Bible Commentaries

Malachi 3:3 — "And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness." The Messianic thrust of the passage continues here. The covenant

Matthew 16:19 — I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This promise, emphatically delivered to Peter here, was also

Matthew 18:21 — Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? This indicates that Peter had indeed made excellent progress but that he had not yet arrived at true spiritual discernment. His suggestion

Matthew 26:75 — And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly. God has used some very humble creatures to preach mighty sermons, among them the message conveyed by the barnyard

Matthew 5:11 — Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. In Christ's teachings, there is often the pattern of proceeding from the general to the specific. The general class of the persecuted

Matthew 5:8 — Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. This refers not merely to those whose hearts are free from evil purpose and desire but particularly alludes to those whose hearts have been purified by faith (Acts 15:9) and obedience to the gospel

Mark 16:7 — But go, tell his disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. Tell his disciples and Peter … Peter's denial had left him in an estranged position with regard to Jesus, and such a message

Luke 24:34 — Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. Them that were with them … (Luke 24:33) also included these who were testifying to the appearance of the Lord to Simon Peter. There is no New Testament record describing the appearance of Jesus to Peter; and modesty should restrain human comment about it. Of the fact, there is no question. Paul declared that the Lord "appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Corinthians 15:5); and Luke's record of it here is unimpeachable.

John 21:14 — This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. The third time … refers to the third appearance to the apostles, as this was the seventh in the sequence of the ten epiphanies: THE

Acts 10:11-12 — And he beholdeth the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the heaven. All manner

Acts 15:10-11 — Now therefore why make ye trial of God, that ye should put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in like manner as they. What

Acts 2:39 — For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. All that are afar off … certainly includes the Gentiles; but Peter, like many of the prophets of the Old Testament,

Romans 15:15 — But I write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as putting you again in remembrance, because of the grace that was given me of God. This is a continuation of the tactful remarks begun in Romans 15:14 and allows for the fact that the Romans might

2 Corinthians 11:5 — For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. For ages, this has been construed as a reference to the Twelve, especially to Peter, James and John, the inner circle of that sacred group; but the true meaning, as advocated by McGarvey,

1 Peter 3:17 — For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that ye should suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. In this verse, Peter seems to accept the certainty of Christian suffering; for suffering is a basic component of life on earth. "If we

2 Peter 1 overview — The keynote of this whole epistle is knowledge (2 Peter 1:2-3; 2 Peter 1:5-6; 2 Peter 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20-21; and 2 Peter 3:18); but it is a very special kind of knowledge which is meant. The Greek word is [@epignosis], that is, precise and correct knowledge.

2 Peter 1:21 — For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. The impenetrable and eternal mystery of how God spoke through men is not revealed in the word of God, but the fact of its having been done is indeed

2 Peter 2 overview — This entire chapter is a prophecy of the great apostasy foretold by Christ himself and by Paul, Peter and John. It is printed as a single paragraph in the ASV, but a workable outline of it is given by Strachan, thus: R. H. Strachan, Expositor's Greek

2 Peter 3:1 — This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both of them, I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; (2 Peter 3:1) Beloved … This word is somewhat of a keynote in this chapter, occurring here, and in

1 John 3:13 — Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. The apostle Peter wrote a similar warning (1 Peter 4:12), and Jesus Christ had repeatedly warned the apostles of the unyielding hostility of the world (John 15:18-19; John 15:25; John 16:1 ff; John 17:14,