Bible Commentaries

John 13:23 — THE BELOVED DISCIPLE ‘There was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.’ John 13:23 The title by which John calls himself is the disciple ‘whom Jesus loved.’ We too have each one of us an individual relationship to our Lord. ‘I believe in God the Father Who created me and all the world, in God the Son Who redeemed me and all

John 17:24 — CHRIST’S WISH FOR HIS PEOPLE ‘Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory.’ John 17:24 The truth that men are judged by their desires finds its highest illustration in Jesus. The perfectness of His wishes. This is one of Christ’s wishes. What does it mean? What would be the effect of its fulfilment? A prayer is merely a wish turned

John 8:48 — drinking the cup which his Blessed Master drank before him. The lies of his enemies do him no injury in heaven, whatever they may on earth. Let him bear them patiently, and not fret, or lose his temper. When Christ was reviled “He reviled not again.” ( 1 Peter 2:23). Let the Christian do likewise.’

Acts 14:17 — GOD’S GIFTS TO MEN ‘[God] left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’ Acts 14:17 These words come from one of St. Paul’s sermons. He was preaching to heathens, who, until then, had never heard of the true God. He was telling them that though they had never heard of God, yet they might have known what God was like because of

Acts 26:14 — THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN ‘I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying … It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ Acts 26:14 So far as we know, those words were the first with which the silence of the Unseen was broken on earth since the Lord, rising from amidst the Eleven, on the hill-top above Bethany, had given them His blessing as He went. He had been seen once in His

Romans 5:1 — PEACE WITH GOD ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Romans 5:1 What St. Paul reminds us of in this text is that just as God has a never-failing store of grace and power for the strengthening and reviving of our spiritual life, so also He has an inexhaustible reserve of peace from which we have only to draw in

Romans 5:1-5 — PRIVILEGES OF THE JUSTIFIED ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.… And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’ Romans 5:1-5 These five verses describe the present life of the justified believer, and teach the new position of those who are justified through faith. In the five verses there are five blessings described. Let us consider each of them. I. Peace with God.—There

1 Corinthians 15:10 — THE CALL FOR SERVICE ‘I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God.’ 1 Corinthians 15:10 The Gospel of Christ appeals to you in your strength as well as in your weakness. It is pitiable to think how many miss this truth in the fulness of their manhood, in the glory of their youth. Somehow they suppose that Christianity

1 Corinthians 4:5 — THE LORD’S COMING ‘Until the Lord come.’ 1 Corinthians 4:5 What—we may well ask—are likely to be the practical effects, what are the actual gains which a continual recollection of our Lord’s coming is calculated to produce in the conduct of our lives? Out of many such beneficial effects I can

1 Corinthians 4:7 — EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY ‘For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?’ 1 Corinthians 4:7 The remarkable inequalities of endowment which exist amongst men come from God, and are as much part of His handiwork as anything else in the world of being, and to quarrel with them, or to make them the occasion of rivalry with and

1 Corinthians 7:29 — ‘BRIEF LIFE IS HERE OUR PORTION’ ‘The time is short.’ 1 Corinthians 7:29 What are the practical conclusions the Apostle draws from this truth? I. Domestic relations.—Home influence is the sacred source which gives character to everything in life. ‘They that have wives be as though they had none.’ The dearest

2 Corinthians 5:15 — THE SUMMING-UP OF LIFE ‘He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which died for them, and rose again.’ 2 Corinthians 5:15 Have you ever considered the meaning of life? You say to me, ‘It is a mystery which no man can explain,’ and you are quite right. Of all the wise men that have lived up to the present not one yet has been able to explain to us the mystery of life.

Ephesians 1:7 — GRACE IN RELATION TO THE ATONEMENT ‘In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.’ Ephesians 1:7 Let us consider the subject of grace, in relation to the atonement, and the forgiveness of sins. I. The forgiveness of sins is associated with the death of our Lord—is associated with the precious blood. It is said in these days, ‘Let us get away

Philippians 4:4 — who loves God’s law, like the stillness of an autumn day when the harvest is gathered. “At evening time it shall be light.” For to the believer in Christ the best joys come last.’ (SECOND OUTLINE) JOY IN THE LORD St. Paul does not bid us rejoice in: (1) our wealth; (2) our strength; or (3) our pleasures. But ‘in the Lord’ as— I. A real Brother.—All my temptations, my trials, my spiritual conflicts have been undergone by my Lord, and therefore I can cast myself upon His considerate love and compassion,

Colossians 1:24 — ‘THAT WHICH IS BEHIND OF THE AFFLICTIONS OF CHRIST’ ‘Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body’s sake, which is the Church.’ Colossians 1:24 St. Paul was accustomed to urge upon his converts that they should ‘rejoice in the Lord alway.’ When we speak about sufferers that we know, we think it high praise to say, ‘How perfectly patient they were!’ Here is a higher note—not patience, but

1 Peter 2:21 — NATURAL FAILINGS AND SPECIAL GRACES ‘For even hereunto were ye called’ 1 Peter 2:21 There is always something very interesting in seeing what kind of men God chooses to send His messages to us by. God has many different messages to us, and God sends His messages to us by different messengers. The Bible was not all written

1 Peter 2:4-5 — CHURCH ‘To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.’ 1 Peter 2:4-5 Christ is everything to St. Peter in this Epistle. It is Christ’s resurrection that inspires the hope of rising again above evil and living a good life. I. Are you crushed with the recollection of a sin into which you fell?—Do you know

1 Peter 2:5 — LIVING STONES ‘Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ 1 Peter 2:5 (R.V.) That ‘spiritual house’ of which these Jewish Christians were to form a part is to-day, after the lapse of centuries, still in building. It is built upon the bed-rock, if we may venture so to call Him, Jesus Christ—‘that rock was Christ,’

1 Peter 4:15-16 — TWOFOLD NATURE OF SUFFERING ‘But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.’ 1 Peter 4:15-16 As we cannot escape anxiety and trouble, the only question for us to answer is this, which sorrow is best for us to have, God-like sorrow or devilish sorrow, Divine discontent or infernal discontent, the sorrow of Christ or the remorse

1 Peter 4:7 — CHRISTIAN EXPECTATION* ‘Watch unto prayer.’ 1 Peter 4:7 Of old, certain Sundays in the Church’s year were known by particular names or titles, and in some measure this practice is still kept up. The ancient title by which the Sunday after Ascension Day was known was Expectation Sunday, and the