation must not be so much regarded, but their folly must be flattered; nor must you look to what is expedient, but to what they seek to their own ruin. You must not then strive to please those to whom nothing is pleasing but evil.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7 For his profit and edification.
For his profit and edification.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–7 2 Let every one of us please his neighbour…
2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Ver. 2. Please his neighbour] Though he cross himself: this is true Christian love, and driven almost out of the world by sinful self-love, which causeth men to dislike those things in others that they favour and flatter in themselves.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Having said we must not please ourselves, he immediately…
Having said we must not please ourselves, he immediately subjoins, we must please others, viz. every one his neighbour: he means, that we should condescend and accommodate ourselves to others, and give them satisfaction in all things; at least so far as may tend to their good and edification. You had a like passage, Rom 14:19. The apostle exhorts the Corinthians to a practice some what like this, 1Co 10:24; and he leads them the way by is own example, 1Co 9:19; 1Co 10:33. There is a pleasing of men which is sinful, and there is a pleasing of men which is lawful; and that is, when it is limited, as in this text.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7 The apostle here informs us what is the general…
The apostle here informs us what is the general use of the holy scriptures, and what is the particular reason for which they were written; namely, 1. For instruction, they were written for our learning; all the precepts, promises, threatening, rewards and punishments, recorded in the scriptures, are for our information, conviction, and direction.
2. They were written for our comfort and consolation also, that we through patience and comfort of them might have hope; that is, that we through patience in bearing the like censures and reproaches, which we find the scripture-saints have borne before us, might have hope of being rewarded as they were for it.
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Learn hence, That the great end for which the holy scriptures were written, was the informing of our judgments, and the directing of our practice; that by the examples which we find there of the patience of holy men under sufferings, and of God’s relieving and comforting them in their distresses, we might have hope, yea, confidence and assurance, that God will also comfort and relieve us, under the like pressures and burdens.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 The apostle, having delivered two exhortations, before he proceeds…
The apostle, having delivered two exhortations, before he proceeds to more, intermixes here a prayer for the success of what he had said. Faithful ministers water their preaching with their prayers, because, whoever sows the seed, it is God that gives the increase. We can but speak to the ear; it is God's prerogative to speak to the heart. Observe,
I. The title he gives to God: The God of patience and consolation, who is both the author and the foundation of all the patience and consolation of the saints, from whom it springs and on whom it is built. He gives the grace of patience; he confirms and keeps it up as the God of consolation; for the comforts of the Holy Ghost help to support believers, and to bear them up with courage and cheerfulness under all their afflictions. When he comes to beg the pouring out of the spirit of love and unity he addresses himself to God as the God of patience and consolation; that is, 1. As a God that bears with us and comforts us, is not extreme to mark what we do amiss, but is ready to comfort those that are cast down - to teach us so to testify our love to our brethren, and by these means to preserve and maintain unity, by being patient one with another and comfortable one to another. Or, 2. As a God that gives us patience and comfort. He had spoken (Rom 15:4) of patience and comfort of the scriptures; but here he looks up to God as the God of patience and consolation: it comes through the scripture as the conduit-pipe, but from God as the fountain-head. The more patience and comfort we receive from God, the better disposed we are to love one another. Nothing breaks the peace more than an impatient, and peevish, and fretful melancholy temper.
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II. The mercy he begs of God: Grant you to be like-minded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus. 1. The foundation of Christian love and peace is laid in like-mindedness, a consent in judgment as far as you have attained, or at least a concord and agreement in affection. To auto phronein - to mind the same thing, all occasions of difference removed, and all quarrels laid aside. 2. This like-mindedness must be according to Christ Jesus, according to the precept of Christ, the royal law of love, according to the pattern and example of Christ, which he had propounded to them for their imitation, Rom 15:3. Or, "Let Christ Jesus be the centre of your unity. Agree in the truth, not in any error." It was a cursed concord and harmony of those who were of one mind to give their power and strength to the beast (Rev 17:13); this was not a like-mindedness according to Christ, but against Christ; like the Babel-builders, who were one in their rebellion, Gen 11:6. The method of our prayer must be first for truth, and then for peace; for such is the method of the wisdom that is from above: it is first pure, then peaceable. This is to be like-minded according to Christ Jesus. 3. Like-mindedness among Christians, according to Christ Jesus, is the gift of God; and a precious gift it is, for which we must earnestly seek unto him. He is the Father of spirits, and fashions the hearts of men alike (Psa 33:15), opens the understanding, softens the heart, sweetens the affections, and gives the grace of love, and the Spirit as a Spirit of love, to those that ask him. We are taught to pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is done in heaven - now there it is done unanimously, among the angels, who are one in their praises and services; and our desire must be that the saints on earth may be so too.
III. The end of his desire: that God may be glorified, Rom 15:6. This is his plea with God in prayer, and is likewise an argument with them to seek it. We should have the glory of God in our eye in every prayer; therefore our first petition, as the foundation of all the rest, must be, Hallowed be thy name. Like-mindedness among Christians is in order to our glorifying God, 1. With one mind and one mouth. It is desirable that Christians should agree in every thing, that so they may agree in this, to praise God together. It tends very much to the glory of God, who is one, and his name one, when it is so. It will not suffice that there be one mouth, but there must be one mind, for God looks at the heart; nay, there will hardly be one mouth where there is not one mind, and God will scarcely be glorified where there is not a sweet conjunction of both. One mouth in confessing the truths of God, in praising the name of God - one mouth in common converse, not jarring, biting, and devouring one another - one mouth in the solemn assembly, one speaking, but all joining. 2. As the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is his New Testament style. God must be glorified as he has now revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ, according to the rules of the gospel, and with an eye to Christ, in whom he is our Father. The unity of Christians glorifies God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is a kind of counter-part or representation of the oneness that is between the Father and the Son. We are warranted so to speak of it, and, with that in our eye, to desire it, and pray for it, from Joh 17:21, That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee: a high expression of the honour and sweetness of the saints' unity. And it follows, The the world may believe that thou hast sent me; and so God may be glorified as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–7 For even Christ pleased not himself,.... He sought not…
For even Christ pleased not himself,.... He sought not his own ease, pleasure, profit, honour, and glory, but to do his Father's will and work, Joh 4:34; and he always did the things which pleased him, in his obedience, sufferings, and death; and sought not his own, but his glory: moreover, what he did and suffered were not for himself, but for us; he became incarnate for us; he obeyed, suffered, and died for us; he came not to be ministered to, to be attended upon as an earthly prince, enjoying his own ease and pleasure, things grateful to nature, but to minister to others, Mat 20:28; hence he appeared in the form of a servant, did the work of one in life, and at last became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, Phi 2:7, not but that he was well pleased in doing and suffering all this; it was his delight to do the will of God: it was his meat and drink to finish his work; yea, that part of it which was most disagreeable to flesh and blood, was most earnestly desired by him, even the baptism of his sufferings; and in the view of the salvation of his people, and of enjoying their company with him to all eternity, he endured the cross patiently, and despised the shame with pleasure, Heb 12:2, but then he met with many things which were far from being grateful to human nature; such as the hardness and unbelief of the Jews, with which he was grieved, their scoffs and insults, reproaches and jeers; the ignorance, frowardness, and moroseness of his own disciples, whose infirmities he bore; and at last the sufferings of death, that bitter cup, which he as man desired might pass from him; but, however, he submitted to his Father's will, Mat 26:39; all which prove what the apostle here affirms. This instance of Christ, the man of God's right hand, the son of man, whom he has made strong for himself, the head of the church, the leader and commander of the people, bearing the infirmities of the weak, and not pleasing himself, is very pertinently produced, to enforce the above exhortations; who is an example to his people in the exercise of every grace, and the discharge of every duty; as in beneficence, forgiving of injuries, mutual love, meekness and humility, suffering of afflictions, and patience. The proof of it follows,
but as it is written, in Psa 69:9;
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the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me; which are the words of Christ unto his Father, as the whole psalm is to be understood not of David, but of the Messiah, as is clear from the citations out of it, and references to it in the New Testament; see Joh 2:17, compared with Psa 69:9, and the meaning of them is, either that the reproaches which were cast on the house, worship, and ordinances of God, affected Christ as much as if they had been cast upon himself; which stirred up his zeal to take the method he did, to show his resentment at such indignities; see Joh 2:15, or that the same persons by whom the name of God was blasphemed, his sanctuary polluted, and his ordinances reproached, also reproached him; and he bore in his bosom the reproach of all the mighty people, which were in great plenty poured upon him; they reproached him with being a glutton, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, Mat 11:19; they said he was a Samaritan, and had a devil, Joh 8:48, charged him with blasphemy and sedition, Mat 26:65; and when on the cross, mocked, reviled, and wagged their heads at him, Mat 27:39; all which he bore patiently, and reviled not again: moreover, by "reproaches" may be meant the sins of his people, by which the name of God was blasphemed, his law trampled upon with contempt, and the perfections of his nature, as his justice and holiness, dishonoured; and which fell upon Christ, not by chance, but by the appointment of God, and according to his own voluntary agreement; and which he bore in his own body, and made satisfaction for; which though he did willingly, in order to obtain some valuable ends, the salvation of his people, and the glorifying of the divine perfections, the honouring of the law, and satisfying of justice, yet the bearing of them, in itself, could not be grateful to him as such; neither the charge of sin, nor the weight of punishment; and in this respect he pleased not himself, or did that which was grateful to his pure and holy nature.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–7 For his good - This is a general word:…
For his good - This is a general word: edification is one species of good.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Verse 2. Let every one of us please his…
Verse 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour] For it should be a maxim with each of us to do all in our power to please our brethren; and especially in those things in which their spiritual edification is concerned. Though we should not indulge men in mere whims and caprices, yet we should bear with their ignorance and their weakness, knowing that others had much to bear with from us before we came to our present advanced state of religious knowledge.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Rom 15:4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime —…
Rom 15:4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime — In the Old Testament; were written for our learning — As if he had said, Though this may seem to concern David or Christ only, yet it, and all other parts of Scripture, whether containing promises or threatenings, whether speaking of rewards or punishments, were intended to be useful to God’s people in after ages; and by this passage in particular, we may learn to bear with the infirmities of others, a matter of great importance in religion; nay, of absolute necessity, considering that we ourselves, and all around us, not excepting the wisest and holiest Christians, are compassed about with infirmity; that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures — By learning and exercising such patience as the Scriptures prescribe, especially in bearing with the infirmities of others, and by obtaining those comforts the Scriptures hold forth to us; we might have hope — Might be confirmed in our expectation of eternal life, or that through the consolation which God gives us by the Scriptures, we might have patience and a joyful hope.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Please his neighbour - That is, all other persons,…
Please his neighbour - That is, all other persons, but especially the friends of the Redeemer. The word “neighbor” here has special reference to the members of the church. It is often used, however, in a much larger sense; see Luk 10:36.
For his good - Not seek to secure for him indulgence in those things which Would be injurious to him, but in all those things whereby his welfare would be promoted.
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To edification - See the note at Rom 14:19.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v7 Receive one another, in the spirit of charity, peace,…
Receive one another, in the spirit of charity, peace, patience, as Christ also hath received you, and bore with your infirmities. (Witham) --- Mutually support each other for the glory of God: learn to practise a grand lesson of Christian morality, to bear and to forbear. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v5 Sixth Section.—Exhortation to unanimity on the part of all…
Sixth Section.—Exhortation to unanimity on the part of all the members of the Church, to the praise of God and on the ground of God’s grace, in which Christ has accepted both Jews and Gentiles. Reference to the destination of all nations to glorify God, even according to the Old Testament, and encouragement of the Roman Christians to an immeasurable hope in regard to this, according to their calling
Rom_15:5-13
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5Now the God of patience and consolation [comfort] grant you to be likeminded [of the same mind] one toward another according to Christ Jesus:6That ye may with one mind and one mouth [with one accord ye may with one mouth] glorify God, even the Father [or, the God and Father]6 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us 8[you],7 to the glory of God.8 Now [For]9 I say that Jesus [omit Jesus]10 Christ was [hath been made]11 a minister of the circumcision for the truth [for the sake of God’s truth] of God, to [in order to] confirm the promises madeunto the fathers: 9And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written,
For this cause I will confess [give thanks] to thee among the Gentiles,
And sing unto thy name.
10, 11And again he saith,12 Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again,13
Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles;
And laud14 him, all ye people.
12And again, Esaias [Isaiah] saith,15
There shall be a root of Jesse,
And he that shall rise [riseth] to reign over the Gentiles;
In him shall the Gentiles trust [hope].
13Now [And may] the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace16 in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through [ἐν, in] the power of the Holy Ghost.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The positive destination of the Christian Church at Rome.
Rom_15:5. Now the God of patience, &c. [ὁδὲ Θεὸς τῆς ὑπομονῆς, κ.τ.λ. “God, who is the author of patience,” &c. So Hodge, Meyer, and most. Luther: “Scriptura quidem docet, sed gratia donat, quod illa docet.” Comp. Calvin on the patience of the Christian. De Wette, Meyer, and others, understand by ὑπομονή, constancy. Hodge takes consolation as the source of patience.—R.] God is the common, inexhaustible source of all the matured patience of the New Testament, and of all the preparatory comfort of the Old Testament; and it is from Him that believers must derive the gift of being of the same mind one toward another according to Christ Jesus (not according to His example and will merely, but according to His Spirit).17
Rom_15:6. It is only in this path of self-humiliation that they shall and can attain to the glorious way of glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—Him who has glorified Jesus as Christ, after Christ passed through the Jesus-way of humiliation, and whom they glorify in the anticipation that He will glorify them with Him, as He has already glorified them in Him. The terms Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ are here reversed with remarkable acuteness and effect.—With one accord, ὁμοθυμαδόν, is not explained by the phrase: with one mouth [ἐν ἑνὶ στόματι], but the former is the source of the latter, as Meyer has correctly observed, against Reiche. [“When God is so praised that the same mood impels every one to the same utterance of praise, then party-feeling is banished, and unanimity has found its most sacred expression” (Meyer).—R.]
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [τὸν Θεὸν καὶ πατέρα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ.] He is not only the Father, but also the God, of Christ, in the highest specific sense (thus Grotius [Bengel, Reiche, Fritzsche, Jowett], and others, in opposition to Meyer). Comp. Eph_1:17.
[God, even the Father, &c. The E. V. thus renders, disconnecting “of our Lord Jesus Christ” from “God.” So De Wette, Philippi, Meyer, Stuart, Webster and Wilkinson. Hodge, Tholuck, and Alford, leave the question undecided. It would seem that either view is admissible grammatically; καί is often used epexegetically, even, and the article (standing before θεοῦ only) may merely bind the two terms, “God” and “Father of Christ” (Meyer). At the same time, the article might be looked for before πατέρα, were καί explicative. Nor is there any doctrinal difficulty occasioned by either view. The only reason in my own mind for preferring the interpretation of the E. V. is, that those exegetes, who are most delicate in their perceptions of grammatical questions, adopt it. See Meyer in loco.—R.]
Rom_15:7. Wherefore receive ye one another [διὸ προσλαμβάνεσθε ἀλλήλους]. In the intensive sense. An exhortation to both parties.
As Christ also received you [καθὼς καὶ ὁ χριστὸς προσελάβετο ὑμᾶς. See Textual Note2.] This is more definitely explained in Rom_15:8-9.
To the glory of God [εἰς δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ. See Textual Note3.] This must be referred to Christ’s reception of them, and not to the exhortation: receive ye one another, according to Chrysostom, and others.18 That God might be glorified. Not immediately, in order that we may share the Divine glory with Christ (Grotius, Beza, and others), although the glorification of God shall consist in that. As the self-humiliation of Christ, which was proved by His receiving men into His fellowship, led to the glorification of God (see John xvii.), so also, according to the previous verse, shall the same conduct of self-humiliation on the part of Christians have the same effect. But how has Christ received us into His fellowship? Answer:
Rom_15:8. For I say [λέγω γάρ. See Textual Note4.] The Apostle now explains how Christ received the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians into fellowship with himself.—That Christ [χριστόν. See Textual Note5.] The reading Christ, as a designation of God’s Son, in view of the incarnation. In this view He hath been made a minister of the circumcision [διάκονον γεγεῆσθαι περιτομῆς. See Textual Note6. Dr. Lange, in his German text of this verse, thus explains this phrase: “from a higher, Divine-human, ideal point of view, receiving the Jews into His fellowship, by submitting himself to circumcision.”—R.] His concrete incarnation as a Jew, in which He became subject to the Jewish law (see Php_2:7; Gal_4:4), must be distinguished from His incarnation in the more general sense. By this means, He, as the heavenly Strong One, through voluntary love entered into the fellowship of the infinitely weak in both a human and legal sense, and accordingly received them into His fellowship. It seems far-fetched to regard the circumcision here (with Meyer [Philippi, Hodge], and others) as an abstract idea for the circumcised.19 The circumcision denotes the law; and as He freely became a minister of the law, He also became a ministering companion of the Jews; Mat_20:28. Therefore it is not the theocratic “honor of the Jews” which is emphasized here (Meyer) [Philippi], but the condescension to serve them. [So Hodge. Διάκονον is in emphatic position. The view of the emphasis taken by Meyer seems confirmed by what follows, which sets forth an advantage of the Jews.—R.]
For the sake of God’s truth [ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας Θεοῦ. For the sake of the truthfulness of God, in order to justify and to prove it by means of the fulfilment of the promises of the Old Testament.—R.] This undoubtedly seems to express the advantage of the Jews; but it also indicates their perilous condition. His condescension had a twofold cause: God’s mercy, and His promises resting upon it. Principially, His mercy took the precedence; but historically, the promise preceded. The truthfulness of God had to be sealed; He must confirm the promises given to the fathers by fulfilling them, however unfortunate the condition of the posterity; must confirm them in a way finally valid, for, as such sealed promises, they still continue in force, according to chap. 11., especially to believers (see 2Co_1:20; Rev_3:14).
Rom_15:9. And that the Gentiles, &c. [τὰ δὲ ἒθνη ὑπὲρ ἐλέους δοξάσαι τὸν Θεόν.] Christ had to receive the Jews, acting as a minister to them through His whole life; and He had to confine himself to historical labors among them, not so much because they were worthy of it, as to fulfil the promises given to the fathers. But the Gentiles were now the object of utterly unmerited mercy. The thought that Christ has redeemed the Gentiles through pure mercy, which was not yet historically pledged to them (for the promises in the Old Testament in relation to the Gentiles were not pledges to the Gentiles themselves), now passes immediately over into the representation of the fact that the Gentiles have already come to glorify God as believers, in which they have an advantage on their side also. The meaning of ὑπὲρ ἐλέους is, that mercy could not help satisfying itself for its own sake, by redemption. The δοξάσαι has been translated by Rückert [De Wette, Hodge, Alford], and others: have glorified; by Köllner [Calvin, Tholuck], and Philippi: should glorify. See Meyer on this point, p. 517.20 The aorist says, at all events, that they have decidedly begun to glorify God.
For this cause I will give thanks to thee, &c. [Διὰ τοῦτο ἐξομολογήσομαι σοι, κ.τ.λ. Verbatim from the LXX., except that κύριε is omitted here. On the verb, see Rom_14:11, p.—R.] Meyer aptly says: “The historical subject of the passage, David, is the type of Christ, and the latter (not the Gentile Christian, with Fritzsche; nor the collective term for the Gentile apostles, with Reiche; nor any messenger of salvation to the world, with Philippi) is therefore, in Paul’s sense, the prophetical subject; Christ promises that He will glorify God among the Gentiles (surrounded by believing Gentiles) for His mercy (διὰ τοῦτο = ὑπὲρ ἐλέους). But this is the plastic description of glorifying on the part of the Gentiles themselves, which takes place in the name of the Lord Jesus, and through Him (Col_3:17).”
Rom_15:10. Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people [Εὐφράνθητε ἒθνη μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ. See Textual Note7, for the Hebrew text.—R.] Deu_32:43. From the LXX., which reads μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ for עַמּוֹ, “probably following another reading: אֶת־עַמּוֹ;” Meyer. On the impossibility of understanding, by Goim, the single tribes of Israel, which De Wette does, comp. Tholuck, p. 730. [Also Philippi, whose remarks on this citation are unusually full and valuable.—R.] According to the theocratic idea, the definitions: rejoice to his people, or rather, make his people rejoice (הַרְנִינוּ), ye Gentiles, and rejoice with his people, amount to the same thing.
Rom_15:11. Praise the Lord; Psa_117:1. [An exact citation from the LXX. See Textual Notes 8 and 9, however.—R.] A prophecy of the universal spread of salvation.
Rom_15:12. And again, Isaiah saith. [See Textual Note10.] In Rom_11:10 : According to the LXX., which, however, has translated the original text so freely that the twofold dominion of the Messiah is indicated, on the one hand, over the Jews (as the root of Jesse), and, on the other, over the Gentiles.
A root of Jesse [ἡ ῥίζα τοῦ Ἰεσσαὶ]. See Isa_11:1. The tree of the royal house of David being cut down, the Messiah arose from the root of the house, which is symbolized by Jesse. In a higher sense, Christ was indeed the holy root of Jesse, and of the house of David itself.
Rom_15:13. And may the God of hope. A grand description of God here, where the object is to remind the Roman Christians to lead a life in perfect accordance with their universal calling. To this also belongs the duty of looking confidently and prayerfully to the God of hope, the God of that future of salvation which is so infinitely rich, both extensively and intensively.
With all joy and peace. From that hope, the highest possible evangelical, saving joy, shall spring; the result of this shall be the richest measure of peace, and the harmony and unanimity of faith. This shall take place in believing (πιστεύειν, it is not by unbelief, or by abridging our faith, that the unity of Christianity should be sought), and accordingly these two spiritual blessings shall ever produce a richer hope, not in human power and according to a human measure, but in the inward measure and divine power of the Holy Ghost.[21]
Therefore the realization of hope should not be striven for by the aid of earthly and even infernal powers: one shepherd and one fold! According to Grotius, the end of this hope is harmony; according to Tholuck, the immediate end is the gracious gifts of God’s kingdom; while the ultimate end is the regnum gloriæ. However, there lies just between these the end which the Apostle here has in view—that by the aid of the Church at Rome, in their fellowship with Paul, all nations shall be brought, by the spread of faith, to glorify God; Eph_1:18 ff.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The great grounds of the profound and perfect harmony and unanimity of Christians, a. God as the God of patience and comfort; that is, as the God of the infinite power of passive and active love; b. The pattern, the spirit, the power, and the work of Christ; c. The design that Christians, by being like-minded, and by aiming at substantial fellowship in God and in Christ (as created and redeemed), should find also the ethical fellowship of harmony and unanimity.
2. The universal fellowship into which Christ has entered with humanity, and the special fellowship in which He has pledged himself to the Jews, constitute the basis for the most special and real fellowship into which He, through His grace, has entered with believers. But it is a grievous offence to refuse communion with him whom Christ, by the witness of faith and of confession, has communion, or to abridge and prejudice hearty intercourse with those whom God, in Christ, deems worthy of His fellowship. [Rom_15:7 seems to be a dictum probans for what is termed “open communion.”—R.]
3. On the antithesis: Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ, see the Exeg. Notes.
4. It is also clear here (see Rom_15:8) that we must distinguish between the ideal incarnation of Christ in itself, and His concrete incarnation in Judaism, and, generally, in the form of a servant.
5. God is free in His grace, and yet also bound in His truth, for He has bound himself to His promises. But this obligation is the highest glory of His freedom. His truthfulness had to satisfy His word, but His mercy had to satisfy itself.
6. The riches of the Old Testament in promises for the Jews, and the high aim of these promises: a world of nations praising the Lord.
7. The God of patience, comfort, hope. All such terms define God to be infinite, and infinite as a fountain, as self-communicating life, and archetype of life. So also is the Holy Spirit defined as the Spirit of truth, &c. See the beautiful remark of Gerlach, below. But the highest thing for which we can praise God, according to Rom_15:6, is His being the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is He His Father in the specific sense, but also His God; the glorious God of His consciousness and life is the true God in perfect revelation, and consequently shall become our God through Him.
8. On the development of hope, within the sphere of faith, into joy and peace, and, by means of peace, into an ever richer hope, see the Exeg. Notes. It is only in this way that irenics can be conducted in the power of the Holy Ghost, and not with the modern artifice of attempting them outside the sphere of faith, beyond all creeds, and with the theory of unconscious Christianity, or even with the violent measures of the Middle Ages. The Apostle says: In the power of the Holy Ghost.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jewish and Gentile Christians should agree for Christ’s sake, who has received them both.—Christian harmony. 1. It comes from the God of patience and comfort; 2. It is shaped according to the pattern and will of Jesus Christ; 3. It expresses itself in harmonious praise of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom_15:5-6).—A harmonious and fraternal disposition is a source of the joyous praise of God, which is not disturbed by a discordant note (Rom_15:5-6).—Jesus Christ a minister of the circumcision. 1. Why? For the truth of God, to confirm the promise. 2. How? In obedience to the Divine law, for freedom from the law (Rom_15:8).—Receive one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Every thing to God’s glory, and not to our own (Rom_15:7).—The praise of God out of the mouth of Gentiles: 1. Established in God’s mercy; 2. Resounding in many tongues; 3. Ascending to heaven (Rom_15:9).—God’s mercy toward the Gentiles: 1. Present from the beginning; 2. Declared by the prophets; 3. Manifested in Christ (Rom_15:9-13). Rom_15:13 is an appropriate text and theme for addresses on occasions of confirmation or marriage.
Starke: In Christ, souls are worth so much that God receives them, just as men hoard gold and silver, pearls and gems; Isa_43:4 (Rom_15:7).—Müller: Patience does not increase in the garden of nature, but it is God’s gift and grace; God is the real Master who creates it (Rom_15:5).—Because Christ is a root, He must vegetate, bloom, and bring forth fruit in us (Rom_15:12).
Gerlach: God is the source of all good things, and since He not merely has them, but they are His real essence; since He does not have love and omnipotence, but is actually love and omnipotence themselves, so can He be denominated according to every glorious attribute and gift which He possesses. The advantage which the Gentiles thought that they possessed in their polytheism, when they, for example, worshipped a deity of truth, of hope, &c., is possessed in a much more certain and effective way by the believing Christian, when he perceives, in a vital manner, that the true God is himself personal faithfulness, hope, and love, and thus has all these attributes just as if He had nothing else but them (Rom_15:5).
Heubner: The harmony of hearts is the real soul and power of worship (Rom_15:6).—Christ is the centre of the Holy Scriptures (Rom_15:8).—Christ is the bond of all nations (Rom_15:12).—God alone is the source of all life and blessing in the Church. The means is faith, as the ever new appropriation of saving blessings; from this arises the enjoyment of peace and of all blessed joys—an overflow of hope. But every thing is brought to pass by the Holy Spirit (Rom_15:13).
Besser: The Scriptures are a book of patience and comfort (Rom_15:5.)—Every thing which is true joy in this life, is a foretaste of the joy of eternal life—joy in the Lord and His word, joy in all His blessings, which make body and soul happy, &c. … All true peace in this world of contention and anxiety, is a preliminary enjoyment of the peace in the kingdom of glory.
Schleiermacher: The limitation in the labors of our Saviour himself, when we look at His person, and the greater freedom and expansion in the labors of His disciples. 1. Treatment; 2. Application (Rom_15:8-9).
Rom_15:4-13. The Pericope for the Second Sunday in Advent.—Schultz: On the likeness of Christ and His redeemed ones. 1. In what respect has Christ become like us? 2. In what respect should we become like Christ? a. In patience and humility; b. In the respect and love with which He treated all men; c. In the joyful faith and peaceful hope with which He overcame the world.—Riemer: What must there be among Christians, in order that the Church of Christ may stand? 1. One foundation; 2. A harmonious mouth; 3. A common bond.—Brandt: To what does the season of Advent exhort us? 1. To the industrious examination of what has been written; 2. To the unanimous praise of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for all that has been already fulfilled; 3. To an attentive waiting for the future coming of God’s kingdom.—Heubner: The unity of the Christian Church. 1. In what does it consist? 2. What binds us to it?—The Bible the bond of the Christian Church. 1. Proof: It is the bond, a. In faith, or in doctrine; b. In the holy sense, or in love; c. In worship; d. In daily life. 2. Application, a. A warning against despising the Bible, and an admonition to maintain its authority; b. A dissemination of its use; c. Our own proper use of it.—The Bible the treasure of the evangelical Church.—The inward unity of true Christians amid outward diversity.
[Burkitt: The Christian’s hope: 1. God is its object, and therefore the sin of despair is most unreasonable; for why should any despair of His mercy who is the God of hope, who commands us to hope in His mercy, and takes pleasure in them that do ?Song of Solomon 2. The grace of hope, together with joy and peace in believing, are rooted in the Christian’s heart, through the power of the Holy Ghost—that is, through the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost—enlightening the understanding, inclining the will, rectifying the affections, and reducing all the rebellious powers and faculties of the soul in concurrence with our endeavors under the government and dominion of reason and religion.
[Henry: The method of faith is: 1. To seek Christ as one proposed to us for a Saviour; 2. And, finding Him able and willing to save, then to trust in Him. They that know Him will trust in Him. Or, this seeking Him is the effect of a trust in Him, seeking Him by prayer and pursuant endeavors. Trust, is the mother; diligence in the use of means, the daughter.—What is laid out upon Christians is but little compared with what is laid up for them.—Doddridge: Nothing can furnish so calm a peace and so sublime a joy as Christian hope.—That is the most happy and glorious circumstance in the station which Providence may have assigned us, which gives us the greatest opportunity of spreading the honor of so dear a name, and of presenting praises and services to God through Him.
Kollock, Sermon on the patience of God: I. The nature of this patience, or slowness to anger: (1) It is a modification of the Divine goodness; (2) It is not the result of ignorance; (3) It is not the result of impotence; (4) It is not the result of a connivance at sin, or a resolution to suffer it with impunity; (5) But it is grounded on the everlasting covenant, and the blood of Jesus. II. Some of the most illustrious manifestations of it. III. The reasons why God exercises it: (1) He is patient because of His benignity; (2) In order that this perfection may be glorified; (3). In consequence of the prayers of pious ancestors; (4) Because the wicked are often mixed with the pious, and nearly related to them; (5) The number of His elect is not yet completed; (6) The measure of the sins of the wicked is not yet filled up; (7) That sinners may be brought to repentance; (8) That sinners who continue impenitent may at last be without excuse; (9) That His power may be displayed; (10) That He may exercise the trust of His servants in Him. IV. The effects that the belief and knowledge of it should produce upon our hearts and lives: (1) Because of God’s patience we should love Him; (2) We should repent; (3) We should imitate Him; (4) His patience should be our comfort; (5) We should grieve at the reproaches and insults cast upon God.
[Homiletical Literature on Rom_15:13 : Hugh Binning, Works, vol. iii. 249; R. Lucas, Joy, Peace, and Hope, the Christian’s Portion Here, Serm. (1709), vol. ii. 119; Bishop Moore, Excellency of the Christian Religion, Serm., vol. ii. 291; James Craig, Serm., vol. ii. 355; J. Dodson, Joy in Believing, Disc., 184; Daniel De Superville. (le fils), Les Fruits consolans de la Foi, Serm., vol. iii. 328; R. Moss, Nature and Qualification of Christian Hope, Serm., vol. vi. 325; Price, Peace of Conscience, Hope, and Holy Joy, Berry St. SS., vol. i. 419; S. Ogden, The Being of the Holy Ghost, Serm., 157; W. Mason, The Effects of the Divine Spirit, Works, vol. iv. 147; H. Hunter, The Belief of the Gospel a Source of Joy and Peace, Serm. (1795), vol. i. 227; David Savile, Present Happiness of Believers, Disc., 401; W. Gilpin, Sermons, 165; C. Simeon, The Holy Ghost the Author of Hope, Works, vol. xv. 553; G. D’Oyly, Joy and Peace in Believing, vol. i. 385; W. Blackley, Script. Teaching, 263; W. Gresley, Joy and Peace in Believing, Practical Serm., 41; E. Blencowe, Hope, Plain Serm., vol. ii. 80; H. Goodwin, The Young Man in Religious Difficulties, Four Serm., 35.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[6]Rom_15:6.—[On the two renderings given above, see the Exeg. Notes.
[7]Rom_15:7.—[The Rec., with B. D1.: ἡμᾶς; א. A. C. D2 3. F. L., most versions and many fathers: ὑμᾶς. All modern editors adopt the latter. Besides the overwhelming MS. support, there is the additional reason, that ἡμᾶς might so readily enter as a correct gloss, since the reference is undoubtedly to both Jewish and Gentile Christians. See the Exeg. Notes.
[8]Rom_15:7.—[The Rec., on very insufficient authority, omits τοῦ before Θεοῦ; inserted in א. A. B. C. D. F. G.
[9]Rom_15:8.—[Instead of γάρ, which is found in א. A. B. C. D. F., versions and fathers, the Rec. (with L. and Peshito) reads: δέ. The latter reading probably arose from a misunderstanding of the connection (Alford), or because λέγω δέ is so common with Paul (Meyer). The former is now generally adopted (from Griesbach to Tregelles). Phillippi thinks a decision impossible!
[10]Rom_15:8.—[D. F., Syriac versions, Rec., insert Ἰησοῦν before Χριστόν; some authorities (including Vulgate), after χρ.; omitted in א. A. B. C., fathers; rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, De Wette, Alford. The variation in position is decidedly against it, making an interpolation extremely probable. Dr. Lange thinks the connection favors the omission.
[11]Rom_15:8.—[א. A. C2. D3. L., many fathers: γεγενῆσθαι; adopted by De Wette, Philippi, Meyer, Alford, Lange. B. C1. D1. F.: γενέσθαι, adopted by Lachmann and Tregelles. The former is to be preferred, because the γε was likely to be omitted, and the latter might have been substituted as a correction.
[12] Rom_15:10.—[From the LXX., Deu_32:43. The Hebrew text is: הַרְנִינוּ גו̇יּם עַמּוֹ, literally, Rejoice, O ye nations. His people. It is not necessary, in order to defend the rendering of the LXX., to suppose that they read עִם עַמּוֹ or דְעַמּדֹ or אֶת־עַמּדֹ (although the last has been found). They could find the sense they have adopted in the Hebrew text as ft stands, by simply repeating the imperative (in thought) before עַמּדֹ. See Philippi in loco, and Hengstenberg, on Psa_18:50.
[13]Rom_15:11.—[B. D. F. read ΛΈΓΕΙ; omitted in א. A. C. L., fathers. It was easily inserted from Rom_15:10. Lachmann adopts it, but it is generally rejected.—The order of the Rec.: τὸν κύριον πάντα τὰ ἒθνη is probably a correction to conform with the LXX. א. A. B. D, Vulgate, Syriac, &c.: π. τ. ἒθ. τὸν κύριον. So Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Tregelles.
[14]Rom_15:11.—[א. A. B. C.: ὲπαινεσάτωσαν. So Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, De Wette, Alford, Tregelles, Lange. Rec., F. L., versions: ἐπαινέσατε (so LXX., although the MSS. vary). Philippi adopts the latter, but he is a conservative as respects the Recepta.
[15] Rom_15:12.—[The LXX. (Isa_11:10) is followed here. It differs somewhat from the Hebrew, which reads:
דְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא שֹׁרֶשׁ רִשַׁי אֲשֶׁר עֹמֵד לְנֵם עַמִּרם אֵלָיד גּוֹיִם יִדְרשׁדּ.
Literally: “And in that day shall the root of Jesse which (is) standing (or set up) be for a signal to the nations; unto Him shall the Gentiles seek” (J. A. Alexander). But the LXX. only strengthens this into a form well suited to the Apostle’s purpose.
[16]Rom_15:13.—[F. G. read: πληθορήσαι ὑμᾶς πάσῃ χαπᾷ καὶ εὶπήνῃ. So B., inserting ἐν before the datives. א. A. C. D. L.: πληπώσαι ὑμᾶς πάσης χαρᾶς καὶ εὶπῆνης; accepted by most editors.—R.]
[17][With this accords the view of Dr. Hodge: “The expression, to be like-minded, does not here refer to unanimity of opinion, but to harmony of feeling; see chaps. Rom_8:5; Rom_12:3.” The context favors this very decidedly.—Meyer thinks “the example of Christ (Rom_15:3) is still the ruling thought;” but it is certainly not the exclusive one. The verb δῴη is the latter Hellenistic form for δοίη.—R.]
[18][Dr. Hodge seems to prefer the other reference, while Dr. Lange really adopts both in his further remarks. Dr. Hodge does not decide which reading he adopts, ὑμᾶς or ἡμᾶς; but says that, if the former he the true reading, Paul is “exhorting the Gentile converts to forbearance toward their Jewish brethren.” This view is rejected by most of the later commentators, for both parties are addressed, as the context shows. Because Paul often means Gentiles when he says ἡμεῖς, we need not hold that he always uses it in this sense.—R.]
[19][This view can scarcely be deemed “far-fetched,” when it is so readily suggested by the antithesis, ἒθνη (Rom_15:9). and when Paul so frequently uses the term in this sense (comp. Rom_3:20; Gal_2:7 ff.; Eph_2:11; Col_3:11).—R.]
[20] [The aorist infinitive δοξάσαι has occasioned some trouble among the grammarians.
1. It has been taken as dependent on λέγω (Rom_15:8). So Winer, p. 311, Hodge, Alford, De Wette, Philippi; but in different senses: (a.) I say that the Gentiles have praised God (at their conversion). So Alford, Hodge, De Wette. But this is both contrary to the usage with the aorist infinitive, and introduces a thought that does not seem to belong here naturally. (b.) I say that the Gentiles ought to praise God (Calvin, Philippi, Tholuck). But there is no idea of obligation introduced in Rom_15:8 which is parallel to this. (c.) I say that the Gentiles praise (indefinitely). So Winer, Fritzsche. But to this there are grammatical objections. Besides this, all these involve an incorrect view of the dependence of the infinitive.
2. The simplest, most natural view, is that of the E. V., Meyer, &c. The infinitive stands next to a clause where there is also an aorist infinitive (βεβαιῶσαι); it is therefore coördinate with this, depending also on εἰς τύ, though expressing the more remote purpose: Christ was made a minister, &c., in order to confirm the promises, and as a result of this, that the Gentiles might praise God for His mercy.—R.]
[21][Meyer renders: in virtue of the (inworking) power of the Holy Ghost. Our E. V., usually so apt, is peculiarly unfortunate in its treatment of the preposition ὲν, which it readers through in this case. The later revisions have by. But it is to be doubted whether ἐν ever has a strictly instrumental force. The peculiar meaning, in, always remains in it. So here, in believing, in the power of the Holy Ghost; the former expressing the subjective, and the latter, the objective means, yet the former sets forth the status, in which (gläubigsein) they are, and the latter an inworking power. Comp. Philippi.—R.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Let every one of us--lay himself out to
Let every one of us--lay himself out to
please his neighbour--not indeed for his mere gratification, but
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for his good--with a view
to his edification.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–7 2. To edification—That is, to building up both the…
2. To edification—That is, to building up both the individual and the Church. For this pleasing his neighbour must not be for a private, but for a public end; it must not terminate in merely the attainment of a personal popularity, but in the upbuilding of the common unity.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–7 2. for his good to edification] These words taken…
2. for his good to edification] These words taken together perfectly define the principle of Christian complaisance. Cp. 1Co_10:33, and contrast Gal_1:10, where St Paul treats the case of radically false doctrine, not, as here, a question of secondary practice.—“Edification:”—see on Rom_14:19. The Christian’s aim in “pleasing his neighbour” was to be the harmony, advance, and strength, of the “blessed company of the faithful” as a united aggregate.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–7 (2) For his good.—The object of this tender dealing…
(2) For his good.—The object of this tender dealing with others is to be their benefit and growth in spiritual perfection. It is grounded on the example of Christ Himself.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7 HOMILIES BY S.F. ALDRIDGE Vers. 3, 4. Unselfishness.
HOMILIES BY S.F. ALDRIDGE Vers. 3, 4. Unselfishness.
That alliance is beneficial which lends the aid of the strong to bear the burdens of the weak. Sympathy renders this possible by its real participation in another"s distress. Sometimes the infirmities of others are succoured by yielding up our own gratification, or by restricting our own liberty in order not to shock the scruples of the less enlightened. What is our guide in such cases? The reply is To live in the spirit of Christ, to walk as he walked.
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I CHRIST HAS INTRODUCED INTO MORALS A BEAUTIFUL MODEL AND A POWERFUL MOTIVE. His pattern life is best appreciated by comparing it with ancient heathen manners. The impossibility of inventing such an ideal is the proof of the genuineness of the Gospel narratives. The story is vivid and consistent because a record of fact. An example instructs more than any prolixity of statement or precept. Lecturers know this by their illustrations and experiments. It is one thing to hear of truth, goodness, beauty, from the lips of Plato; quite another to see it live and breathe before our eyes. Cicero could describe the "perfect man" according to his conceptions of perfection; Christ alone exemplified it. And the relationship of Christ to his followers, as not only Teacher but Saviour, imparts tenfold force to his example. He has definite claims upon our obedience, and dearest links of love bind us to the imitation of our Master. His life on earth has been a stream irrigating the parched desert, and has taught us how to make canals of philanthropic benevolence, deriving their idea and element from the river of his love. In fanatical Jerusalem and luxurious Antioch, in philosophic Athens and pleasure-loving Corinth, in colonial Philippi and imperial Rome, this river of grace proved its power to fertilize and beautify. And today we trace a likeness to Christ in the missionary, content to dwell in malarial swamps, and yield his life for the salvation of the degraded; in the tired mother cheerfully continuing at her household toil whilst she uplifts her thoughts to the Redeemer; and in the Church officer leaving his comfortable fireside after his day"s work is done to minister to a brother in sickness. In the repression of a hasty word and biting sarcasm, in the gift unostentatiously placed in the hands of the poor, we behold reflected the self-sacrifice of Christ.
II THE FEATURE OF CHRIST"S LIFE ON WHICH STRESS IS HERE LAID. He was unselfish; he "pleased not himself." This does not imply that he felt no personal pleasure in his mission of mercy. "I delight to do thy will, O my God." But:
1. He sought not to promote his own ease and comfort, but the edification of others. He would not pander to vitiated taste; he taught what men most needed to know, not what gratified the vanity of his hearers, though he, thereby aroused their enmity and created the storm which burst in wrath upon his head. At great cost of physical labour and spiritual weariness he performed works of love. See him asleep from fatigue in the heaving vessel, and fainting under the load of his cross.
2. He gloried not himself, but the work he came to accomplish. He might have summoned angels to his side, he might have led an uprising of the populace, have overawed the rulers, and selected the wisest and wealthiest as his companions and disciples. But the truth was more than all to him. His meat and drink were to do the will of his Father. He had left for this the splendour of the upper realms, and stooped to the form of a servant, and the obedience of a shameful, agonizing death.
III To FOLLOW CHRIST IS TO MAKE THE OLD TESTAMENT A WELLSPRING OF PATIENCE AND HOPE. The persecution which Christ met with showed him treading in the steps of Scripture heroes. The language of the psalmist is quoted by the apostle as typically expressing the lot of Christ. The chief pangs of a devoted life are caused by the opposition of an ungodly world. Our Lord exposed the hollow pretensions of the Jewish religionists by declaring that true love to God in the heart would listen to the teachings of his Son, would acknowledge in him the promised Messiah, and would recognize in his deeds the echo of the Scriptures. It fortifies Christian sufferers to know that they are in the line of the faithful. No new thing hath happened, for the same afflictions were accomplished in our brethren before. If, then, others have bravely endured and maintained their confidence, so may we. And the ancient writings testify that men, in pleasing God and serving their day and generation, realized true satisfaction, an inward peace and joy indestructible. So we, too, may discover that the road to happiness is holy self-denial. We are slow to learn that the bitter rind covers grateful fruit, that death is the gate to life, and humility the stepping-stone to honour. Obedience prepares us to wield authority; and to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing is to prove how inseparably the kingdom of God and our own good are combined. Miserly selfishness overreaches itself; the restricted heart dies of inanition. He who will always get from others knows not the blessedness of giving. The wine of Christian charity flushes the spirit with a generous emotion, pure and God-like, the nectar of the skies. S.R.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2–5 Let every one of us please his neighbour for…
Rom_15:2-3
Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
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The character of Christian courtesy
The great aim of the gospel is to raise our views and desires above this life, and furnish us with pure and powerful principles in the direction of our words and actions, far above the will of fallen man. But while it invites us to lay up our treasure in heaven, it instructs us in everything that may best contribute to bless the life of man on earth.
I. The duty here enjoined.
1. You are not to make the pleasing of men the reason or rule of your conduct in any case, for the sake of their praise, or of any reward from them. That would, indeed, be to please them rather than God, and instead of God. But you are to study, if possible, to please your neighbour as a duty which God requires, and which you must continue to do whether men praise you for it or not.
2. This pleasing our neighbour is not, in any respect, to be placed in opposition to the pleasing of God, or to be followed in anything that would be displeasing in His sight. We are not allowed to put their good, or their good-will, in place of the glory of God, but only in place of our own gratification; not to please ourselves, but every one to please his neighbour.
3. We are called to sacrifice our own pleasure to his, whenever our doing so would tend to his good, or to the edification of others; but, when it would not be for good, we must refuse to please any of our fellow-creatures, however much it might expose us to their dislike.
4. Keeping these points in view, you will be better able to guard against two very opposite errors on this subject, which require to be considered.
(1) There is a pleasing of others which many study merely as an art, and to which young persons are trained by certain forms, as a branch of their education. This is only a seeming preference of others, which is far from real humility. This is a preference of others also only in trifles, while they would refuse to do much for the real good of those whom they seem so desirous to please. It is in itself, in short, as far as it is the invention of men, a mere tissue of hypocrisy, which the children of this world cast around them, rather for the purpose of hiding their selfish and malignant feelings than of expressing their benevolent dispositions.
(2) There is a disposition in some persons, on the other hand, not only to neglect the pleasing of others as an art, but also to despise it as a duty. They think it sufficient that they give no just cause of offence to any one; but take little care to guard against the appearance of disregarding them. They will do much for mens real welfare, but will show no indulgence to their weaknesses. The clearer your knowledge, the sounder your judgment, the stronger your faith, the more may be expected from you, in bearing the infirmities, and even the censures of others, in denying yourselves in many things for their sake, and in doing whatever you lawfully may to please them for their good.
II. The reason assigned for this duty. Even Christ pleased not Himself.
1. Observe the force of the expression, even Christ. The act of submission was lower, the degree of the sacrifice was greater in His case, than it ever possibly can be in ours; how shall we refuse to serve those with whom we must rank in His sight as fellow-creatures?
2. But let us contemplate more particularly the character of our Lord in the respect here specified by the apostle, namely, that He pleased not Himself. In one sense, indeed, it may be said that He always pleased Himself, inasmuch as He never had one wish or feeling that was contrary to what He knew to be right, and conducive to the good of others. But let us consider with how much reason He might have insisted that others should please and honour Him in every iota, instead of His yielding any point to satisfy their prejudices or serve their infirmities. (J. Brewster.)
Pleasing oar neighbour for good
The gospel does not come down in its requirements to the level of our imperfections. Its plan of perfection is no treadmill. It is ever ahead of us.
I. Who is my neighbour?
1. He that dwells, near me.
2. He that is my countryman.
3. He that is my fellow-man.
4. He that is a follower of Christ.
II. The social duty here commended and commanded.
1. Sympathy.
2. Tenderness.
3. Esteem.
4. To be more ready to speak good of him than evil.
III. The object to be held in view.
1. To please him for his good.
2. To please him for his edification, that his character may be built up in truth and righteousness.
IV. Some reasons for this.
1. The example of Christ. He pleased not Himself, but gave Himself for us all.
2. The imitation of Christ. Be ye followers of Me.
V. Reflections.
1. In this Epistle we have eleven chapters devoted to the exposition of doctrines, and five to some chief social duties.
2. Were we to realise these social duties, earth would become a place more like heaven, and make it sweeter and easier for us all to live. (L. O. Thompson.)
On pleasing men
Some men seek to build up their fellow-men remotely, e.g., by education, political economy, the application of natural laws. But, except as the administrators of such forces, they have no personal relation to the work. They have no sympathy for individuals. Their pleasure is left out of the question. Then there are others who seek to do good, but without any idea of the relation of this good to the character to be formed in men. There are persons that relieve suffering without asking how the relief can build up the sufferer into permanent goodness. There are others who seek to give the most transient pleasure without any concern either for good or for edification. They please men without any consideration of whether the means which they employ are right or wrong.
2. Now, the apostle joins all three together. You are to please men; and you are to please them so that you shall do them good. But all this in such a way as to effect a permanent building of character. One man may go through a farm only to glean flowers and fruit, to find pleasure there, and to give pleasure transiently. Another may find pleasure, to be sure, and he may also here and them strive to do a little good. He may destroy some vermin, pluck up some weeds, and plant and rear a few flowers. A third may unite all these things with a comprehensive culture that shall deepen the soil, augment its crops, and develop its resources of beauty, pleasure, and profit at the same time. This is the right way, and we are to cultivate each other in the same way.
I. Men are benefited simply by being pleased. Of course men would not be profited by having only pleasure in this world. That is provided for, however. Men need trouble, and they will have it. But men need pleasing as well. And the art of pleasing is an important element in moral culture. For when men are in a state of pleasedness they are more inclined to good influences than when they are not pleased. Dr. Kane said that there was no nautical skill that was so important, while wintering in the North, as one man among the crew that could play the fiddle. Why? Because it is indispensable, under such circumstances, that the men should be kept in a cheerful state of mind. And this same element of cheerfulness is necessary in all the various situations in life. It may be better to strike at deeper results; but it is not best to despise those which be near the surface. It may be that a miner, by sinking a shaft, will find more gold in the veins; but it is not best for him to despise the specks of gold that are thrown up with the soil in the process.
II. The habit of pleasing men is quite as indispensable for our own sake as for theirs. It keeps the mind and heart on the side of benevolence. It gradually frames your character into the Divine. And a man may be earnest and conscientious; and yet, if he carries himself in such a way that the pleasing of others is no part of his daily conduct, he cannot be thought to be a perfect man.
III. The human mind has been endowed with faculties whose very end seems to be the ministration of pleasure. People seem to think that God must be a great utilitarian, and that He always makes things for uses. But wherever you see that God has walked in the world, you see that He has had an eye to beauty. There is something on the globe besides what men can eat, drink, and wear. God made the earth beautiful that the higher feelings might be fed. We are organised for something more than the mere practical duties of life.
1. The human mind is made to act with cheerfulness. You know the difference between a rusty and a polished piece of iron. The rusty piece reflects nothing. Polish it, and how every one delights to look at it! Now, the difference between polished and rusty iron is the difference between cheerfulness and no cheerfulness. A cheerful doctor gives his medicine the moment he steps inside the room. Those sepulchral doctors--I wonder that anybody gets well under their care. A clergyman whose face glows with health, hope, and cheer has looked consolation into his friend before he has spoken a word. But a minister, whose face says, Hark! from the tomb a doleful sound, I marvel how he should be twice sent for, unless it might be on the ground of the benefits of affliction! And in all relations of life the same is true.
2. The tendency to please is still more powerful where cheerfulness is joined to good-nature. I sometimes preach better under the influence of the flowers that stand on the desk before me. They do not know that they are helping me, whether I do or not. There are persons that are pleasant when they come into your presence, that are pleasant while they stay, and their memory is sweet when they are gone. There are other persons whom you know to be good, and who you feel assured want to do you good, but whose presence is painful to you.
3. When God put wit and humour into the human soul, He put them there to be to the soul what the hearth is to the family, whose burning wood snaps and sends up sparks, and throws light into all parts of the room, and chases darkness, and imparts pleasure to all within the reach of its influence. But such is the heathenism of public opinion, that where a man uses his conscience to urge truth, and his reason to enforce it, people think that is all right; but that where a man uses mirthfulness to illustrate it and make it acceptable, people think it is not right.
4. The same is true of imagination. You cannot conceive that the imagination should be given a man except for pleasure. The imagination is what vines and mosses are that cover hard places, and beautify things that are not lovely in their own nature.
IV. We now see the mistake of making moral qualities unpleasing, as though it was a necessity that they should be so. Men seeing that cheerfulness, fancy, etc., are concomitants of unlawful pleasure, suppose them to be wicked, and steer away from them because they see bad men employ them. But because Cleopatra wore roses, must a virtuous woman not wear one? Because orgies are carried on with music, is music defiled? Things are not defiled because they are used for bad purposes. There is an impression that moral attributes have a certain hard and rugged nature of their own, and that they are genuine in proportion as they are unlovely. Many persons want a man to speak the truth very much as a bull-dog speaks. But throughout the New Testament moral qualities are enjoined to be exercised graciously and attractively. Let your light so shine, etc. Hence bluntness, coarseness, are not to be preferred. A disagreeable piety is impious by so much as it is disagreeable. Virtue is lovely, and you are not to slander it by acting as though to be pious was necessarily to be void of everything that is pleasure-giving.
V. This view will present a much higher idea of good manners than is often presented. We are usually taught good manners, because they are important to our making our way in the world; but good manners stand on a Christian ground. A man is bound so to conduct himself in all the thousand usages of society, as that his presence shall be a pleasant and not a disagreeable thing, or a burden to his fellow-men. There are persons in society who diffuse an element of comfort and joy wherever they go. We say of some persons, They are well-bred.
VI. This view will give a moral sanction to all those minor usages of society which tend to make men more pleasant. Many persons say, What is the use of salutations? Why should I raise my hat to a lady, or say Good morning when we meet, or Goodbye when we part? Well, for my part, I think that even good folks, without such little ceremonies, are like grapes packed for market without leaves between them. They will crush, and come in mashed. Even good folks need to have little courtesies Between them to keep them from attrition. And to take society and divest it of all these little civilities, would be to deteriorate it and carry it toward the savage state. And if you think that these things are of no use, it is because you never put your heart into them. When you want to manage men, do as beekeepers do. Here are two. One goes to the hive, thrusts his hand rudely into the midst of them, and very soon he has his bees all over him, and he moves himself very rapidly! Another man gets a bowl of sugar and water and washes his hands all over, and goes with the utmost quietness and serenity, and opens the hive and puts his hand in gently, and the bees find everything sweet, and they will not sting him or fly away. And people say, Wonderful! that man has a real magnetic power with bees. So he has, when he has sugar and water on his hands. Now, when you want to manage men, wash your hands with sugar and water! Conclusion: If you carry these thoughts home, I think you will find there a great sphere for the reformation of minor morals. In the family the law of pleasing ought to extend from the highest to the lowest. You are bound to please your children, and your children each other; and you are bound to please your servants, if you expect them to please you. Some men are pleasant in the household, and nowhere else. But the opposite is apt to be the case. We expend all our politeness in places where it will be profitable--where it will bring silver and gold. My friends, our kindness should begin at home. It should not stay there; but there it should begin, and there it should be nourished. (H. W. Beecher.)
On pleasing all men
1. Undoubtedly this duty is incumbent on all--every man; neighbour, too, means every other man. Only as Paul says elsewhere, If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men, so we are to please all men if possible. But strictly speaking it is not; but if we use our utmost diligence, let the event be what it may, we have done our duty.
2. The apostle limits this direction, otherwise it would be attended with mischievous consequences. We are to please them for their good; not barely for the sake of pleasing them or ourselves, much less to their hurt; nor for their temporal good merely, but for their edification, so as to conduce to their spiritual and eternal good. We may do this--
I. By removing hindrances. We must avoid everything which tends to displease wise and good men.
1. Now cruelty, hatred, malice, etc., are displeasing, and so is that temper so prevalent in common life--ill-nature. We must, then, avoid these, and whatever resembles them, as sourness, sternness, sullenness on the one hand; peevishness and fretfulness on the other.
2. Next to these nothing is more disgustful than pride and haughtiness issuing in an assuming, arrogant, overbearing behaviour. Even great learning and shining talents will not make amends for this.
3. Almost as disgustful is a passionate temper and behaviour. Hence passionate men have seldom many friends.
4. We must put away all lying. Addison said, Of all vices this has never found an apologist; but he wrote before Lord Chesterfield, whose apology for it is the best that could be made for so bad a cause. As lying can never be commendable, so neither can it be pleasing.
5. But is not flattery a species of lying, and has it not been regarded in all ages as a means of pleasing? Yes, flattery is pleasing for a while, but when the mask drops off we are pleased no longer. If a man continues to flatter after his insincerity is discovered it is disgusting.
6. Dissimulation is displeasing, and guile, subtlety, cunning, and the whole art of deceiving. Even those who practise it most are not pleased with it in others, nor fond of conversing with those who practise it on themselves.
II. By using the means that directly tend to this end. Only remember that there are those whom we cannot expect to please. It is now as when our Lord said, The men of this generation are like unto children sitting in the market-place, etc. But leaving these froward ones to themselves, we may hope to please others in the following way.
1. Let love not visit you as a transient guest, but be the constant temper of your soul. Let it pant in your heart, sparkle in your eyes, shine on all your actions, and speak with your tongue.
2. Study to be lowly in heart. Be clothed with humility. Reject the favourite maxim of the old heathen, The more you value yourself the more others will value you. Not So, Both God and man resist the proud.
3. Pray that you may be meek. Labour to be of a calm, dispassionate temper; gentle to all men, pitiful, generous.
4. Be courteous to all, high or low, good or bad. Addisons definition of politeness is a constant desire of pleasing all men, appearing through the whole conversation. I have seen as real courtesy in an Irish cabin as could be found in St. Jamess or the Louvre.
5. What is the root of that desire to please which we call courtesy? The same apostle that teaches it teaches us to honour all men, and the Master teaches us to love all men. Join all these together, and what will be the effect? When a poor wretch cries to me for an alms, I look and see him covered in rags. But through these I see an immortal spirit redeemed by Christs blood. The courtesy, therefore, which I feel and show toward him is a mixture of the honour and love which I bear to the offspring of God, the purchase of Christ, the candidate for immortality.
6. Take all proper opportunities of declaring to others the affection you really feel for them. This may be done in such a manner as is not liable to the imputation of flattery; and experience shows that honest men are pleased by this.
7. Speak to all men the very truth in your heart. In all company and on all occasions be a man of veracity. In simplicity and godly sincerity, etc.--an Israelite indeed.
8. To sum up all: if you would please men, please God. (John Wesley, M.A.)
Pleasing others
1. How far may we do this?
2. What should be our motive?
3. What are the best means of doing it? (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Pleasing others
There is such a thing as pleasing another by flattery, and encouraging him in his prejudices. Hence the restrictive phrase for his good. We are not to be men-pleasers (1Co_10:33; Gal_1:10), unworthy trimmers, and religious weathercocks. Nor are we to try to gain popularity by pandering to the weakness or follies of others. We are, however, to lay ourselves out to please our neighbour in the manner indicated. No one ever succeeds in an undertaking unless he make it a matter of business. We must be professionals, not amateurs, in the holy practice of advancing the spiritual interests of others. (C. Neil, M.A.)
The duty of pleasing others
is--
I. Founded in the law of christian love.
II. Limited by what tends to edification.
III. Fulfilled by--
1. Bearing with their infirmities.
2. Acknowledging their excellencies.
3. Seeking their good. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Christ not pleasing Himself: Christian and social tolerance
I. The rule of forbearance as laid down by the apostle.
1. There were two classes in the Roman Church who refused liberty to others. There were the men of despotic conscience, and the men of despotic intellect; and, that we may cover the whole ground of character, we may add there are men of despotic will. To one or other of these classes belongs almost every case of undue interference with Christian and social liberty. In all these cases there may be much that is good, but there is a subtle form of self-gratification at the root of it, a mistaken self-assertion, which does not leave room for other natures to develop themselves in freedom.
2. It may be asked if, in no case, we are warranted to interfere with our fellow-men. Most certainly we cannot remain indifferent to what they do and are, if we have any regard for Gods truth and their welfare. But we should be very sure that it is regard to Gods truth and anothers welfare that actuates us, and not the mere wilfulness thai seeks its own way. We have to learn that, within the limits of what is not positively wrong, every one has the right to be himself. It is frequently very hard to allow this, especially when there are close relationships. Husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, find it most difficult of all to make allowance for each others variety of nature, and to remain side by side without undue interference with one anothers peculiarities.
3. It is here that the further principle of this passage comes in, that we are not merely to refrain from constraining others into our way, but, as far as we can, we are to meet them in theirs. If there be a separation of taste, instead of compelling them to surrender, we are to forbear, and if the thing be harmless for us, and it will gratify them, we are to take part in their pursuits. But is there no limit to this surrender? Yes. We are to please our neighbour for his good to edification. This is the end, and the end prescribes the limit. Such a principle saves Christian compliance from sycophancy or characterlessness. But within two limits--the indulgence of our fellow-men in sin, and the compromise of our own true nature--there is ample scope for the exercise of endless charity and compliance. The tree that has its firm-fixed root and upright stem has also its spreading branches and thousand waving twigs, which yield to the breeze and salute the gentlest movement of the surrounding air. How beautiful strength is, when it thus melts away at its extremities into kindliness and courtesy!
II. This forbearance is illustrated by Christs example (verse 3).
1. The quotation is from Psa_69:1-36, in which the speaker is David; but the apostle takes the words as completed in Christ, which this manner of dealing with the Psalms gives us a light to read the Psalms in. Wherever a man is uttering a breathing of the Divine life, it is not merely Christ that he is implicitly looking forward to, but it is Christ that is breathing and speaking in him.
2. To prove the disinterested forbearance of Christ, he cites a passage that shows his self-devotion to God. Right action toward man flows naturally from right feeling toward God. If self-pleasing has been sacrificed on the Divine altar, it has received its death-blow in every other form. We have to show that this was a characteristic of Christ in His intercourse with men--forbearance and freedom. He presented the Divine will, and pressed it on men as the rule of all life, but He refrained carefully from crushing their nature in its flee development.
(1) We see this in the variety of character which His earthly life drew around it. His disciples represent the extremes of temperament. He is careful never to stamp on them a hard uniformity, but leaves them to their own natural development, and aids them in it. Then, outside this circle, we have groups of all possible colours. How different from founders of human systems, who cannot be satisfied unless their formulas are repeated, and their minutest features reflected, by all their scholars.
(2) Christ not merely refrained from interfering with free growth Himself, but He interposed to defend others when they were interfered with. What a lesson there is to contending, narrow-minded religionists, in Luk_9:49! What an admonition to those who would impose their own way of work upon every other, when Marthas complaint is so gently but firmly met! (Joh_12:7).
(3) Turn now from His earthly life to the work He carries on by His Spirit, which is to enter into each nature by itself, and unfold it from its own germ and centre. It is for wise reasons that a visible Head is removed from the Christian Church. We can perceive how the disciples started up into stronger, broader men, under this new influence, and how their characters struck out on all sides into more marked individuality. How different are the apostles and the epistles of the same apostle, caused by the variety of development in the churches to which they were addressed! And Christ is still teaching us to look with an approving eye on every honest effort to do good and to take pleasure in the wide variety of human character and Christian grace.
III. Some of the advantages that would result from acting on this principle.
1. If, in Christian or social intercourse, we wish to deliver any man from what we think error, we must do so by putting him in the way of convincing himself. To beat him down by unreasoning opposition, or even by an irresistible argument, may please us, but is not likely to gain him. To respect a mans freedom, never to press him so hard as to humiliate him, to give him the clue that may help him to guide himself to the right, is according to the Divine model, and would aid us in serving at the same time both our fellow-men and the truth.
2. Take the family circle. Authority must exist, but when authority makes itself felt at every turn, freedom is gone, and influence vanishes with it. Constitutional government here, as elsewhere, is the great thing to be aimed at--that is, firm law on certain great essentials, but freedom within this to grow up according to taste and temperament. If we wish those we are influencing to become valuable for anything, it must be by permitting them to be themselves. They will do very little if they turn out dead transcripts of us.
3. In pursuing such a course we shall best succeed in elevating and broadening our own nature. If we could bring all around us into our own mould, we should only have narrowed ourselves in the process of constraining others. But, if we enter into sympathy with their pursuits, we not merely grow in unselfishness, but add something to our intellectual nature which was not there before. Conclusion: In all this work there are needed two great qualities, love and wisdom. Neither will suffice alone. Love in its earnestness is often too narrow, and wisdom in its breadth may be too cold. They are the light and heat of the moral world which must go together. (J. Ker, D.D.)
Making others happy
1. A mans soul is like a garden belonging to an old neglected mansion. It is full of excellent things running to waste. Now a garden has no right to be dilapidated. It is made on purpose to confer pleasure and profit. So the soul of man is full of good dispositions and kind impulses; but besides these it is full of the stinging nettles of pride, and vanities flaunting coarse colours. A souls power to produce pleasure or pain in another is very great. We are commanded, therefore, to produce pleasure. It is not left optional with us whether men shall be made happier by our going among them. And not occasionally by a gleam and a smile. It is to enter into the whole carriage of our lives.
2. This is neither a small nor an unimportant business. The making others happy is one of the best manifestations of the Christian disposition, and the closest imitation of Christs example. Our duty as Christians is not simply to go out after men outside of morality. All about us society is full of men whose lives average but very little sweetness. And it is for us to seek to make them happier. Some men move through life as a band of music, flinging out pleasure to every one, far and near. Some men fill the air with their sweetness as orchards, in October clays, fill the air with the perfume of ripe fruit. Some women cling to their own houses like the honeysuckle over the door, yet, like it, fill all the region with the subtle fragrance of their goodness. How great a bounty and a blessing is it so to hold the royal gifts of the soul that they shall be music to some, and fragrance to others, and life to all! It would be no unworthy thing to live for to fill the atmosphere with a brightness which others cannot create for themselves.
3. Men neglect frequently these very simple and very obvious truths, because there is still a remnant of asceticism among good men. Oh, say they, make men better, and then their happiness will take care of itself. But much of mens selfishness and sin springs from their own unhappiness. And whatever shall take that away will tend to make them better. Again, men say, My business is to be honest, and just, and not to make people laugh. Yet you have no business to be just and honest in such a way that those who stand next to you shall be less happy by your way of being so. No one has a better right to be a hedgehog than a hedgehog; but is he a good neighbour? A thistle belongs to the ordained economy of nature; and yet is it the model of a man? How many men there are who, rude of speech, go thrusting here, and piercing there, and treading down sensitiveness on every side, with no other excuse except this: Well, 1 believe in a straight, out-and-out kind of man. Jack Blunt is my model! Undoubtedly, and a very bad model very well imitated, too!
4. We are not at liberty to please by pandering to the bad elements in mens characters. We must move upon the right feelings in men, and not stir up the wrong ones, nor the evil ones. In order to this there must be a discipline in ourselves. In the free intercourse of human life you carry to men the faculties that are active in you, and tend to excite in them precisely the same feelings. If you are irritable, you tend to produce irritation. If you are proud, you tend to excite the resistance of pride. And these feelings never, in you nor in any other person, ministered to cheer. They are sand in the teeth. No man can be happy himself, or promote happiness in other men, until he has learned to put to sleep these malign faculties every day. The whole machinery of life, then, needs a great deal of oiling in you in order that you may minister to the wants of others.
5. We are not simply to carry happiness to those that are around about us. In the olden time it was thought that we should love our friends and hate our enemies. In the modern time it has been thought that we should love our own denomination, and hate those that are heretical. Therefore there has been felt to be a solemn duty incumbent on the Catholic to hate Protestants, and there has been felt to be a corresponding duty on the other side. Now, it is my business as a Protestant Christian man so to treat all Catholics that I shall please them, for their good, to edification. For a thousand years the experiment has been tried of bombarding men into love and faith; and with what luck? Is it not time to see if we cannot please men into unity; if we cannot drop the things that are disagreeable, and insist upon the things that are pleasing, for good, to edification? As it is in religious matters, so should it be in civil. There are times when men must stand in politics for principles, and at such times men cannot avoid giving pain. But this furnishes no criterion for the average of cases. Ordinarily, men who come together knowing that they are on different sides in philosophy, or in politics, or in business, if they be Christian men, should bear in mind that they are to please one another for good to edification, and not irritate and chafe and hurt each other.
6. If these views are correct, then there is a new element of personal piety that should enter into the conception of every one. We ask men whether they are willing to leave off every known sin, etc., but how seldom do we question men as to beneficence of disposition! When, then, we are bringing men into the kingdom of God we should inspire them with heroic enterprise in doing good; but there are thousands of men who are attempting to do good, who never had it enter their minds that they were to make happiness. If I were to carry home this subject to the household, are there not many families that would bear some reformation? On the other hand, how many households are there that call themselves Christians, and have a right to, because all daylong each one is shining on the others; because each one is removing obstructions, taking away attritions, smoothing asperities, and seeking to make all amiable and all happy? When, after the long, loathsome voyage, I entered the channel, and saw, dim upon the horizon, the blue line of shore, and smelled the strange odour in the air, I said to the captain, What is this smell? Bless your heart! said he, it is the land-smell. All the smells of the sea put together were never so sweet as that. There are persons so lovely that you cannot go near to them without perceiving that they exhale gladness and cheer and happiness. Blessed are such! I believe in revivals; but I have never known any revivals that did not need to have ether revivals in them. I have known men revived from intemperance and from wickedness, who went into churches and into neighbourhoods where they set themselves up on their orthodoxy and their propriety, and carried themselves so unsocially, so offensively, that they exerted no happiness-producing power. No person has drunk in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ who does not make other persons happier when he comes to them. (H. W. Beecher.)
Making sunshine in shady places
1. Life is a big bundle of littles, intended to be tied together by love. Lifes joy depends on what cords bind you and what hand ties them. Bound together we must be, either by cords of silk or by iron fetters. How much our happiness is placed in the power of others! The thoughts, looks, words, and actions of others can in a moment fill us with joy or sorrow. The sensorium of our life seems sometimes like a great and beautiful spiders web, in which every thread is sensitive, we at the centre giving out and receiving back again a thousand pulsations of joy and sorrow. To change the figure, our hearts are a telephonic centre, from which we send out varied messages, and get them back, too. Messages of tenderness and of scorn, of healing and mischief. Who of us can live to ourselves?
2. How much we each have it in our power to make others happy! Surely here is a realm of Christian duty little regarded by us, and I fear less practised. How many persons in this age of keen competition, when life is a race, have pondered Christs words about loving their neighbour as themselves? Even in family and social life how many need to ponder the sin of being constant misery-makers! If one person kills another in passion, we call that murder. But if a hard, selfish nature frets another and a loving nature to death, what do we call that? We find in our text--
I. A centre. No man can please his neighbour who does not please himself. We cannot give what we have not got. Without a fixed centre there can be no circle. Now, if a Christian man is to please himself, he needs that three features shall be prominent in his experience.
1. Let him make up his mind as to what is lifes true idea, and lovingly pursue it. Much of our joy in life depends on what we expect. If I expect a large gift and get a little one, or nothing, I am vexed and disappointed; but if I expect little and get much, then I am easily pleased. If I have made up my mind that the world is a workshop to make men; that God and men are the workers, circumstances the tools; each day an opportunity for new effort and new knowledge; failure only a revelation of the ideal and another chance for progress; if I have settled that love is lifes one great end and prize, then, with a noble discontent, which rests ever and yet never, I may be happy in myself.
2. But this happiness will only be secure as my motive is right and my helper is ever near. To live to push myself to the front, or even to please men, will never give full pleasure to the heart. He who commands and inspires me must himself be perfect, or his imperfection will in turn become mine. Christ must be the keynote of lifes song and the singers inspiration. To please Him is to lead self to its highest ideal and aspiration and joy. Would we please self, our motto must be, For me to live is Christ. Self lost in Christ is lifes full gain.
3. Yet one thing more is needed. Every day and hour brings me a heap of failures. What am I to do with these? Carry them hourly to Christ for His loving forgiveness, which deepens penitence, heartens trust, and inspires to new and nobler service.
II. The circumference of our text is--that no man can truly please himself unless he seeks to please his neighbour.
1. Selfish joy is a paradox. A great thinker has said, No man has a right to all his rights; the measure in which he determines to have them is the measure of his meanness--the measure of his willinghood to forego them is the measure of his manhood and nobleness. Where to-day men are too selfish to labour for the common weal, politics become degraded, the national conscience debased, and the poor trampled upon.
2. But what language can fully describe the holy gladness of being permitted to help and bless ones fellow-men? What a royal gift it is to carry sunshine about with you; to be like the flowers, making people happy without knowing it; to light your neighbours candle by your own, thus losing nothing and giving much. If we could doom each man to live and labour merely for himself, then, whatever has lent any virtue to work, whatever has prompted courage and self-sacrifice, the very beauty of home life itself, must perish. I am told if you play a flute beneath a great church bell, too large for you to stir, and listen close till the right note flows forth a silver rivulet of melody, that mass of metal will respond with a myriad waves of sound in low, soft unison. So, if a man will live like Christ lived--not to please himself--then not only will he most truly please himself, but a thousand hearts will vibrate to the melody of that mans self-sacrificing love.
III. The conclusion of our text is--that no man can either truly please his neighbour or himself who does not seek to please both for a worthy reason. We must seek to please for the permanent building up of character.
1. All can please if they only try. True, some have dispositions naturally winsome and agreeable, and others as naturally acid and disagreeable; but, not the less, every man has this command laid upon him.
2. Merely to give pleasure may, unless guarded, be a snare. We may seek to please only to find opportunity for display, or to secure mens applause. We may want the partnership of others in gaiety or dissipation, and we may please them only for the sake of keeping us company. These methods, and many others, pull men down and never build them up. Our work is to build men up for good and for God.
3. All our life would be lifted to a level of nobility if our pleasure were to seek to do men good in a glad spirit. It was a noble resolve of the blacksmith who said, whatever others do, I have resolved not to undersell but excel my neighbours. Yet all secondary efforts to either please or bless men, however laudable they may be--and they are--yet concerts, entertainments, lectures, all of them will bring us much disappointment; but the one work which will give us largest pleasure and noblest fruit is to sing to men the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
4. Nothing is more important than that men who do seek to build up others for good should do it in a pleasing way. I have no patience with good people representing God or His service in any unlovely light. Scolding seldom builds men much higher; silence is best when we cannot praise. To tell men what God has done for them, and wants to do for and in them, and to show them how glad and restful His service makes us--this is the best service we can render the truth and our fellow-men. Conclusion: Love is the great river that flows through and sweetens human life. Let us each one take care what we put into that river of love. Some carelessly throw in the broken potsherds of strife and ill-will. Some poison the stream with the miserable ambition of getting rich at any cost. Others foul the stream with grossnesses and impurity. Every man should feel that he is responsible for the fulness, and purity, and beauty of lifes river of love. (R. H. Lovell.)
Christian courtesy
1. The apostle makes a special application of this principle to the conduct of the strong towards the weak. Taken by itself, it is the injunction of the comprehensive duty of courtesy. The etymology and frequent usage of the word would confine it to what is outward, i.e., polished manners. Court, courtier, courtesy, are nearly allied. But the word has a higher meaning. To court is to endeavour to please; courtesy is the desire and effort to please arising from a good motive and directed to a right end. The sycophant desires to please, but not for edification. He acts from a selfish motive for a selfish object. Every Christian, so far as his Christianity moulds and controls his character, is courteous.
2. The sum of Christian wisdom is to be Christlike (verse 3). Nothing can exceed the courtesy of Christ and His condescension, kindness, and tenderness to the humble, poor, suffering, and penitent. Woman, hath no man condemned thee? etc. Many of the earlier Christians wished to expunge that paragraph. But no purer, brighter ray shines upon the life of our Lord than that which fell upon Him when He uttered these words.
I. Courtesy has a negative side. It is manifested by avoiding to give pain--
1. By impressing others with their inferiority, their position, knowledge, talents, force in argument, liberality. The strong among the Romans despised the narrowness and weakness of their scrupulous brethren.
2. By in any way hurting their feelings.
II. The positive of this virtue is the endeavour to please, to heal wounded feelings, to inspire confidence and affection. (C. Hodge, D.D.)
Edification
I. Its necessity. All need it.
1. Some have yet to be built. Children, e.g., have unformed characters which require to be formed.
2. Some are built awry. Many young men have characters malformed, and the task is to get them into form.
3. Some have tumbled down. There are those whose character is a wreck, and the work in their case is one of reformation.
II. Its means. The builder must conform to law. The great principles on which successful building depends must be pleased. Outrage the laws of gravitation, proportion, etc., and the builder will labour in vain.
1. For the want of pleasing them--
(1) Some are never built at all. With the best of intentions, abundant materials, and assiduous efforts, a builder may erect a heap instead of an edifice. How much advice, instruction, etc., are expended on a child, only to be thrown away because expended in a repulsive form 1
(2) Others are pulled down. When a man has gone wrong, instead of trying to put him straight in the proper way, his friends often take him to pieces.
(3) When character has been ruined, instead of collecting and re-building the ruins, how often is it that they are scattered beyond recovery! Harsh sensures, cutting sarcasms, so-called plain truths never yet succeeded in reforming a broken character.
2. In each case the one thing needful is to give pleasure. Put a child, a youth, a man in good humour, give him hope, persuade him that duty is delightful, and the work of construction or reconstruction is almost half accomplished.
The application is--
1. To parents.
2. To preachers.
3. To teachers. (J. W. Burn.)
Edification
In the process of building a material edifice four things are necessary. They are equally essential in the edification of character.
I. A stable foundation--Christ, the Rock of Ages.
II. Sound materials--faith, hope, love, zeal, etc.
III. The combination of utility and grace in the structure. The Christian is to be beautiful as well as useful.
IV. Perfection at the finish. The Christian is to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus. (J. W. Burn)
Edification and pleasure
When Handels oratorio of the Messiah had won the admiration of many of the great, Lord Kinnoul took occasion to pay him some compliments on the noble entertainment which he had lately given the town. My lord, said Handel, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wish to make them better. It is to be feared that many speechmakers at public meetings could not say as much; and yet how dare any of us waste the time of our fellow immortals in mere amusing talk! If we have nothing to speak to edification, how much better to hold our tongue! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeking to edify
A fine example of a word fitly spoken is found in Dr. Bushnells biography. An intelligent but not religious young lady, after spending a social evening with the good doctors family, was escorted home by her courteous host. On their way the brilliant starlight led them to talk of astronomy. The doctor spoke of the law of harmony which held each little star in its appointed place, and then turning to the bright-minded girl, with a winning smile, he said, Sarah, I want to see you in your place. This was all he said that was personal, but the thought thrilled her young soul as if it had dropped upon her from the skies. Its effect was to win her to discipleship. A word spoken in season, how good it is!
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv2–7 2. Let every one please his neighbor. We are…
2. Let every one please his neighbor. We are not to seek to please ourselves, but to please others. Nor are we to seek to please them for our own selfish purpose, as is often the case, but for their good to edification, with a view to their good and upbuilding in Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv4–5 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_15:4
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_15:4
Old writings for new times.—The mercy and wisdom of God are shown in the gift of a written revelation. Nature teaches only in symbols, and her writing must be interpreted by the writing of revelation. Human reason is at best a blind guide, and must be enlightened by divine reason; thus our need of a revelation. Men receive much light from the Bible, and yet too often treat it as if it were of no account in either the intellectual or moral sphere. Perhaps they do not know how much they owe to the “god of books.” The pride and ingratitude of men are seen in the fact that they are hypercritical in studying the Bible. We owe to it what is best in our modern civilisation. We cleave to these writings, for by them patience and comfort are imparted, and hope is begotten and confirmed.
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I. These writings are ancient in their origin.—The modern cry is for new books and for something sensational. Strong men are made by strong food. Samson lost his strength in Delilah’s lap; and the Delilah lap of a light modern literature may destroy intellectual and moral manhood. Plagiarism in sermons has been a well-worn topic. We may now treat of plagiarism in our intellectual magazines and our first-class novels. The truth is that ancient writings are great intellectual storehouses; and the most precious of all are the Scriptures. These writings are confessedly the most ancient, and are surrounded by evidence more various, copious, and exhaustive than that which can be adduced in support of any other ancient writings—written in the childhood of the race, and yet contain depths of wisdom unfathomed. Moses is pelted with geological stones, confronted with mathematical puzzles, and attacked with evolutionary theories, and yet he still rules from Sinai and speaks from his unknown sepulchre in Nebo. David is charged with immorality; still his lyrics charm the universe, and his sublime melodies float through our ancient structures. What modern publisher would dream of giving ten thousand pounds to that old Jew, of whose race and tribe we are ignorant, for his Hebrew manuscript of Isaiah! And yet the greatest modern singers give utterance to his poetry, and the most celebrated musical composers are inspired by his lofty periods. We do not go the length of blindly accepting the old because it is old; but surely the ancient has a claim upon respectful consideration. This is wonderful, that time has not impaired the vitality of these writings. A declaration this that they came from Him who fainteth not, neither is weary. That these writings appeared in the childhood of the race, and should by majesty of thought, by purity of influence, and by sublimity of language have lifted themselves up above surrounding darkness, ignorance, and corruption, is no small evidence of their superhuman origin. These ancient writings may be compared to strong rocks, and modern criticism to feeble wavelets. They move in impotent endeavour. When they have done their worst and retired, men will be ashamed of their folly in fearing lest God’s Scriptures should be swept into oblivion.
II. These ancient writings are prophetic in their scope.—St. Paul does not confine himself to the prophecies, his quotation being from the Psalms. The prophecies remain as evidence to the inspiration of the Bible. Beyond these the ancient writings are prophetic because they forthtell the truth for all time. The writers stood in times beginning, and looked to after-time, and wrote both for St. Paul and his compeers, and for that army who should receive the same faith and follow in the same pathway. In this sense few modern writers are prophetic; their names will perish, and their works be forgotten. Those who have made a cheap reputation by attacking Moses and the prophets, if they could rise from the dead would be surprised to find themselves forgotten, while Moses and the prophets were still influencing mankind. Modern science of infidel tendencies may let the prophets down into deep pits, but their voices still roll forth with majesty. The prophets’ scrolls may be thrown into the fire, but the flames illuminate their messages. Moses, the prophets, and the apostles are time’s great teachers and true prophets because they have been taught in heaven’s school.
III. These prophetic writings are spiritual in their design.—Above all other books they have been promotive of learning from a mere intellectual point of view. Biblical students greatest scholars. Tongue cannot tell what the Bible has thus done. Young minds have been quickened by its matchless stories; the dormant intellect has been touched to energy by its magical power, and shown unexpected ability; eloquence has risen to loftiest strains when inspired by the inspired word. It has created sublimest musical melodies, and strengthened the poet’s wings for highest soarings. The novelist, while attacking, will quote a sentence to conclude and grace the page; and the historian will check his narration to admire the flowers culled from this divine garden. But secular learning is dangerous if it be not accompanied by sacred. The former too often breeds impatience and discomfort, while the latter produces patience and comfort. By that study we are introduced to “quiet resting-places.” We meditate upon the patience of the saints until we catch somewhat of their spirit. Reading these ancient writings is good; keeping them stored in the memory is good. But patience is the crowning quality. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” These writings record the incomparable drama of Job’s sufferings and triumphs. Patience taught by the example of the saints. Consolation imparted by the promises.
IV. These writings are benevolent in their purpose.—A benevolent work to produce and strengthen hope; for when a man loses hope he becomes poor indeed. How much of our modern writing is for the destruction of hope! Attempts are more largely made to destroy the foundations of our faith; and if these be destroyed, where are our hopes? These ancient writings teach us hope in the wisdom of the divine plans, in the benevolence of the divine arrangements, and in the final good to be secured by divine proceedings; they give the hope of “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” They keep hope in lively exercise. Men have tried other writings in vain. But here is found a hope which maketh not ashamed; which has enabled its possessors to resist the “temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil”; to breast a dark sea of troubles and overcome; to raise hymns of praise in the prison-cell; to turn the dark dungeon into a palace beautiful; and to sing while the flames were scorching the poor body,—
“There is a blessed land making most happy;
Never thence shall rest depart, nor cause of sorrow come.”
And truly glorious is the death scene of those who are rightly sustained by Christian hope. The Scriptures only can give this divine grace.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_15:4
Things written for a purpose.—“For whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” A quotation in the preceding verse from Psa_69:9 leads the writer of this epistle to speak of whatsoever things, besides this, were written in ancient times. The particular instance suggests the universal truth as to the nature and object, not of all writings, sacred and profane, but of those regarded as sacred by the Jews.
I. The apostle we see, then, had in mind “the law and the prophets,” or all the canonical books of the Old Testament.—These are believed to be and to contain a revelation to man of duty and hope—a revelation for the development of spiritual life and moral principle and habit. And whatever theory we may adopt, verbal, substantial, or in effect, of inspiration, we must acknowledge that St. Paul taught and believed that all the Old Testament Scriptures were given for a direct purpose, not from man, though by man—given in some way by divine authority, or they would not be a sufficient foundation for our hope—“hope that maketh not ashamed,” and which we have “as an anchor of the soul.” The ten commandments were claimed to have been “written with the finger of God.” “Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The Scriptures are called “lively oracles.” “Thus it is written,” said Christ. “As it is written,” the evangelists frequently say. “In the volume of the book it is written of me,” said the psalmist—words which St. Paul quotes in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The first copies of the law were probably written on papyrus; the later on parchment, which was unrolled from right to left from a staff, and rolled on another as it was read; hence the word “volume.” The Jews had profound regard for the sacred writings, and their learned men knew the number of words, and even of letters, in them. It is not necessary to hold that the Holy Scriptures were miraculously preserved, but the reverence for them would tend to preserve them uncorrupted. That the books were all written by the men whose names they bear it may be difficult to prove; but the theory of imposture is impossible under all the circumstances. We must believe that they were written—written by men, but on the authority and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Much the same may be said of the books of the New Testament. They were written for a purpose. They, it is believed, were written by divine inspiration, if not by dictation. They are the spiritual law of the kingdom of Christ. In them, nay, in the whole Bible, we are furnished with all necessary instruction, guidance, reproof, and counsel. “In them ye think [are satisfied that] ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Christ.” These books have been received from very early times by the Christian Church, guarded, taught to the people, cited, and preserved, and are plainly worthy of all acceptation.
II. The purpose for which the Holy Scriptures were written is one plain enough and easy to be understood.—
1. They were written for our learning. This has necessarily been anticipated; but too much cannot be said upon it. We need instruction as to our natural condition and sinful state, as to the means of grace and spiritual renewal, as to the need of worshipping and serving our Creator, as to the life which we have in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, and as to the way of finding life eternal, with its fulness of joy and rivers of pleasure.
2. The Scriptures were written that we might be patient learners in the kingdom of God, studying His word and pleasure, that we may prove “what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” We are to be patient students, until we become as “scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven.” Patience in suffering, as well as in doing, is to be learned. “If we suffer with Him [i.e., with Christ], we shall also reign with Him.” “The trial of our faith being much more precious than gold that perished, though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” We are appointed both to do and to suffer; and how we shall act and live is taught us in Holy Scripture.
3. The Scriptures were written that we might have hope. Man without them is in darkness. He may reason out for himself a way of life; but it will not bring him an assured and earnest hope. But hope is to come, in great part, by doing the commandments of God, and patiently submitting to affliction, being “kept by His mighty power through faith unto salvation.” Thus come unto us sure comfort and peace, and hope becomes stronger and brighter as we advance in our Christian course, and this hope reacts upon our souls, and is an incitement to purity of life, and gives satisfaction in the very article of death.—Dr. Burrows, Ashtabula, New York.
The things that were written aforetime.—What St. Paul said of the Old Testament we may say of the New—of the whole Christian Bible—not least of those glorious epistles which are St. Paul’s own contributions to it. All of these Scriptures, New as well as Old, are written for the learning of us who live in these later ages. Our business is to make the most of the lesson. Scripture is a manual of moral or spiritual learning. It is addressed to the heart and to the will, as well as the intellect. It is a book for the understanding; and much more, it is a book for the spirit and for the heart. There are, no doubt, many other kinds of learning to be got from the Bible. It is a great manual of Eastern antiquities. It gives us information about the ancient world which we can obtain nowhere else. It carries us back to the early dawn of history, when as yet all that we commonly mean by civilisation did not exist. It is a handbook, again, of political experience. It shows us what a nation can do, and what it may have to suffer—how it may be affected by the conduct of its rulers—how it may make its rulers like itself. Again, it is a rich collection of moral wisdom as applied to personal conduct, and a man need not believe in divine revelation in order to admire the shrewdness and penetration of the Book of Proverbs. Again, it is a mine of poetry. It contains the highest poetry which the human race possesses—poetry before which the great masters of song must bow. It is a choice field for the study of language. In its pages we trace one beautiful language, the Hebrew, from its cradle to its grave. It gives us lessons in the use of language, to describe the emotions and the moods of the human soul, which are not to be found elsewhere. Learning of this kind has its value, and some of it is necessary if we are to make the most of this precious book; but it is not the learning which St. Paul says that the ancient Scriptures were meant to impart to Christians. A man may have much of this learning, and yet he may miss altogether the true lessons that Scripture has to teach him. “That we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope”—that is the end of the highest learning which Scripture has to give us. The Bible is the book of God, so it is the book of the future. At first sight it seems to be altogether a book of the past. The Bible helps us as no other book does or can. It stands alone as the warrant and stimulant of hope. It speaks with a divine authority; it opens out a future which no human authority could attest. Here is consolation and hope in Scripture for those who need and who will have it. Those who will may find in Holy Scripture patience, consolation, hope. Not in its literary or historical features, but in the great truths which it reveals about God, about our incarnate Lord, about man, in the great examples it holds forth of patience and of victory, in the great promises it repeats, in the future which it unfolds to the eye of faith, is this treasure to be found. A more constant, more reverent, more thorough use of Holy Scripture is surely one of the appropriate duties of a season like Advent, for “Scripture is a long letter sent to us from our heavenly country,” and we who hope in time to reach its shores should learn what we can about it and about the conditions of reaching it while we may. Thus, indeed, shall we prepare for that event which surely waits us all, the future judgment, if we shall read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest those Scriptures which God has given for our learning, that by patience and comfort of this His holy word we embrace and hold fast that hope of everlasting life which He has given us in and with His adorable Son.—Canon Liddon.
Our duty to study things written.—“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” For our welfare Moses wrote, David sang, Solomon spoke lessons of wisdom, and the experiences of Job were recorded; Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets opened out their scrolls for our moral well-being; the great Teacher unfolded lessons of heavenly wisdom, the four evangelists observed and recorded, Paul argued, Peter laid down practical rules, John wrote his poem of love, and the sublime work of the Revelation was penned, for our learning. God’s revelation has been gradual. The knowledge of God’s material works has been progressively acquired, and God’s word has been given to mankind in parts. The Bible, thus given in parts and at long intervals, is possessed of striking unity. All the parts converge towards one central object—Jesus Christ. God gave to mankind a perfect world, and could at once have given a complete revelation. God revealed for the learning of the men of the olden time; and now He has blessed by giving the gathered writings of all His inspired servants. God gave one authoritative collection of writings. Men collect the wit and wisdom of Shakespeare, or gems from voluminous authors; here, in the Bible, is treasured the wisdom of the ancients. Some overlook the wisdom, and fix only upon what they call the follies; let it be ours to look to the wisdom. It is surprising that in these ancient writings we find purest types of composition, most correct and sublime thoughts, loftiest flights of poetry and eloquence, and brightest pearls of wisdom. But more than that, the writings of the Bible contain the true standard of morals. It is our duty prayerfully to study these writings. This book bears the impress of divinity. Let the objectors write psalms like David, show powers of imagination like the prophetic bards, let fall from their lips pearls of truth equal to those of the great teachers, persuade like Paul, and touch like the apostle of love, and then we may patiently listen to their diatribes. Meanwhile we will reverently attend to those Scriptures which have been given for our learning.
Things written best.—God speaks by His Scriptures. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.” Scripta sunt—they are written. Things that go only by tale or tradition meet with such variations, augmentations, abbreviations, corruptions, false glosses, that, as in a lawyer’s pleading, truth is lost in the quœre for her. Related things we are long in getting, quick in forgetting; therefore God commanded His law should be written. Littera scripta manet. Thus God doth effectually speak to us. Many good, wholesome instructions have dropped from human peris, to lesson and direct man in goodness; but there is no promise given to any word to convert the soul but to God’s word. Without this antiquity is novelty, novelty subtlety, subtlety death. Theologia scholastica multis modis sophistica—School divinity is little better than mere sophistry. Plus argutiarum quam doctrinœ, plus doctrinœ quam, usus—It hath more quickness than soundness, more sauce than meat, more difficulty than doctrine, more doctrine than use. This Scripture is the perfect and absolute rule. Bellarmine acknowledgeth two things requirable in a perfect rule—certainty and evidence. If it be not certain, it is not rule; if it be not evident, it is no rule to us. Only the Scripture is, both in truth and evidence, a perfect rule. Other writings may have canonical verity; the Scripture only hath canonical authority. Others, like oil, may make cheerful man’s countenance; but this, like bread, Strengthens his heart. This is the absolute rule: “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal_6:16). Oh that we had hearts to bless God for His mercy that the Scriptures are among us, and that not sealed up under an unknown tongue! The time was when a devout father was glad of a piece of the New Testament in English—when he took his little son into a corner, and with joy of soul heard him read a chapter, so that even children became fathers to their fathers, and begat them to Christ. Now, as if the commonness had abated the worth, our Bibles lie dusty in the windows; it is all if a Sunday handling quit them from perpetual oblivion. Few can read, fewer do read, fewest of all read as they should. God of His infinite mercy lay not to our charge this neglect!—Adams.
The Scriptures an arsenal.—I use the Scriptures, not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons, … but as a matchless temple, where I delight to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, the magnificence, of the structure, and to increase my awe and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored.—Boyle.
Every passage fruitful.—Scarcely can we fix our eyes upon a single passage in this wonderful book which has not afforded comfort or instruction to thousands, and been wet with tears of penitential sorrow or grateful joy drawn from eyes that will weep no more.—Payson.
This lamp, from off the everlasting throne,
Mercy took down, and in the night of time
Stood casting on the dark her gracious bow,
And evermore beseeching men with tears
And earnest sighs to hear, believe, and live.
Pollock.
Scriptures remarkable as a literary composition.—Even as a literary composition the sacred Scriptures form the most remarkable book the world has ever seen. They are of all writings the most ancient. They contain a record of events of the deepest interest. The history of their influence is the history of civilisation and happiness. The wisest and best of mankind have borne witness to their power as an instrument of enlightenment and of holiness; and having been prepared by “men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” to reveal “the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” they have on this ground the strongest claims upon our attentive and reverential regard.—Angus.
Not to be discouraged if we do not understand.—We often read the Scriptures without comprehending its full meaning; however, let us not be discouraged. The light, in God’s good time, will break out, and disperse the darkness, and we shall see the mysteries of the gospel.—Bishop Wilson.
The great excellency of the word.—All things which are written are written for our erudition and knowledge. All things that are written in God’s book, in the Bible book, in the book of the Holy Scripture, are written to be our doctrine. Consider that the words of Paul are not to be understanded of all Scriptures, but only of those which are of God written in God’s book; and all things which are therein “are written for our learning.” The excellency of this word is so great, and of so high dignity, that there is no earthly thing to be compared unto it. The Author thereof is great—that is, God Himself, eternal, almighty, everlasting. The Scripture, because of Him, is also great, eternal, most mighty and holy. There is no king, emperor, magistrate, and ruler, of what state soever they be, but are bound to obey this God, and to give credence unto His holy word, in directing their steps ordinately according unto the same word. Yea, truly, they are not only bound to obey God’s book, but also the minister of the same, “for the word’s sake,” so far as he speaketh “sitting in Moses’ chair”—that is, if his doctrine be taken out of Moses’ law. For in this world God hath two swords; the one is a temporal sword, the other a spiritual. The temporal sword resteth in the hands of kings, magistrates, and rulers under Him; whereunto all subjects, as well as the clergy as the laity, be subject, and punishable for any offence contrary to the same book. The spiritual sword is in the hands of the ministers and preachers; whereunto all kings, magistrates, and rulers ought to be obedient, that is, to hear and follow, so long as the ministers sit in Christ’s chair, that is, speaking out of Christ’s book. The king correcteth transgressors with the temporal sword; yea, and the preacher also, if he be an offender. But the preacher cannot correct the king, if he be a transgressor of God’s word, with the temporal sword; but he must correct and reprove him with the spiritual sword, fearing no man, setting God only before his eyes, under whom he is a minister to supplant and root up all vice and mischief by God’s word; whereunto all men ought to be obedient, as is mentioned in many places of Scripture, and amongst many this is one, Quæcunque jusserint vos servare servate et facite: “Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.” Therefore let the preacher teach, improve, amend, and instruct in righteousness with the spiritual sword, fearing no man, though death should ensue. Thus Moses, fearing no man, with his sword did reprove King Pharaoh at God’s commandment. All things that are written in God’s book, in the Holy Bible, they were written before our time; but yet to continue from age to age, as long as the world doth stand.—Bishop Latimer.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 15
Rom_15:4. President Webster on the Bible.—On one occasion, when seated in the drawing-room with Mr. and Mrs. Ely, at Rochester, Mr. Webster laid his hand on a copy of the Scriptures, saying with great emphasis, “This is the Book!” This led to a conversation on the importance of the Scriptures and the too frequent neglect of the study of the Bible by gentlemen of the legal profession, their pursuits in life leading them to the almost exclusive use of works having reference to their profession. Mr. Webster said: “I have read through the entire Bible many times. I now make a practice to go through it once a year. It is the book of all others for lawyers, as well as for divines; and I pity the man that cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for his conduct. It fits man for life; it prepares him for death.” The conversation then turned upon sudden deaths, and Mr. Webster adverted to the then recent death of his brother, who expired suddenly at Concord, N.H. “My brother,” he continued. “knew the importance of Bible truths. The Bible led him to prayer, and prayer was his communion with God. On the day on which he died he was engaged in an important cause in the court then in session; but this cause, important as it was, did not keep him from his duty to his God. He found time for prayer, for on the desk which he had just left was found a paper, written by him on that day, which for fervent piety, a devotedness to his heavenly Master, and for expressions of humility I think was never excelled.”
Rom_15:4. Robin Hood before the word of God.—I came once myself to a place, riding on a journey homeward from London, and I sent word overnight into the town that I would preach there in the morning, because it was holiday; and methought it was a holiday’s work. The church stood in my way, and I took my horse and my company and went thither. I thought I should have found a great company in the church, and when I came there the church door was fast locked. I tarried there half an hour and more. At last the key was found, and one of the parish comes to me and says, “Sir, this is a busy day with us. We cannot hear you; it is Robin Hood’s day. The parish are gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood: I pray you let them not.” I was fain there to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet should have been regarded, though I were not; but it would not serve—it was fain to give place to Robin Hood’s men. It is no laughing matter, my friends. It is a weeping matter, a heavy matter—a heavy matter, under the pretence of gathering for Robin Hood, a traitor and a thief, to put out a preacher, to have his office less esteemed; to prefer Robin Hood before the ministration of God’s word; and all this hath come of unpreaching prelates. This realm hath been ill provided for, that it hath had such corrupt judgments in it, to prefer Robin Hood to God’s word. If the bishops had been preachers, there should never have been any such thing; but we have good hope of better. We have had a good beginning. I beseech God to continue it! But I tell you, it is far wide that the people have such judgments; the bishops they could laugh at it. What was that to them? They would have them to continue in their ignorance still, and themselves in unpreaching prelacy.—Latimer.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 7 2. “Let each one of us please his neighbor…
2. “Let each one of us please his neighbor in that which is good unto edification.” This strikes the keynote of the gracious economy, adhering rigidly to everything good and avoiding the very appearance of evil, and everything conducive to edification. So fast as churches get away from God they depart from this precept, e. g., poor old Romanism holds her service in the old dead Latin language, so no one receives any edification. In a similar manner all the Protestant churches are going down in the track of wicked Catholicism, preaching in a highfalutin style on subjects alien to personal salvation and practical Christianity, and singing operatic songs and solos, so indistinct and screaming and drowned out with instrumental music as to impart no edification to the audience. We have no right to do anything in our worship which the people can not hear and understand to their spiritual edification.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v4 Rom 15:4, Rom 15:14.
Romans
TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM
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Rom 15:4, Rom 15:14.
There is a river in Switzerland fed by two uniting streams, bearing the same name, one of them called the ‘white,’ one of them the ‘grey,’ or dark. One comes down from the glaciers, and bears half-melted snow in its white ripple; the other flows through a lovely valley, and is discoloured by its earth. They unite in one common current. So in these two verses we have two streams, a white and a black, and they both blend together and flow out into a common hope. In the former of them we have the dark stream-’through patience and comfort,’ which implies affliction and effort. The issue and outcome of all difficulty, trial, sorrow, ought to be hope. And in the other verse we have the other valley, down which the light stream comes: ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.’
So both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end in the same blessed result; and whether you go round on the one side of the sphere of human life, or whether you take the other hemisphere, you come to the same point, if you have travelled with God’s hand in yours, and with Him for your Guide.
Let us look, then, at these two contrasted origins of the same blessed gift, the Christian hope.
I. We have, first of all, the hope that is the child of the night, and born in the dark.
‘Whatsoever things,’ says the Apostle, ‘were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we, through patience,’-or rather the brave perseverance-’and consolation’-or rather perhaps encouragement-’of the Scriptures might have hope.’ The written word is conceived as the source of patient endurance which acts as well as suffers. This grace Scripture works in us through the encouragement which it ministers in manifold ways, and the result of both is hope.
So, you see, our sorrows and difficulties are not connected with, nor do they issue in, bright hopefulness, except by reason of this connecting link. There is nothing in a man’s troubles to make him hopeful. Sometimes, rather, they drive him into despair; but at all events, they seldom drive him to hopefulness, except where this link comes in. We cannot pass from the black frowning cliffs on one side of the gorge to the sunny tablelands on the other without a bridge-and the bridge for a poor soul from the blackness of sorrow, and the sharp grim rocks of despair, to the smiling pastures of hope, with all their half-open blossoms, is builded in that Book, which tells us the meaning and purpose of them all; and is full of the histories of those who have fought and overcome, have hoped and not been ashamed.
Scripture is given for this among other reasons, that it may encourage us, and so may produce in us this great grace of active patience, if we may call it so.
The first thing to notice is, how Scripture gives encouragement-for such rather than consolation is the meaning of the word. It is much to dry tears, but it is more to stir the heart as with a trumpet call. Consolation is precious, but we need more for well-being than only to be comforted. And, surely, the whole tone of Scripture in its dealing with the great mystery of pain and sorrow, has a loftier scope than even to minister assuagement to grief, and to stay our weeping. It seeks to make us strong and brave to face and to master our sorrows, and to infuse into us a high-hearted courage, which shall not merely be able to accept the biting blasts, but shall feel that they bring a glow to the cheek and oxygen to the blood, while wrestling with them builds up our strength, and trains us for higher service. It would be a poor aim to comfort only; but to encourage-to make strong in heart, resolved in will, and incapable of being overborne or crushed in spirit by any sorrows-that is a purpose worthy of the Book, and of the God who speaks through it.
This purpose, we may say, is effected by Scripture in two ways. It encourages us by its records, and by its revelation of principles.
Who can tell how many struggling souls have taken heart again, as they pondered over the sweet stories of sorrow subdued which stud its pages, like stars in its firmament? The tears shed long ago which God has put ‘in His bottle,’ and recorded in ‘His book,’ have truly been turned into pearls. That long gallery of portraits of sufferers, who have all trodden the same rough road, and been sustained by the same hand, and reached the same home, speaks cheer to all who follow them. Hearts wrung by cruel partings from those dearer to them than their own souls, turn to the pages which tell how Abraham, with calm sorrow, laid his Sarah in the cave at Macpelah; or how, when Jacob’s eyes were dim that he could not see, his memory still turned to the hour of agony when Rachael died by him, and he sees clear in its light her lonely grave, where so much of himself was laid; or to the still more sacred page which records the struggle of grief and faith in the hearts of the sisters of Bethany. All who are anyways afflicted in mind, body, or estate find in the Psalms men speaking their deepest experiences before them; and the grand majesty of sorrow that marks ‘the patience of Job,’ and the flood of sunshine that bathes him, revealing the ‘end of the Lord,’ have strengthened countless sufferers to bear and to hold fast, and to hope. We are all enough of children to be more affected by living examples than by dissertations, however true, and so Scripture is mainly history, revealing God by the record of His acts, and disclosing the secret of human life by telling us the experiences of living men.
But Scripture has another method of ministering encouragement to our often fainting and faithless hearts. It cuts down through all the complications of human affairs, and lays bare the innermost motive power. It not only shows us in its narratives the working of sorrow, and the power of faith, but it distinctly lays down the source and the purpose, the whence and the whither of all suffering. No man need quail or faint before the most torturing pains or most disastrous strokes of evil, who holds firmly the plain teaching of Scripture on these two points. They all come from my Father, and they all come for my good. It is a short and simple creed, easily apprehended. It pretends to no recondite wisdom. It is a homely philosophy which common intellects can grasp, which children can understand, and hearts half paralysed by sorrow can take in. So much the better. Grief and pain are so common that their cure had need to be easily obtained. Ignorant and stupid people have to writhe in agony as well as wise and clever ones, and until grief is the portion only of the cultivated classes, its healing must come from something more universal than philosophy; or else the nettle would be more plentiful than the dock; and many a poor heart would be stung to death. Blessed be God! the Christian view of sorrow, while it leaves much unexplained, focuses a steady light on these two points; its origin and its end. ‘He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness,’ is enough to calm all agitation, and to make the faintest heart take fresh courage. With that double certitude clear before us, we can face anything. The slings and arrows which strike are no more flung blindly by an ‘outrageous fortune,’ but each bears an inscription, like the fabled bolts, which tells what hand drew the bow, and they come with His love.
Then, further, the courage thus born of the Scriptures produces another grand thing-patience, or rather perseverance. By that word is meant more than simply the passive endurance which is the main element in patience, properly so called. Such passive endurance is a large part of our duty in regard to difficulties and sorrows, but is never the whole of it. It is something to endure and even while the heart is breaking, to submit unmurmuring, but, transcendent as that is, it is but half of the lesson which we have to learn and to put in practice. For if all our sorrows have a disciplinary and educational purpose, we shall not have received them aright, unless we have tried to make that purpose effectual, by appropriating whatsoever moral and spiritual teaching they each have for us. Nor does our duty stop there. For while one high purpose of sorrow is to deaden our hearts to earthly objects, and to lift us above earthly affections, no sorrow can ever relax the bonds which oblige us to duty. The solemn pressure of ‘I ought,’ is as heavy on the sorrowful as on the happy heart. We have still to toil, to press forward, in the sweat of our brow, to gain our bread, whether it be food for our bodies, or sustenance for our hearts and minds. Our responsibilities to others do not cease because our lives are darkened. Therefore, heavy or light of heart, we have still to stick to our work, and though we may never more be able to do it with the old buoyancy, still to do it with our might.
It is that dogged persistence in plain duty, that tenacious continuance in our course, which is here set forth as the result of the encouragement which Scripture gives. Many of us have all our strength exhausted in mere endurance, and have let obvious duties slip from our hands, as if we had done all that we could do when we had forced ourselves to submit. Submission would come easier if you took up some of those neglected duties, and you would be stronger for patience, if you used more of your strength for service. You do well if you do not sink under your burden, but you would do better if, with it on your shoulders, you would plod steadily along the road; and if you did, you would feel the weight less. It seems heaviest when you stand still doing nothing. Do not cease to toil because you suffer. You will feel your pain more if you do. Take the encouragement which Scripture gives, that it may animate you to bate no jot of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer right onward.
And let the Scripture directly minister to you perseverance as well as indirectly supply it through the encouragement which it gives. It abounds with exhortations, patterns, and motives of such patient continuance in well-doing. It teaches us a solemn scorn of ills. It, angel-like, bears us up on soft, strong hands, lest we bruise ourselves on, or stumble over, the rough places on our roads. It summons us to diligence by the visions of the prize, and glimpses of the dread fate of the slothful, by all that is blessed in hope, and terrible in foreboding, by appeals to an enlightened self-regard, and by authoritative commands to conscience, by the pattern of the Master, and by the tender motives of love to Him to which He, Himself, has given voice. All these call on us to be followers of them who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises.
But we have yet another step to take. These two, the encouragement and perseverance produced by the right use of Scripture, will lead to hope.
It depends on how sorrow and trial are borne, whether they produce a dreary hopelessness which sometimes darkens into despair, or a brighter, firmer hope than more joyous days knew. We cannot say that sorrow produces hope. It does not, unless we have this connecting link-the experience in sorrow of a God-given courage which falters not in the onward course, nor shrinks from any duty. But if, in the very press and agony, I am able, by God’s grace, to endure nor cease to toil, I have, in myself, a living proof of His power, which entitles me to look forward with the sure confidence that, through all the uproar of the storm, He will bring me to my harbour of rest where there is peace. The lion once slain houses a swarm of bees who lay up honey in its carcase. The trial borne with brave persistence yields a store of sweet hopes. If we can look back and say, ‘Thou hast been with me in six troubles,’ it is good logic to look forward and say, ‘and in seven Thou wilt not forsake me.’ When the first wave breaks over the ship, as she clears the heads and heels over before the full power of the open sea, inexperienced landsmen think they are all going to the bottom, but they soon learn that there is a long way between rolling and foundering, and get to watch the highest waves towering above the bows in full confidence that these also will slip quietly beneath the keel as the others have done, and be left harmless astern.
The Apostle, in this very same letter, has another word parallel to this, in which he describes the issues of rightly-borne suffering when he says, ‘Tribulation worketh perseverance’-the same word that is used here-’and perseverance worketh’ the proof in our experience of a sustaining God; and the proof in our experience of a sustaining God works hope. We know that of ourselves we could not have met tribulation, and therefore the fact that we have been able to meet and overcome it is demonstration of a mightier power than our own, working in us, which we know to be from God, and therefore inexhaustible and ever ready to help. That is foundation firm enough to build solid fabrics of hope upon, whose bases go down to the centre of all things, the purpose of God, and whose summits, like the upward shooting spire of some cathedral, aspire to, and seem almost to touch, the heavens.
So hope is born of sorrow, when these other things come between. The darkness gives birth to the light, and every grief blazes up a witness to a future glory. Each drop that hangs on the wet leaves twinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun. The garish splendours of the prosperous day hide the stars, and through the night of our sorrow there shine, thickly sown and steadfast, the constellations of eternal hopes. The darker the midnight, the surer, and perhaps the nearer, the coming of the day. Sorrow has not had its perfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage and perseverance to a stable hope. Hope has not pierced to the rock, and builds only ‘things that can be shaken,’ unless it rests on sorrows borne by God’s help.
II. So much then for the genealogy of one form of the Christian hope.
But we have also a hope that is born of the day, the child of sunshine and gladness; and that is set before us in the second of the two verses which we are considering, ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.’
So then, ‘the darkness and the light are both alike’ to our hope, in so far as each may become the occasion for its exercise. It is not only to be the sweet juice expressed from our hearts by the winepress of calamities, but that which flows of itself from hearts ripened and mellowed under the sunshine of God-given blessedness.
We have seen that the bridge by which sorrow led to hope, is perseverance and courage; in this second analysis of the origin of hope, joy and peace are the bridge by which Faith passes over into it. Observe the difference: there is no direct connection between affliction and hope, but there is between joy and hope. We have no right to say, ‘Because I suffer, I shall possess good in the future’; but we have a right to say, ‘Because I rejoice’-of course with a joy in God-’I shall never cease to rejoice in Him.’ Such joy is the prophet of its own immortality and completion. And, on the other hand, the joy and peace which are naturally the direct progenitors of Christian hope, are the children of faith. So that we have here two generations, as it were, of hope’s ancestors;-Faith produces joy and peace, and these again produce hope.
Faith leads to joy and peace. Paul has found, and if we only put it to the proof, we shall also find, that the simple exercise of simple faith fills the soul with ‘all joy and peace.’ Gladness in all its variety and in full measure, calm repose in every kind and abundant in its still depth, will pour into my heart as water does into a vessel, on condition of my taking away the barrier and opening my heart through faith. Trust and thou shalt be glad. Trust, and thou shalt be calm. In the measure of thy trust shall be the measure of thy joy and peace.
Notice, further, how indissolubly connected the present exercise of faith is with the present experience of joy and peace. The exuberant language of this text seems a world too wide for anything that many professing Christians ever know even in the moments of highest elevation, and certainly far beyond the ordinary tenor of their lives. But it is no wonder that these should have so little joy, when they have so little faith. It is only while we are looking to Jesus that we can expect to have joy and peace. There is no flashing light on the surface of the mirror, but when it is turned full to the sun. Any interruption in the electric current is registered accurately by an interruption in the continuous line perforated on the telegraph ribbon; and so every diversion of heart and faith from Jesus Christ is recorded by the fading of the sunshine out of the heart, and the silencing of all the song-birds. Yesterday’s faith will not bring joy to-day; you cannot live upon past experience, nor feed your souls with the memory of former exercises of Christian faith. It must be like the manna, gathered fresh every day, else it will rot and smell foul. A present faith, and a present faith only, produces a present joy and peace. Is there, then, any wonder that so much of the ordinary experience of ordinary Christians should present a sadly broken line-a bright point here and there, separated by long stretches of darkness? The gaps in the continuity of their joy are the tell-tale indicators of the interruptions in their faith. If the latter were continuous, the former would be unbroken. Always believe, and you will always be glad and calm.
It is easy to see that this is the natural result of faith. The very act of confident reliance on another for all my safety and well-being has a charm to make me restful, so long as my reliance is not put to shame. There is no more blessed emotion than the tranquil happiness which, in the measure of its trust, fills every trustful soul. Even when its objects are poor, fallible, weak, ignorant dying men and women, trust brings a breath of more than earthly peace into the heart. But when it grasps the omnipotent, all-wise, immortal Christ, there are no bounds but its own capacity to the blessedness which it brings into the soul, because there is none to the all-sufficient grace of which it lays hold.
Observe again how accurately the Apostle defines for us the conditions on which Christian experience will be joyful and tranquil. It is ‘in believing,’ not in certain other exercises of mind, that these blessings are to be realised. And the forgetfulness of that plain fact leads to many good people’s religion being very much more gloomy and disturbed than God meant it to be. For a large part of it consists in sadly testing their spiritual state, and gazing at their failures and imperfections. There is nothing cheerful or tranquillising in grubbing among the evils of your own heart, and it is quite possible to do that too much and too exclusively. If your favourite subject of contemplation in your religious thinking is yourself, no wonder that you do not get much joy and peace out of that. If you do, it will be of a false kind. If you are thinking more about your own imperfections than about Christ’s pardon, more about the defects of your own love to Him than about the perfection of His love to you, if instead of practising faith you are absorbed in self-examination, and instead of saying to yourself, ‘I know how foul and unworthy I am, but I look away from myself to my Saviour,’ you are bewailing your sins and doubting whether you are a Christian, you need not expect God’s angels of joy and peace to nestle in your heart. It is ‘in believing,’ and not in other forms of religious contemplation, however needful these may in their places be, that these fair twin sisters come to us and make their abode with us.
Then, the second step in this tracing of the origin of the hope which has the brighter source is the consideration that the joy and peace which spring from faith, in their turn produce that confident anticipation of future and progressive good.
Herein lies the distinguishing blessedness of the Christian joy and peace, in that they carry in themselves the pledge of their own eternity. Here, and here only, the mad boast which is doomed to be so miserably falsified when applied to earthly gladness is simple truth. Here ‘to-morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant.’ Such joy has nothing in itself which betokens exhaustion, as all the less pure joys of earth have. It is manifestly not born for death, as are they. It is not fated, like all earthly emotions or passions, to expire in the moment of its completeness, or even by sudden revulsion to be succeeded by its opposite. Its sweetness has no after pang of bitterness. It is not true of this gladness, that ‘Hereof cometh in the end despondency and madness,’ but its destiny is to ‘remain’ as long as the soul in which it unfolds shall exist, and ‘to be full’ as long as the source from which it flows does not run dry.
So that the more we experience the present blessedness, which faith in Christ brings us, the more shall we be sure that nothing in the future, either in or beyond time, can put an end to it; and hence a hope that looks with confident eyes across the gorge of death, to the ‘shining tablelands’ on the other side, and is as calm as certitude, shall be ours. To the Christian soul, rejoicing in the conscious exercise of faith and the conscious possession of its blessed results, the termination of a communion with Christ, so real and spiritual, by such a trivial accident as death, seems wildly absurd and therefore utterly impossible. Just as Christ’s Resurrection seems inevitable as soon as we grasp the truth of His divine nature, and it becomes manifestly impossible that He, being such as He is-should be holden of death,’ being such as it is, so for His children, when once they come to know the realities of fellowship with their Lord, they feel the entire dissimilarity of these to anything in the realm which is subjected to the power of death, and to know it to be as impossible that these purely spiritual experiences should be reduced to inactivity, or meddled with by it, as that a thought should be bound with a cord or a feeling fastened with fetters. They, and death, belong to two different regions. It can work its will on ‘this wide world, and all its fading sweets’-but is powerless in the still place where the soul and Jesus hold converse, and all His joy passes into His servant’s heart. I saw, not long since, in a wood a mass of blue wild hyacinths, that looked like a little bit of heaven dropped down upon earth. You and I may have such a tiny bit of heaven itself lying amidst all the tangle of our daily lives, if only we put our trust in Christ, and so get into our hearts some little portion of that joy that is unspeakable, and that peace that passeth understanding.
Thus, then, the sorrows of the earthly experience and the joys of the Christian life will blend together to produce the one blessed result of a hope that is full of certainty, and is the assurance of immortality. There is no rainbow in the sky unless there be both a black cloud and bright sunshine. So, on the blackest, thickest thunder-mass of our sorrows, if smitten into moist light by the sunshine of joy and peace drawn from Jesus Christ by faith, there may be painted the rainbow of hope, the many-coloured, steadfast token of the faithful covenant of the faithful God.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Let each one of us please his neighbor for…
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifyin g.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v7 Brotherly harmony makes the common praise of God possible:
Brotherly harmony makes the common praise of God possible:
v. 7. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
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v. 8. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers,
v. 9. and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, For this cause I will confess to Thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name.
v. 10. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people.
v. 11. and again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud Him, all ye people.
v. 12. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles trust.
v. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost!
Therefore, in order that such praise might be possible, and that the object of such harmonious praise be attained, receive, welcome, one another; let both parties show the spirit which is in Christ, according to the will of Christ. And this mutual acceptance and kindly treatment should be according to the measure of Christ’s acceptance of us and should redound to the glory of God, the final end of the Christian’s whole life. We Christians are called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, 1Co 1:9. The obligation thus rests upon us to cultivate the spirit of harmony. The harmonious life and worship of the believers is now described in detail: For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers, v. 8; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, v. 9a. When Christ came, His first direct service was in the interest of the circumcised people or nation, the Jews; in His ministry He served principally the Jews, because He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mat 15:24, and out of their midst gathered His own little congregation of disciples. And the apostles took up His work where He had ceased: they preached to the Jews first and established congregations in Judea. This work of His prophetic office Christ carried on in this manner for the sake of the truth of God, in the interest of God’s veracity, namely, in order to confirm the promises made to the fathers. The Messiah had been promised to the patriarchs and then to the children of Israel; out of them, according to the flesh, He was to be born; in their midst He was to live and perform His work. This promise of God was fulfilled; the veracity of God was vindicated. And all the true Israelites that have, by faith, become partakers of Christ’s salvation now praise God and extol His glory for keeping His promises to the fathers. But while the Jews praised God for confirming, for carrying into effect His promises, the heathen glorify His name on account of His mercy, because God out of free grace has given them the same glorious gift and benefit as the children of Israel, to whom the promises were entrusted. Thus Jesus Christ became a minister also to the Gentiles, namely, by sending out His messengers to all nations and gathering His Church out of all the people of the world by the preaching of the Gospel. To the faithfulness of God the Jews and to the mercy of God the Gentiles owe their possession of salvation in Jesus Christ.
This last thought is now substantiated by the apostle by a reference to several passages of the Old Testament in which the conversion of the Gentiles was prophesied, thus indicating that the eternal counsel of God was being put into execution in their case. The first reference is to Psa 18:49: For this reason I will confess to Thee, glorify Thee exceedingly, among the Gentiles and sing hymns to Thy name. The Messiah, speaking through the mouth of David, praises the wondrous things which God has done to the nations, in the midst of the Gentiles, for their salvation. And the message of salvation provokes the praises of the Gentiles, as the following quotations prove: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people, Deu 32:43; All ye Gentiles, praise the Lord; and praise Him highly, all ye people, Psa 117:1. The Gentiles, together with the children of Israel, are urgently invited to sing praises to God for the fullness of His mercy, and thus show their membership in the true, spiritual Israel. The fourth quotation is from Isa 11:10: There will be the Root of Jesse, and He that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in Him will the Gentiles hope. Christ, the descendant of Jesse, the offspring of David according to the flesh, will extend His dominion of grace among the Gentiles, through the preaching of the Gospel, and the result will be that the Gentiles will place their hopes in Him as their only Savior and Redeemer. Thus the Church of the New Testament is a communion of believing Jews and regenerated Gentiles, united in the worship of the true God and the Father of Jesus Christ, their Savior. And this harmony shall properly find its expression in the entire relation of the believers toward each other, charitable consideration for the brethren being the motive of all their actions. This ideal, of course, cannot be reached by their own reason and strength; it necessitates the continual assistance of the Holy Spirit. And therefore Paul, in closing this section and the body of the letter, writes: But the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, to make you abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit, v. 13. The God who is able to grant, and does give, hope, who keeps the mind of the believers directed upon the great fulfillment of all their desires, is able also to fill the hearts of His children with the greatest joy, with all possible joy, and with that peace which passes all understanding, since these both rest upon, and flow out of, faith in Jesus the Savior. With this assistance on the part of God, the hope of the Christians will not be a wavering and uncertain opinion, but a divine certainty, making them abound in hope, giving them the joyful confidence in the fulfillment of their salvation, in the realization of future glory. This wonderful gift is made possible in us through the power of the Spirit, who causes joy and peace to grow stronger with hope, and thus leads our hearts and minds forward to the blessed goal of our destination.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5 it was just as it is written
it was just as it is written
Here Paul refers to a scripture where Christ (the Messiah) speaks to God. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "the Messiah said to God in the scriptures" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)
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The insults of those who insulted you fell on me
The insults of those who insulted God fell on Christ.
For whatever was previously written was written for our instruction
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "For in times past, the prophets wrote everything in the Scriptures to teach us" (See: Active or Passive)
our ... we
Paul includes his readers and other believers. (See: Inclusive "We")
in order that through patience and through encouragement of the scriptures we would have certain hope
Here "have confidence" means that the believers will know that God will fulfill his promises. You can make explicit the full meaning in your translation. AT: "In this way the scriptures will encourage us to expect that God will do for us everything that he has promised" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Christ
written
patient
word of God
confidence
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7 15:2 others (literally the neighbor): See Lev 19:18, quoted…
15:2 others (literally the neighbor): See Lev 19:18, quoted in Rom 13:9. Love for others should govern the conduct of people who are strong in faith.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.