Thus is it we ought to love our enemies, thus to imitate Christ. Thus did Paul. Stoned, suffering unnumbered cruelties, yet did he all things for their good. Hear his own words. "My heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them that they may be saved." (Rom. x. 1, 2.) And again; "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God." And again; "If thou, being a wild olive tree wast grafted in, how much more shall these be grafted into their own olive tree?" (Rom. xi. 24.) How tender, thinkest thou, must be the affection from which these expressions proceed, how vast the benevolence? it is impossible to express it, impossible.
Thus is it we ought to love our enemies. This is to love God, Who hath enjoined it, Who hath given it as His law. To imitate Him is to love our enemy. Consider it is not thine enemy thou art benefiting, but thyself; thou art not loving him, but art obeying God. Knowing therefore these things, let us confirm our love one to another, that we may perform this duty perfectly, and attain those good things that are promised in Christ Jesus our Lord, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honor, now, and for ever and ever. Amen.
[248] [The words through Jesus Christ' (dia 'Iesou Christou) which are here found in Chrysostom's text have gotten into the textus receptus from the few late and mostly cursive mss. which present the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan text and from which the textus receptus was made. Chrysostom is the chief witness of this Byzantine text. Schaff, Companion to Greek Testament, pp. 205-6. The words are omitted by Aleph A B C D, most Versions and Editors.--G.A.]
[249] S. Chrysostom says the same, Orat. iv.in Anom. 2. and Hom. i. in Joan. 2. (ed. Ben.) vid. also Theodoret in Ps. 23. 7, 8. S. Greg. Nyss. Hom. 8 in Cant. p. 596. S. Jerome in loc. [Comp. 1 Pet. i. 12, which things angels desire to look into.--G.A.]
[250] ["The whole divine fulness of salvation, of which Christ is the possessor and bestower, and which is of such a nature that the human intellect cannot explore it so as to form an adequate conception of it. This does not hinder the proclamation which, on the contrary, is rendered possible by revelation."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[251] [See note on these words above.--G.A.]
[252] [This verb, epoiesen, has been applied by many to the forming' of the purpose. (So Rev. Ver.) But it seems best to refer it to the execution' of it, regarded as an accomplished fact. Riddle in Popular Commentary and in Lange. Braune in Lange. Meyer, Ellicott.--G.A.]
[253] [Wherefore, "in view of my position as minister of such a gospel."--Riddle.--G.A.]
[254] [This toutou charin is a resumption of the first verse of the chapter which was left unfinished by reason of the digression concerning his office as apostle of the Gentiles, which forms a section by itself. (ver. 2-13.)--G.A.]
[255] ["A sensuous illustration of the idea; how great in every relation.'"--Meyer. G.A.]
[256] ["Of what are these dimensions predicated? Not of the work of redemption as Chrysostom (to musterion to huper humon oikonomethen) because after a new portion of the discourse is begun at ver. 14, the musterion is not again mentioned; nor of the love of God to us, as Chrysostom again, for the hen agape preceding does not refer to God's love; but of the love of Christ to men as shown in ver. 19."--Meyer. So Ellicott, Braune, Riddle.--G.A.]
[257] [This entire paragraph is omitted from Field's text. But as it is supported by several excellent authorities, as it is in Chrysostom's style and as it contains a very noble thought, we have ventured to retain it. "Field seems to rely on the probability that the shorter text is the original. One of his main authorities seems to be a Catena which would naturally abridge the portions extracted especially in a writer so given to amplifications as Chrysostom." We have in the main followed Field's text in spite of this probability, but in exceptional cases, like the present, we have ventured to demur.--G.A.]
[258] This text has various interpretations. S. Athanasius uses it to imply that God, as Father of the Son, is the only true Father, and that all created paternity is a shadow of the true. Orat. in Arian. i. 23. S. Jerome says, "As He who alone is good, (Luke xviii. 19.) makes men good, and who is alone immortal, (1 Tim. vi. 16.) bestows immortality, and who alone is true (Rom. iii. 4.) imparts the name of truth; so too the only Father, in that He is Creator of all, and the cause of substance to all, gives to the rest to be called Father." in loc. He considers that the Angels are said in the text to share His paternity, in a spiritual sense, as Christ says to the sick man, "Son," and to His disciples, "Little children." Theodoret seems to say the same. in loc. v. also Hooker, E. P. V. liv. 2. ["The reference must be to those larger classes and communities into which, as we may also infer from other passages (i. 21; Col. i. 16.) the celestial hosts appear to be divided; and to the races and tribes of men every one of which owes the very title of patria, by which it is defined to the great pater of all the patriai both of angels and men."--Ellicott. "The Apostle seems regarding God as the Father of us His adopted children in Christ, to go forth into the fact that He in this relation to us is the great original and prototype of the paternal relation, wherever found." Alford in Riddle in Pop. Com.--G.A.]
[259] [It does not appear from the account in Exodus ii. 11 ff. or from that in Acts vii. 24 ff. that the Hebrew who did his brother wrong was the same that Moses had defended on the preceeding day, as Chrysostom here takes for granted.--G.A.]