The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 429

good and evil, fa.Ith and unbelief, which imitation of heathen practir,eR, reacted upon ehall oontinue and increase in virulence the faith of believers, undermined steadfast nnto the end (John xv. 20; xvi. 2). adherence to principle. Then was the Ver. 10.--Shall many be offended. The power of "that wicked one" (d livoµor, perseoutions directed against the dieoiples 2 These. ii. 8) exercised and seen in the in general shall in mo.ny cases result in lapse of the nnstable. 1'he love of many overcoming their steadfastness and sapping (-.ii,v ..-o,\,\ii,v, tlie many, the majority) shall their faith. Shall betray one another. To wax oold. "Love" (&.-ycl1r71) here is used in its ourry favour with enemies and to secure general and comprehensive sense, as having their own safety in tronblous times, Chris- God as its chief object and man in subordi- tians were found to inform against friends, nation thereto. The tl'onblee and persecu- and to deliver them up to the oivil autho- tions that shall beset believers, the spirit of rities. Tacitus notes instances of this worldlineBB and self-seeking that a timid degrading cowardice. " First those were faith encourages, will issue in loosening seized who confessed that they were Chris- dependence upon God and trust in bis tians; and then on their information a vast providential care; and internal dissensions multitude wa1 convicted" (' Ann.,' xv. 44). will destroy that brotherly love which Shall hate one another. Dissensions in ought to be characteristic of Christians. religion cause the most bitter hatred, the Of this lack of energetic love the Lord very opposite of th"'t love whioh is the speaks in his warnings to the Church of essence of Christianity (John xv. 17). Laodicea (Bev. iii.. 16), "Because thou art Where one of a pagan family embraced lukewarm, and neither cold nor bot, I will Christianity, the convert WILB regarded ILB spue thee out of my month." an outcast, and cut adrift from the nearest Ver. 13.-Xe that shall endure unto the domestic ties. The same treatment obtains end, the se.me shall be saved (eh. x. 22). even now in India. The reference in the Here is a note of consolation amid the text ohie0y concerns contentions among refrain of woe. Patience and perseverance professing Christians; we see such effects shall be crowned at the last.. " The end" every day ; they appear in every page of means primarily the destruction of Jeru- ecclesi1LBtioal histi>ry; they have stained BDlem, and the salvation promised is safety the annals of our own and every nation. in that day of peril It is believed that no Ver. 11.-J'alsepropheta (ver. 24). These Ohristians perished in the siege or after it were not necesso.rily predictors or sooth- (see ver. 16). But -.,;>..or, 'being here naed sayers, but teachers having, !LB they said, without the article ( differently from vem. a message from God. Suoh pretenders 6 and 14), must not be restricted to one have arisen in every great crisis; but the allusion, but mnat be taken more generally, Jews a few years later were deceived con- IL8 indeed a universal axiom, equivalent to tinually by fanatics or impostors, who pro- "finally,'' IL8 long as endurance is needed. f011sed to be inspired, and promised the And the salvation must refer to the soul's infatuated people deliverance, urging them sentence at the le.st day, not to any mere to resist the Romans, in expeotation of the safety of body and life. What the maxim coming of Messiah to lead them to immediate says is this: patient continuance in well- victory (oomp. Josephus., • Bell. Jud.,' vi. doing, resignation under persecutions and 5. 2). The designation " false prophets " afBictiona, holding fast the one faith even e.pp lies also to those heretical teacher& who though it lead to the martyr's death,-this vexed the peace of the early Church, and shall win the crown of eternal bles8ednes11,. of whom St. John expressly speaks, "Mo.ny The Christian must not be led astray by folse pro)?hets o.re gone out into the world" false teachem, nor offended by the prevalence (1 John 1v. 1). These were Judaizing and of scandsls, nor let bis love be chilled, if he Gnostio teachers, who tried to mar the good would gain the reward, share in Messiah'1 work of the apostles (see Acts :u. 30; glory, and save his soul. Rom. xvi. 17, 18; 2 Cor. xi 13; Ge.I. i. Ver. 14.-This gospel of the lr::i.ngdom. 7-9; Ool. ii. 18-23, eto.). Throughout The good news of the coming of Messiah'■ the Christian ages heresiarcha have always kingdom-what we ooll in short, "ilie roised their evil voices, and the history of gospel"-" tl,at God was in Christ recon- the Church is very much composed of ciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. v aooounts of snob teachers, and of the efforLs 19). He calls it "this" (eh. xxvi. la), made to suppress them and to correct lhoir because it is that which he preached, which pernicious doctrines. it was .the object of his incarnation to set , Ver. 12.-Beoauae iniquity shall abound forth. In all the world ( ,., 3,\ p -ryi oi,couJJ-•"11• (,r,\118uv6,jv111, i, multiplied). The word in all the inhabited earth). Before the rendered "iniquity" is l.vo,,.ta., "lawleesnees," taking of Jerusalem, the gospel bad been general immorality and licence. Impatienoe carried into all parts of the then known world.. of rule and discipline, connivance at and We have very unoerluin informe.tion e.bou, Jl4TTllEW-ll' 2• 434 TilE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTllEW. [on. XXIV. 1-61.