_Therefore_ Seeing that most of you have continued so ignorant, although you have been so long favoured with the light of the gospel, and various means of edification, it is high time for you to labour for more knowledge and grace, and for me to instruct you further; _leaving the principles of the d... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this we will do_ We will go on to perfection; _if God permit_ That is, afford assistance and opportunity. And we will do this the rather, and the more diligently, because _it is impossible for those who were once enlightened_ With the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, (Ephesians 4:21,)... [ Continue Reading ]
_If they fall away_ Literally, _and have fallen away._ The preceding participles, φωτισθεντας, γευσαμενους, and γενηθεντας, being aorists, says Macknight, “are rightly rendered by our translators in the past time; _who were enlightened, have tasted, were made partakers;_ wherefore παραπεσοντας, bein... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the earth which drinketh in the rain_, &c. Thus they to whom the gospel is preached, and who believe and embrace it, bring forth the fruits of repentance, faith, and new obedience, and are accepted and blessed by God with further measures of grace, according to Matthew 13:12; Matthew 25:29, whe... [ Continue Reading ]
_But, beloved_ In this one place he calls them so. He never uses this appellation but in exhorting; _we are persuaded better things of you_ Than those intimated verges 4-6. This is exactly in St. Paul's manner of softening the harsh things he found himself obliged to write. See Eph 4:20; 2 Thessalon... [ Continue Reading ]
_That ye be not slothful_ Νωθροι, careless and negligent, or dull, sluggish, and indolent, namely, in the use of the means of grace, or in those works of piety and virtue which are the proper fruits of faith and love; _but followers_ μιμηται, _imitators; of them who through faith_ In God, and in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_For when God made promise_, &c. As if he had said, And it appears that this is the way to partake of mercies promised, because Abraham was obliged to exercise faith and long-suffering before he obtained the accomplishment of the promise made to him. The promise here referred to, is that which God m... [ Continue Reading ]
_For men verily swear by the greater_ By persons greater than themselves, whose vengeance they imprecate if they swear falsely; and particularly by Him who is infinitely greater than themselves; _and an oath for confirmation_ To confirm what is promised or asserted; _is to them an end of all strife_... [ Continue Reading ]
_That by two immutable things in_ either, much more in both, of _which it was impossible for God to lie_ To alter his purpose and disappoint our expectation; _we might have a strong consolation_ A powerful argument to believe the promise with a confidence excluding all doubt and fear, and might rece... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whither the forerunner_ Προδρομος, _a forerunner_, is one who goes before to do some service for another who is to follow: in which sense also the Latin word _ante-cursor_ is used. A forerunner uses to be less in dignity than those that are to follow him: but it is not so here; for Christ, who is g... [ Continue Reading ]