PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 247,864 words · 346 reading sections
Work Out Your Own Salvation
This apparent incompatibility is no reason for rejecting truths each commended to our acceptance on its own proper grounds. It may be a reason for not attempting to dogmatise about them. It may be a warning to us that we are on ground where our limited understandings have no firm footing, but it is no ground for suspec…
970 wordsSECTION 122Copies Of Jesus
'Do all things without murmurings and disputings; 15. That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, 16. Holding forth the word of life.'--PHIL. ii. 14-16 (R.V.). We are told by some superfine…
728 wordsSECTION 123Copies Of Jesus
II. The conscious aim in all our activity. What God works in us for is that for which we too are to yield ourselves to His working, 'without murmurings and disputings,' and to co-operate with glad submission and cheerful obedience. We are to have as our distinct aim the building up of a character 'blameless and harmle…
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III. The solemn reason for this aim. That is drawn from a consideration of the office and function of Christian men. Their position in the midst of a 'crooked and perverse generation' devolves on them a duty in relation to that generation. They are to 'appear as lights in the world.' The relation between them and it i…
552 wordsSECTION 125A Willing Sacrifice
'That I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labour in vain. 17. Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. 18. And in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.'--PHIL. ii. 16-18 (R.V.). We come …
819 wordsSECTION 126A Willing Sacrifice
But there is another way of looking at Paul's words as being an indication of his warm love for the Philippians. Even among the glories, he would feel his heart filled with new gladness when he found them there. The hunger for the good of others which cannot bear to think even of heaven without their presence has been …
837 wordsSECTION 127A Willing Sacrifice
We may point here to the two great thoughts in Paul's words, and notice the priesthood and sacrifice of life, and the sacrifice and libation of death. The Philippians offered as their sacrifice their faith, and all the works which flow therefrom. Is that our idea of life? Is it our idea of faith? We have no gifts to br…
691 wordsSECTION 128A Willing Sacrifice
Paul, living, rejoiced in the prospect of death. We may be sure that he rejoiced in it no less dead than living. And we may permissibly think of this text as suggesting how 'The saints on earth and all the dead But one communion make,' and are to be united in one joy. They rejoice for their own sakes, but their joy …
331 wordsSECTION 129Paul And Timothy
'But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. 20. For I have no man like-minded, who will care truly for your state. 21. For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. 22. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child ser…
674 wordsSECTION 130Paul And Timothy
I. The prisoner's longing and hope. The first point which strikes us in this self-revelation of Paul's is his conscious uncertainty as to his future. In the previous chapter (ver. 25) he is confident that he will live. In the verses immediately preceding our text he faces the possibility of death. Here he recognises t…
807 wordsSECTION 131Paul And Timothy
II. The prisoner solitary among self-seeking men. With wonderful self-surrender the Apostle thinks of his lack of like-minded companions as being a reason for depriving himself of the only like-minded one who was left with him. He felt that Timothy's sympathetic soul would truly care for the Philippians' condition, an…
741 wordsSECTION 132Paul And Timothy
It is a solemn estimate of some professing Christians which the Apostle gives here, if he is including the members of the Roman Church in his judgment that they are not 'like-minded' with him, and are 'seeking their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.' We may rather hope that he is speaking of others around him, and t…
713 wordsSECTION 133Paul And Epaphroditus
Let us not forget that in the field of Christian service there is room for all manner of workers, and that they are associated, however different their work. Paul often calls Timothy his 'fellow-labourer,' and once gives him the eulogium, 'he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do.' Think of the difference between t…
673 wordsSECTION 134Paul And Epaphroditus
He had an illness which was probably the consequence of his toil. Perhaps over-exertion in travel, or perhaps his Macedonian constitution could not bear the enervating air of Rome, or perhaps Paul's prison was unhealthy. At any rate he worked till he made himself ill. The news reached Philippi in some round-about way, …
733 wordsSECTION 135Paul And Epaphroditus
We briefly note some general lessons which may be suggested by the picture of Epaphroditus as he stands by the side of Paul. The first one suggested is the very familiar one of the great uniting principle which a common faith in Christ brought into action. Think of the profound clefts of separation between the Macedon…
712 wordsSECTION 136Preparing To End
'Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe. 2. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision: 3. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no con…
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We do not sufficiently realise the Christian duty of Christian joy, some of us even take mortified countenances and voices in a minor key as marks of grace, and there is but little in any of us of 'the joy in the Lord' which a saint of the Old Testament had learned was our 'strength.' There is plenty of gladness amongs…
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The Apostle here is not only telling us who are the truly circumcised, but at the same time he is telling us what makes a Christian, and he states three points in which, as I take it, he begins at the end and works backwards to the beginning. 'We are the circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God'--that is the final…
672 wordsSECTION 139Preparing To End
That self-distrust should pass into glorying in Christ Jesus. If a man has learned his emptiness he will look about for something to fill it. Unless I know myself to be under condemnation because of my sin, and fevered, disturbed, and made wretched, by its inward consequences which forbid repose, the sweetest words of …
699 wordsSECTION 140The Loss Of All
Such worship is the obligation as well as the prerogative of the Christian. We have no right to say that we have truly forsaken confidence in ourselves, and are truly 'glorying' in Christ Jesus, unless our daily life is communion with God, and all your work 'worshipping by the Spirit of God.' Such communion and worship…
696 wordsSECTION 141The Loss Of All
As to the points enumerated, they are those which made the ideal to a Jew, including purity of race, punctilious orthodoxy, flaming zeal, pugnacious antagonism, and blameless morality. With reference to race, the Jewish pride was in 'circumcision on the eighth day,' which was the exclusive privilege of one of pure bloo…
718 wordsSECTION 142The Loss Of All
II. The discovery of their worthlessness. 'These have I counted loss for Christ.' There is a possibility of exaggeration in interpreting Paul's words. The things that were 'gain' to him were in themselves better than their opposites. It is better to to be 'blameless' than to have a life all stained with foulness and r…
671 wordsSECTION 143The Gain Of Christ
III. The continuous repetition of the discovery. Paul compares his present self with his former Christian self, and with a vehement 'Yea, verily,' affirms his former judgment, and reiterates it in still more emphatic terms. It is often easy to depreciate the treasures which we possess. They sometimes grow in value as …
847 wordsSECTION 144The Gain Of Christ
The other expression in the text, 'be found in Him,' presents the same truth from the completing point of view. We gain Christ in us when we are 'found in Him.' We are to be incorporated as members are in the body, or imbedded as a stone in the foundation, or to go back to the sweetest words, which are the source of al…
968 wordsSECTION 145The Gain Of Christ
But Paul looked for this great gift as a gift in Christ. It was when he was 'found in Him' that it became his, and he was found 'blameless.' That gift of an imparted life, which has a bias towards all goodness, and the natural operation of which is to incline all our faculties towards conformity with the will of God, i…
755 wordsSECTION 146Saving Knowledge
We should ever have before us that hour, and our life's aim should ever definitely include the final scrutiny in which many a hidden thing will come to light, many a long-lost thing be found, and each man's ultimate place in relation to Jesus Christ will be freed from uncertainties, ambiguities, hypocrisies, and disgui…
782 wordsSECTION 147Saving Knowledge
The knowledge which was Paul's life's aim was knowledge of a Person: the object determines the nature of the knowledge. The mental act of knowing a proposition or a science or even of knowing about a person by hearing of him is different from that of knowing people when we have lived beside them. We need not be afraid …
852 wordsSECTION 148Saving Knowledge
Further, the Resurrection is treated by Paul as having a power for our justification, in so far as the risen Lord bestows upon us by His risen life the blessings of His righteousness. Paul also represents the Resurrection of Christ as having the power of quickening our Spiritual life. I need not spend time in quoting t…
720 wordsSECTION 149Saving Knowledge
But yet His Death, like His Resurrection, is set forth in Scripture as being a type and power of ours. We have to die to the world by the power of the Cross. If we truly trust in His sacrifice there will operate upon us motives which separate and detach us from our old selves and the old world. A fundamental, ethical, …
798 wordsSECTION 150Saving Knowledge
IV. The end attained. The Christian life as here manifested is even in its highest forms manifestly incomplete. It is a reflected light, and like the reflected light in the heavens, advances by imperceptible degrees to fill the whole silver round. It may be 'e'en in its imperfections beautiful,' but it assuredly has '…
910 wordsSECTION 151Laid Hold Of And Laying Hold
'I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus.'--PHIL. iii. 12. 'I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.' That is how Paul thinks of what we call his conversion. He would never have 'turned' unless a hand had been laid upon him. A strong loving grasp had gripped him in the…
731 wordsSECTION 152Laid Hold Of And Laying Hold
Conversion. Yes; but what is the good of turning a man round unless he goes in the direction in which his face is turned? And so here the Apostle having for years lived in the light of that great thought, that God was reconciled in Jesus Christ, and that he was God's friend, discerns far beyond that, in dim perspective…
890 wordsSECTION 153Laid Hold Of And Laying Hold
'The power of His Resurrection.' Now, by that I understand a similar knowledge, by experience, of the risen life of Jesus Christ flowing into us, and filling our hearts and minds with its own power. The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian. Our daily experience o…
657 wordsSECTION 154Laid Hold Of And Laying Hold
II. Notice, again, our laying hold because we have been laid hold of. Christ's laying hold of me, blessed and powerful as it is, does not of itself secure that I shall reach the end which He had in view in His arresting of me. What more is wanted? My effort. 'I follow after if I may apprehend that for which also I am …
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Because incomplete, our experience should be progressive; and that is a truth that needs hammering into Christian people to-day. About how many of us can it be said that our light 'shineth more and more unto the noonday.' Alas! about an enormous number of us it must be said, 'When for the time ye ought to be teachers, …
354 wordsSECTION 156The Race And The Goal
'This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize.'--PHIL. iii. 13, 14. This buoyant energy and onward looking are marvellous in 'Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.' Forgetfulness of the p…
815 wordsSECTION 157The Race And The Goal
How different all our estimate of nearer objects and aims would be, if once we clearly recognised what we are here for! The prostitution of powers to obviously unworthy aims and ends is the saddest thing in humanity. It is like elephants being set to pick up pins; it is like the lightning being harnessed to carry all t…
1,177 wordsSECTION 158The Race And The Goal
III. Pursue this end with a wise forgetfulness. 'Forgetting the things that are behind.' The art of forgetting has much to do with the blessedness and power of every life. Of course, when the Apostle says 'Forgetting the things that are behind,' he is thinking of the runner, who has no time to cast his eye over his sh…
727 wordsSECTION 159The Race And The Goal
IV. So, lastly, pursue the aim with a wise, eager reaching forward. The Apostle employs a very graphic word here, which is only very partially expressed by that 'reaching forth.' It contains a condensed picture which it is scarcely possible to put into any one expression. 'Reaching out over' is the full though clumsy …
531 wordsSECTION 160The Soul'S Perfection
'Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.'--PHIL. iii. 15. 'As many as be perfect'; and how many may they be? Surely a very short bede-roll would contain their names; or would there be any other but the Name which is abo…
809 wordsSECTION 161The Soul'S Perfection
People sneer at 'saints' and point at their failings. They remind us of the foul stains in David's career, for instance, and mock as they ask, 'Is this your man after God's own heart?' Yes, he is; not because religion has a morality of its own different from that of the world (except as being higher), nor because 'sain…
967 wordsSECTION 162The Soul'S Perfection
Another characteristic to which these perfect men are exhorted is a constant striving after a further advance. How vigorously, almost vehemently, that temper is put in the context--'I follow after'; 'I press toward the mark'; and that picturesque 'reaching forth,' or, as the Revised Version gives it, 'stretching forwar…
656 wordsSECTION 163The Soul'S Perfection
III. We have here also distinctly brought out the co-existence with these characteristics of their opposites. 'If in anything ye are otherwise minded,' says Paul. I have already suggested that this expression evidently refers not to difference of opinion among themselves, but to a divergence of character from the patt…
740 wordsSECTION 164The Soul'S Perfection
IV. The crowning hope that lies in these words is the certainty of a gradual but complete attainment of all the Christian aspirations after God and goodness. The ground of that confidence lies in no natural tendencies in us, in no effort of ours, but solely in that great name which is the anchor of all our confidence,…
650 wordsSECTION 165The Rule Of The Road
'Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.'--PHIL. iii. 16. Paul has just been laying down a great principle--viz. that if the main direction of a life be right, God will reveal to a man the points in which he is wrong. But that principle is untrue and dangerous, unless carefully g…
836 wordsSECTION 166The Rule Of The Road
But we shall not do that without a distinct effort. For it is a great deal easier to live from hand to mouth than to live by principle. It is a great deal easier to accept what seems forced upon us by circumstances than to exercise control over the circumstances, and make them bend to God's holy will. It is a great dea…
682 wordsSECTION 167The Rule Of The Road
And, in like manner, another side of this thought is, be true to your convictions. There is no such barrier to a larger and wholesomer view of our duty as the neglect of anything that plainly is our duty. It stands there, an impassable cliff between us and all progress. Let us live and be what we know we ought to be, a…
669 wordsSECTION 168The Rule Of The Road
Conventional Godliness, Christian people cut after one pattern, a little narrow round of certain statutory duties and obligations, a parrot-like repetition of certain words, a mechanical copying of certain methods of life, an oppressive sameness, mark so much of modern religion. What a freshening up there would come in…
764 wordsSECTION 169Warnings And Hopes
'Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house'--the prize won is heaven. But 'blessed are they in whose hearts are the ways'--the prize desired and strained after is heaven upon earth. We may all live a life of continual advancement, each step leading upwards, for the road always climbs, to purer air, grander scenery, and …
715 wordsSECTION 170Warnings And Hopes
From this dark picture charged with gloom, and in one corner showing white waves breaking far out against an inky sky, and a vessel with torn sails driving on the rocks, the Apostle turns with relief to the brighter words in which he sets forth the true affinities and hopes of a Christian. They all stand or fall with t…
661 wordsSECTION 171Warnings And Hopes
III. The Christian sharing in Christ's glory. The same precise distinction between 'fashion' and 'form,' which we have had occasion to notice in Chapter II., recurs here. The 'fashion' of the body of our humiliation is external and transient; the 'form' of the body of His glory to which we are to be assimilated consis…
748 wordsSECTION 172Warnings And Hopes
Our text leads us to think of the wondrous transformation into Christ's likeness. We know not what are the differences between the body of our humiliation and the body of His glory, but we must not be led away by the word Resurrection to fall into the mistake of supposing that in death we 'sow that body which shall be.…
502 wordsSECTION 173I. Thessalonians
ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, FIRST AND SECOND THESSALONIANS AND FIRST TIMOTHY A TENDER EXHORTATION (Phil. iv. 1) 1 NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE (Phil. iv. 3) 11 REJOICE EVERMORE (Phil. iv. 4) 21 HOW TO OBEY AN IMPOSSIBLE INJUNCTION (Phil. iv. 6) 31 THE WARRIOR PEACE (Phil. iv. 7) 39…
253 wordsSECTION 174A Tender Exhortation
CHRIST GLORIFIED IN GLORIFIED MEN (2 Thess. i. 10) 248 WORTHY OF YOUR CALLING (2 Thess. i. 11, 12) 256 EVERLASTING CONSOLATION AND GOOD HOPE (2 Thess. ii. 16, 17) 267 THE HEART'S HOME AND GUIDE (2 Thess. iii. 5) 277 THE LORD OF PEACE AND THE PEACE OF THE LORD (2 Thess. iii. 16) 288 THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT (1 Ti…
802 wordsSECTION 175A Tender Exhortation
But, dear brethren, though conscious of many failures in this respect, I yet thank God that here, at the end of nearly forty years of a ministry, I can look you in the face and believe that your look responds to mine, and that I can take these words as the feathers for my arrow, as that which will make words otherwise …
756 wordsSECTION 176A Tender Exhortation
In addition to all these, there are ups and downs of our own nature, the fluctuations which are sure to occur in any human heart, when faith seems to ebb and falter, and love to die down almost into cold ashes. But, dear brethren, whilst we shall always be liable to these fluctuations of feeling, it is possible for us …
666 wordsSECTION 177A Tender Exhortation
Now, whilst all these things that I have been trying to say have reference to Christian people at all stages of their spiritual history, they have a very especial reference to those in the earlier part of Christian life. And I want to say to those who have only just begun to run the Christian life, very lovingly and v…
763 wordsSECTION 178A Tender Exhortation
One last word. That steadfastness is the condition without which we have no right to entertain that hope. If we keep ourselves near Christ, and if by keeping ourselves near Him, we are becoming day by day liker Him, then we may have calm confidence that He will perfect that which concerns us. But I, for my part, can f…
261 wordsSECTION 179Names In The Book Of Life
'Other my fellow-labourers whose names are in the book of life.'--PHIL. iv. 3. Paul was as gentle as he was strong. Winsome courtesy and delicate considerateness lay in his character, in beautiful union with fiery impetuosity and undaunted tenacity of conviction. We have here a remarkable instance of his quick appreh…
698 wordsSECTION 180Names In The Book Of Life
So, then, the first thought that comes out of this great metaphor is that all of us, if we are Christian people, belong to another polity, another order of things than that in which our outward lives are spent. And the plain, practical conclusion that comes from it is, cultivate the sense of belonging to another order.…
880 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.