Laying aside every weight; [1] i.e. all that may hinder us when we run in the way of virtue.--- To the fight proposed to us. In the Greek it is ore clear: let us run the proposed race. He compares the condition of Christians to those who run a race, who fight or strive for a prize in the Olympic gam... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who having joy [2] proposed to him, underwent the cross. The sense seems to be, who by reason of the joy he had to perform the will of his eternal Father, for which he knew he should be exalted above all creatures, underwent willingly the ignominy and death of the cross. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY]... [ Continue Reading ]
_You have not yet resisted unto blood. Though you have met with some persecutions, you have not yet shed your blood for his sake who laid down his life, and shed every drop of his blood for you. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_You have forgotten the consolation, &c. He puts them in mind, that it ought to be a subject of great comfort to them, that God calls them his children, his sons, and treats them as his true and legitimate children, when he admonished them to live under the discipline and obedience to him, when, to... [ Continue Reading ]
In these last four verses we may observe as many subjects of consolation under afflictions. God, our Father, is the author of them; the chastisement he inflicts is the proof of his love; it is the sign or mark of our divine adoption; it is a necessary condition of our being adopted.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is true all discipline, all corrections, and sufferings in this present life, are disagreeable to our nature, because they bring not joy, but trouble and grief with them; yet afterwards, they who have been exercised with them, will reap _the most peaceable fruit of justice, eternal peace and happ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore life up the [4] hands, &c. Be fervent in piety, walk firmly in the way of virtue, make straight [5] steps, without declining to one side or the other, without halting or going astray, and strive to be healed from your sins by his grace. --- Follow and seek peace, as much as lies in you, w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be wanting to the grace of God, by resisting and abusing his favours, or by falling from the grace of God received. --- Lest any root of bitterness, &c. He means scandalous wicked persons, by whom others are infected, defiled, and corrupted. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Or profane person, as Esau, who had so little regard for the blessing and inheritance of his father, that he sold his right of first-begotten for one mess of broth, and afterwards found no place for repentance, although with tears he had sought for it; that is, he could not make his father repent or... [ Continue Reading ]
_He found, &c. That is, he found no way to bring his father to repent, or change his mind, with relation to his having given the blessing to his younger brother, Jacob. (Challoner)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_For you are not come to a mountain, [7] &c. That is, to a mountain on earth that can be touched; to wit, to Mount Sinai, where the law was given to Moses, where the mountain seemed all on fire, with dreadful thunder and lightning, whirlwinds, darkness, tempests, sounding of trumpets, voices, &c. wh... [ Continue Reading ]
But you are come to Mount Sion, where not a law of fear, like that of Moses, but a new law of love and mercy hath been given you, preached by our Saviour himself, and by his apostles, testified by the coming of the Holy Ghost, and by the effusion of God's spirit upon the believers. Here you are call... [ Continue Reading ]
_Refuse not then to hearken to him; for if the Jews escape not God's severe judgments, for being deaf to his admonitions, given by an Angel to Moses on Mount Sinai, and by him to the people, much less shall we escape, if we turn away our minds, and harden our hearts against the instructions of our R... [ Continue Reading ]
Whose voice then moved the earth, by such signs and prodigies on Mount Sinai: but now he promiseth, saying by the prophet Aggeus [Haggai]: yet once; and I will move not only the earth, but heaven also. These words of the prophet are commonly understood of Christ's first coming at his incarnation, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Some refer these words to the tabernacle, to the ark, the altar, and other parts of the Jewish religion; which, as figures were to be altered and to be replaced by the more lasting and more perfect dispensation of the gospel. (Estius)... [ Continue Reading ]