He has cited Psalm lxix. as a Scripture which, with all the solemn problems gathered round its dark "minatory" paragraph, yet lives and moves with Christ, the Christ of love. And now--not to confirm his application of the Psalm, for he takes that for granted--but to affirm the positive Christian use of the Old Scriptures as a whole, he goes on to speak at large of "the things fore-written." He does so with the special thought that the Old Testament is full of truth in point for the Roman Church just now; full of the bright, _and uniting_, "_hope_" of glory; full of examples as well as precepts for "_patience_," that is to say, holy perseverance under trial; full finally of the Lord's equally gracious relation to "the Nations" and to Israel.
[Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =For all the things fore-written,= written in the Scriptures of the elder time, in the age that both preceded the Gospel and prepared for it, =for our instruction were written=--with an emphasis upon "_our_"--=that through the patience and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might hold our (τὴν) hope,= the hope "sure and steadfast" of glorification in the glory of our conquering Lord. That is to say, the true "Author behind the authors" of that mysterious Book watched, guided, effected its construction, from end to end, with the purpose full in His view of instructing for all time the developed Church of Christ. And in particular, He adjusted thus the Old Testament records and precepts of "_patience_," the patience which "suffers _and is strong_," suffers and _goes forward_,[245] and of "_encouragement_," παράκλησις, the word which is more than "_consolation_," while it includes it; for it means the voice of positive and enlivening appeal. Rich indeed are Pentateuch, and Prophets, and Hagiographa, alike in commands to persevere and be of good courage, and in examples of men who were made brave and patient by the power of God in them, as they took Him at His word. And all this, says the Apostle, was on purpose, on God's purpose. That multifarious Book is indeed in this sense one. Not only is it, in its Author's intention, full of Christ; in the same intention it is full of Him for us. Immortal indeed is its preciousness, if this was HIS design. Confidently may we explore its pages, looking in them first for Christ, then for ourselves, in our need of peace, and strength, and hope.
Let us add one word, in view of the anxious controversy of our day, within the Church, over the structure and nature of those "divine Scriptures," as the Christian Fathers love to call them. The use of the Holy Book in the spirit of this verse, the persistent searching of it for the preceptive mind of God in it, with the belief that it was "written for our instruction," will be the surest and deepest means to give us "perseverance" and "encouragement" about the Book itself. The more we really _know_ the Bible, at first hand, before God, with the knowledge both of acquaintance and reverent sympathy, the more shall we be able with intelligent spiritual conviction, to "_persist_" and "_be of good cheer_" in the conviction that it is indeed not of man, (though through man,) but of God. The more shall we use it as the Lord and the Apostles used it, as being not only of God, but of God for us; His Word, and for us. The more shall we make it our divine daily Manual for a life of patient and cheerful sympathies, holy fidelity, and "that blessed Hope"--which draws "=nearer now= than when we believed."
[Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =But may the God of the patience and the encouragement,= He who is Author and Giver of the graces unfolded in His Word, He without whom even that Word is but a sound without significance in the soul, =grant you,= in His own sovereign way of acting on and in human wills and affections, =to be of one mind mutually (ἐν ἀλλήλοις), according to Christ Jesus;= "_Christwise_," in His steps, in His temper, under His precepts; having towards one another, not necessarily an identity of opinion on all details, but a community of sympathetic kindness. No comment here is better than this same Writer's later words, from Rome (Phil. ii. 2-5); "Be of one mind; having the same love; nothing by strife, or vainglory; esteeming others better than yourselves; looking on the things of others; with the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus," when He humbled Himself for us. And all this, not only for the comfort of the community, but for the glory of God: [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =that unanimously, with one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;= turning from the sorrowful friction worked by self-will when it intrudes into the things of heaven, to an antidote, holy and effectual, found in adoring Him who is equally near to all His true people, in His Son.