PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1
Arthur Lukyn Williams [1853-1943] · 499,653 words · 546 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 241
-prayer a.go.inst being brought into the fulnces in the Old Syrie.c, e.n "African" text or the ·and awfulness of temptation (cf. eh. xxvi. Old Le.tin,and the Thebaic. "It we.a probably 41: po.re.lie] pasS11ges: Mark xiv. 38: Luke derived ultimately from I Chron. xxix. 11 xxii. 46). As such it ce.nnot, indeed, 11lwe.y…
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developed con\emporaneously with ecole- only, but the being seen as futing-oon- sia.sticism, be(-ame the Received Text. :Be spicuousness, not mere semblRnce. Henoe not as the hypocrites, of a sad oountenance. "ll,,-.,.•vovTu is expressed (contrast ver, 5), The Revised Version, by inserting a comma siuce while in ver…
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(ver. 20). •Lay up treneure indeed, ·but in (Revised Version); 6 AJxvo, (eh. v. HJ, note). ' the right plnoo ( cf. e. still more striking cll88 The thought or the power which treasure in John vi. 27); observe that in both cases it has of attracting the heart forms the transi- is "for yourselves.'' Lightfoot(' Hor. H…
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-of the soul which is directed only earthward. against the other, Notioe how our Lord To limit this, with Lightfoot(' Hor. Hebr.'), continues his plan of setting forth the moral to covetousness ( cf. also Hatch, • Essays,' effect of modes of thought or action upon p. Sl), is far too partial an interpretation. the ag…
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rniiy, after all, have recorded them in their authorities, it is probably genuine, especially origino.l plo.ce. as there is no trace of it in Luke (but cf. Our Lord so.ye in these verses, "Dare to W eetcottaud Hort, 'Introd.,' p. 176). Is not the life more than meat 1 i.e. you possess follow out this warning that I h…
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So even the Rcviaed Version; but th<i Re- manufacture it when produce.-!. "Illud vised Version me.rgin "a~e," and so most virorum est, qui e.grum colunt; hoo mulie- modern oommentators (cf. the rendering rum domieedo.rum" (Wetstein). preferred by the American Committee, "the Ver. 29.-Luko xii. 27b almost verbally. …
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Save in reading "but" instend of lhe second mid to his disciples, Ask gf'eat thing,, and "for," Luke's seems the more original (P'or the emaU ,hall be added ID you; and aak after all these thinga do the Gentiles seek ;) hea1Jenl11 thing,, and the earthly ,hall be for your hea.venly Fat.her knoweth, etc. The added ID yo…
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has its two parts, the outward and the inward. We see the outward only. That may- seem to be good; but it is a mere falsehood unless it springs from worthy motives. The real action is the inward part, the inner choice of the will. It is the motive that gi~es colour, character, spiritual meaning to the act, that dete…
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love. True pr11.yer requires the continu11.l help of the Holy Spirit of God. Pray to thy F11.ther, not to the world; not to catch the ear of men, but only to God. Thou arL speaking; he is listening; he beareth, if the prayer. is really said to him. Otber motives, the thought of men, the desire of human praise, destr…
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\Ve mUBt hush our hearts into solemn reverence when we come before him in prayer. He is the great and awful God; the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. But yet he is our Father; he is very near to us, listening to the words of humble prayer, ready to help and save. We come before him with mingled f…
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by us 88 we wslk before him in the path of holy obedience. He has given us each a work to do; let us see that we do it. Faith without works is dead; the life of sanctifi- -cation within the heart must bring forth the fruits of holy living. (c) God's will ie better than our will ; he knows better than we what is for our…
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the soul that hath not love hath no forgiveness. The Lord shows the importance of this law of love by returning again to it. It is the one clause of the pr.ayer which he enforces by an additional warning. God will not forgive the unforgiving; such men turn the prayer which the Lord himself has taught us into a curse…
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expression of the inner assent of our hearts, teaching ue to pray this holy prayer in the full assurance of faith I IV. 'fHE THIRD EXAMPLE: FASTING, 1. The fast which the Lord hath chosen. The Pharisee in the parable pleads hie fasting twice in the week as a merit before God. The hypocrites me.de a show of their sel…
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middle way, no compromise. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thinq heart; " " Love not the world." 2. The one Master: his loving care for Ms servants, (1) Those who serve him must not be di\'idcd in mind; they must not allow over, anxiety concerning their earthly needs to distract their heart. They have bee…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-0stentatious religion. Having spoken of the duties of e1·eryday social life, our Lord now passes on to deal with specifically religious actions-almsgiving, prayer, fasting. One thing he condemns in regard to all of these actions, viz. ostentation. His great requirement is sincerity…
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pul,lic worship. The contrA.St they afford to the ostentatious worship of the Pharisees makes it clear that our Lord is not alluding to the general prayers of a congregation. For "'·ith the synagogue he associates the street corner (ver. 5), thus showing that he i1 thinking of a man's personal devotions throughout, …
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were ignorant, nor to persnade him as though he were reluctant to help. We have simply to make him the confidant of our hearts' desires, II. IT IS ADDRESSED TO THE FATHERHOOD OF GoD. The "Pater noster,. bas its key-note struck in its two opening words. 1. Goa's fatherly nature. 'l'he character of our prayer depends on…
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is to be stored in it. Possessions of land cannot be kept in a cash-box; works of. ar~ D:ust not be stowed away in a wine-cellar. If heaven is our treasury, only heavenly riches can be collected f here. It will not do for us to reckon our property by gold or any material things, for heaven has no room for such sordi…
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north; better be without a. pilot than be steered by a pirate. The scribes and Pharisees darkened conscience with casuistry; Jesuits have been accused of doing the same. but our own hearts are our greatest deceivers. "Keep conscience as the noontid~ clear."-W. F. A. Ver. 24.-The two masters. Christ here passes from th…
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about its issue take possession of our minds, we make the mistake our Lord deprecates. 2. The evil is concerned with bodily needs. The life, the food, the raiment. 'l'he idea is of being absorbed with deep concern for these temporal and external things. 3. The evil prevents concern for our higher interests and dutie…
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Vers. 5-8.-.As to the duty of prayer. As, in those duties of religion which take the shape of charitable action towards man, the :first law of all is that they be rendered with purity of motive and with directness of aim, free from self-consciousness and free from consciousness, either morbid or calculated upon, of the…
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V el', 10 (first part).-.The serond petitwn. The words of this brief petition pray that the kingdom of God may come in, this world. And it would sufficiently satisfy- the requirements of the words to understand them to pray for the. further g1'owth and more perfect <kvelopirg and advance of the kingdom and the princ…
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II. IT WILL BE DONE WITH TBF: ll'ULLEBT CONSENT 011' THE BEA.BT, Al>'D WITH THE -UNITED, UNDIBTRAOTED 00NBENT OF ALL THE POWERS, Ill. lT WILL JIE DONE WITH AN EVEB·GB0WINGLY BYIIIPATHETIC UNDEnSTAND1;\"G -OF IT. It is beyond us to say that God's will is done even in heaven with (or much less for the mere reason of) a…
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what-any one can owe to ns; still these facts more natumlly both fall uniler the description of" debts." Again, though the words "debts" and "debtors" are virtually commented upon by the" trespasses" of ver. 14, it is not impossible that they suggest the sequence of this petition upon the one preceding it. W II have…
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2. 'fo reveal to that nature the forces that are withvn it also; and to waken its know!e,lge as much of their difference in kind as of their existence. III. THE USES OJ' TEMPTATION, 1. To challenge, determine, fix the tone and direction of the character of any and every person. 2. To strengthen greatly, by decision an…
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ihe third follows, on "the manner of fasting." We have not here any expreea injunction to fast, nor had we any to give alms or to pray. In each case the prefatory words are in the same form, "when thou doest thine alms;" "when thou prayest;" and now, "when ye fast." However, not only is there not one disparaging wor…
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incumbent necessity or advantage in stringing such pearls e.e these, at any rate. With this proviso, it is possible to suggest that there is a connection to be traced, not fanciful between what we have here and the foregoing eighteen verses-that whereas the solenu: refrain of each of the three examples which they co…
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knowledge. 2. To initiate, and direct, and condnct, a wide variety of intelligent action, The body, which otherwise would be only an opaque mass of living, throbbing energy, but groping because of darkness, losing the right way I missing aim and vainly beating the air, wastiug terribly the vital force it had, become…
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Vere. 1-18.-Sermon on tM moont: 4. OstentatiO'US religion. After indicating tbe righteousness which admits to the kingdom of heaven, our Lord proceeds to warn against a flaw that vitiates the goodness of many religious people, and to illustrate it in connection with three chief characteristics of the religious life of …
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consider and seek his child's good without waiting to be asked? le It otherwise with God? But we are commanded to pray, and this of itself is sufficient jUBtification. Also it is natural-the great mass of men having/rayed without command, This, if not a justification of the practice, shows we shoul see clearly befor…
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earthly. He had eeen how the fear of poverty influenced men, and seen, by a variety of arguments, to root out undue thought for the morrow. J. IF GOD OIVEB YOU LIFE, HE WILL ALBO GIVE YOU SUITABLE FOOD AND CLOTH- ING, The greater gift implies the less. The heavenly Father who could produce so marvellous o. work e.s th…
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V crs. 1-4.-Almsgiving. Underlying this subject is that of social inequnlity. Without the latter there would be no necessity and therefore no opportunity for alms- giving. Poverty is not an unmitigated evil. A.ffinence is not an unmixed good. I. t:lOCIAL INEQUALITY IS A BENEFIOENT ARI\ANGEMENT. 1. It aids the progre…
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men is the offence. For God, not man, is the Source of reward. (2) "Let not thy left hand know," etc. So do e:ood things as to be, as little as possible, conscious of it yourself. Mosas wiet not that the skin of his face shone. So the godly shine, though to themselves their shining is unseen. (3) To the truly charitabl…
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III. FAITH. 1. Prayer gives no /111,formati<Yn, t-0 God. (1) " Thy Father seeth in secret." God reads all hearts. (2) "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of." God knows his own resources. (3) He knoweth "before ye ask him." "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning." 2. Prayer is enjoined to help…
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Vere. 10, 11.-Tke Lord's Prayer (part 2). The verses before us contain three of the seven petitions of this model prayer. These are- I. THAT THE KmGDOH OF Gon MIGHT OOME, 1. Goirs absolute empire is in his arm. (1) It was there before the creation. From everlasting. Essentially. (2) Millions of possible universes now …
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Vers. 12-15.-The Lord's Prayer (part 3). Having considered three of the seven petitions of this wonderful prayer, we come to consider those remaining, which have reference to the forgiveness of evil and deliverance from the evil one. I. Tim FORGIVENESS OF EVIL. 1. We need thi,s, (1) !<'or we inherit depravity with …
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of lmpudeuce and folly. (3) H is supreme ingratitude to take all from God ~nd give him no thanks. 2. it is shameful hypocrisy. (1) Fasting is an expression of humilia- tion and mourning (cf. Pa. xxxv. 13; Isa. lviii. 6-7). The disfigured face was produced by ashes and earth, with disordered hair and austere and dole…
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of grace. (1) The term of our natural life is given as a probation to be utilized for eternity. It is the seedtime which, if neglected, will leave us to reap a harvest o! thorns and thistles. (2) The God of grace is also the G< d of providence. The prin- ciples of grace, therefore, have their lessons of providence f…
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and philantliropical societies will have due consideration. (3) He will cultivate the spirit of Ohrist, so that he may relieve the needs of men without wounding their sensibilities or injuring their self-respect. (4) In all things he will seek direction from God in praycr.--J. A. M. Vere. 22, 23.-Pwpose. The eye is th…
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Vers. 25--34.-Lessons of the fiel,da. God has so constituted the natural world that it furnishes apt similes to illustrate spiritual things. I. 'l'HE FIELDS TEACH us TO BLESS Goo. 1. They serve admirable material uses. (1) They furnish us with food (see Gen. i. 29, 30). From the Creation to the Deluge vegetable foo…
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Ver. 1.-Tm, Christian law of giving. In this second part of the sermon our Lord teaches his disciples how they should stand related to the recognized and usual expres- sions of religious life. In those days everybody who professed to be religious sought to show people their religion by giving alms, praying, and fasting…
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and Christian principle. Those who abuse Christianity admire the Christian charity which it inspiree. II. OHRISTLY-1'0NED OHABITIF.8 WIN ll!IEN'B CONll'IDENCE. This is clearly shown in the very patent fact that, whene-ver there is a local or a national calamity, application is first made for help to the (Jhristian peo…
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Vera. 9-13.-The dwlities of the Lord's Prayer. Of this prayer Ward Beecher says, "One knows not which most to admire in this form-its loftiness of spirit, its comprehensiveness, its brevity, its simplicity, or its union of human and Divine elements. .All prayer may be said to have crystallized in this prayer. The Ch…
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fasting had long prevailed among the devout Jews. It bad been perverted by nscctic, on the one band, and by Pharisees on the other. Because misused. our Lord dealt with it thus in the way of correction. He assumes that it is quite possible his disciples may desire to fast; he therefore deals with the proper spirit of …
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work and relations. If the aim be a high and noble one, It will brighten and ennoble ~ hie doings. If it be a low and ignoble one, it will discolour and degrade all his doings. Or, to take another view : a man's aim in life will be like the eye, through_ which he comes into relation with everything. If it be clean a…
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our common everyday observations and experiences, that if the Father carE.S, in a very - W -,.1 for tha·aatcw _ad the adornillilllt. (ahow a mother's daily care to feed har birdJi and·t.en.d her flowers), he wifl much more anxiously care for every welfare of his children (see the way of that same mother with her babe).…
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sec.rct of overcoming being found in treating • Bab. Ba.tbre.,' IM, Rabbi Jochanan (third olbiirs as one would like to be treated one's oentury A.D.),expounding Ruth i. l, ea.ye," A self (vcr. 12). generation which when under judgment (l!lDt'lii>) judgcth its judges. When one Ver. 1.-Parallel passage: Luke vi. 87. …
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here is of the personation of a part (a man wild in the East, would not "tread down" free from impediment in his vision) which the food. Trample them nnder their feet ( eh. does not belong to you. First ea.at out the v, 13). In ignorance of their ree.I worth e.nd beam out of thine own eye. In ver. 3 the in disappoin…
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VBl'B. 1---6, you feel oonBcious of want of (~l"l'u). TJ:ie ~ o e here in the Jaft,).lel wisdom for the true and loving judgment of pas--,e d LGke of lril oommoa wora 6trdp- othel'B without oensorioueness-ask for this x,-.a pnllU to St Matthew's form of specie.I gmoo. With this connexion ver. 12 the 1181ltenoo bein…
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oharaot.ers afresh." (Oompare also Bishop Westcott e.nd Hort omit it, with II(, Old Lightfoot's eaBe.yon "St. Pe.ul e.nd Seneca," Latin, e.nd many Greek and Latin Fe.thers In his 'Philippio.ns.') For this is the law e.nd se.y that, though ~ wo>..11 is probably and the prophets, For this. This principle genuine in ver. …
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be the.t; Rcneed V crsion, and few be th.ey • Hor. l febr.;' of. Ezek. :nxiv. 4, on false that (Ter. 13, note). Our Lord here affirms shephcr,ls). more than the disciples ask in Luke xiii. Ver. 16.-Parllllel passage: Luke vi. 44. 23 ; for there the question deals with those (For the first clause, of. Riso ver. 20 nnd o…
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apparent anomalies in the world of spirit uof family relationship to Christ (eh. xii. 50). nature. Bring forth . .. bring/<l'l'th; iv,-y,uiv Whioh ia in heaven. Since you desire to (Westcott e.nd Hort) . . . """'"· A good enter the kingdom of heaven, be now obeying tree oannot he.ve be.d fruit banging on it; 11, the wi…
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!!in generally (rl,v Aµap.-(av). but of lawle88- apart from practice, there is (ver. 28) no ness (.-~v avoµlav). He has thl'\\Pghout heart-union with Christ. been insisting upon obedienoe to tlib Law in its final meaning e.s essentially neoelll!Bry Ver. 2i.-Therefore whosoever heareth; for his followers (most recen…
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only the first blow, and the house fell" trast to the scribes and ruling classes, (Weise,' Matthius-ev.'). And great was flu, Were a.stouiahed (cf. Acts xiii. 12). At his fall of it. Our Lord's solemn verdict of the doctrine; at hl• teaching (Revised Version). utter ruin awaiting him who does not put Ver. 29.-For he ta…
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on the cross. Therefore "judge not, that ye be not judged." Men will judge harshly those who judge others harshly, and the human judgment passed upon the censorious i_s but a shadow of the more dreadful judgment that is to come. 2. Strictness in judg- ing ourselves. We extenuate our own faults; we always have excuse…
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the presence of the most holy One. He will open if we knock in faith and etr<>ng desire; for he himself, in the wondrous condescension of his infinite love, deigns to knock at the door of our poor unworthy heart. "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof." But he desires to enter, in his gracious m…
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without self-denial, without the fear of God, without the restraining, solemnlZmg thoughts of death and judgment, and the awful world boyond the grave. The way is broad, the Lord says-spacious in its wide extent ; it col"ers the whole world, the whole range of human life, save only one narrow path. Many ways converg…
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scl'ibes and Pharisees ln our Lord's time, There was one false apostle amoM the chosen twelve-one who was a thief; who cared not for the poor, but only for hi; own selfish gains. There are false teachers now, who care not for th" sheep, but only for themselves ; they are wolves in heart, " grievous wolves, not sparing …
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e.nticipations; e.hs ! he says there will be many such. They will plead, in depreca- tion of the dreadful judgment, their works done outwardly for b.im, and, o.s it seemed, by bis help. "Did we not prophesy by thy Name?" But the gift of prophecy is nothing worth without the gre.ce of love; there have been great prea…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-5.-The mote and the beam. As we read the Gospel narratives we cannot fail to be impressed with a singular mingling of severity and kindness in the teachings of our Lord. His standard is lofty and he admits of no compromise, yet he deals gently with the erring, and he urges a simila…
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Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.