NURTURING
THE
SOUL
HEBREWS 4:14-16
(MODERN ENGLISH VERSION)
MARCH 2023
Background
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Hebrews 4:14-16
https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Heb.4.11-Heb.4.16
"[1.] What kind of high priest Christ is (Heb. 4:14): Seeing we have such a high priest; that is, First, A great high priest, much greater than Aaron, or any of the priests of his order. The high priests under the law were accounted great and venerable person; but they were but faint types and shadows of Christ. The greatness of our high priest is set forth, 1. By his having passed into the heavens. The high priest under the law, once a year, went out of the people’s sight within the veil, into the holiest of all, where were the sacred signals of the presence of God; but Christ once for all has passed into the heavens, to take the government of all upon him, to send the Spirit to prepare a place for his people, and to make intercession for them. Christ executed one part of his priesthood on earth, in dying for us; the other he executes in heaven, by pleading the cause, and presenting the offerings, of his people."
NURTURING
THE
SOUL
I CORINTHIANS 13:4-7
(NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)
FEBRUARY 2023
Background
Matthew Henry's Commentary
I Corinthians 13:4-7
https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/1Cor.13.4-1Cor.13.7
"The apostle gives us in these verses some of the properties and effects of charity, both to describe and commend it, that we may know whether we have this grace and that if we have not we may fall in love with what is so exceedingly amiable, and not rest till we have obtained it. It is an excellent grace, and has a world of good properties belonging to it. As,
I. It is long suffering—makrothymei. It can endure evil, injury, and provocation, without being filled with resentment, indignation, or revenge. [...]
II. It is kind—chresteuetai. It is benign, bountiful; it is courteous and obliging. [...]
III. Charity suppresses envy: It envieth not; it is not grieved at the good of others; neither at their gifts nor at their good qualities, their honours not their estates. If we love our neighbour we shall be so far from envying his welfare, or being displeased with it, that we shall share in it and rejoice at it. [...]
IV. Charity subdues pride and vain-glory; It vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, is not bloated with self-conceit, does not swell upon its acquisitions, nor arrogate to itself that honour, or power, or respect, which does not belong to it. [...]
V. Charity is careful not to pass the bounds of decency; ouk aschemonei—it behaveth not unseemly; it does nothing indecorous, nothing that in the common account of men is base or vile. [...]
VI. Charity is an utter enemy to selfishness: Seeketh not its own, does not inordinately desire nor seek its own praise, or honour, or profit, or pleasure. Indeed self-love, in some degree, is natural to all men, enters into their very constitution. And a reasonable love of self is by our Saviour made the measure of our love to others, that charity which is here described, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [...]
VII. It tempers and restrains the passions. Ou paroxynetai—is not exasperated. It corrects a sharpness of temper, sweetens and softens the mind, so that it does not suddenly conceive, nor long continue, a vehement passion. [...]
VIII. Charity thinks no evil. It cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge: so some understand it. It is not soon, nor long, angry; it is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge; it does not suspect evil of others, ou logizetai to kakon—it does not reason out evil, charge guilt upon them by inference and innuendo, when nothing of this sort appears open. [...]
IX. The matter of its joy and pleasure is here suggested: 1. Negatively: It rejoiceth not in iniquity. It takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. [...] 2. Affirmatively: It rejoiceth in the truth, is glad of the success of the gospel, commonly called the truth, by way of emphasis, in the New Testament; and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. [...]
X. It beareth all things, it endureth all things, panta stegei, panta hypomenei. Some read the first, covers all things. So the original also signifies. Charity will cover a multitude of sins, 1 Pet. 4:8. It will draw a veil over them, as far as it can consistently with duty. [...]
XI. Charity believes and hopes well of others: Believeth all things; hopeth all things. Indeed charity does by no means destroy prudence, and, out of mere simplicity and silliness, believe every word, Prov. 14:15. [...]"
NURTURING
THE
SOUL
ISAIAH 43:18-21
(KING JAMES VERSION)
JANUARY 2023
Background
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Isaiah 43:18-21
https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Isa.43.14-Isa.43.21
"IV. He promises to do yet greater things for them than he had done in the days of old; so that they should not have reason to ask, in a way of complaint, as Gideon did, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? for they should see them repeated, nay, they should see them outdone (Isa. 43:18): 'Remember not the former things, from them to take occasion, as some do, to undervalue the present things, as if the former days were better than these; no, you may, if you will, comparatively forget them, and yet know enough by the events of your own day to convince you that the Lord is God alone; for, behold, the Lord will do a new thing, no way inferior, both for the wonder and the worth of the mercy, to the things of old.' The best exposition of this is, Jer. 16:14, 15; 23:7, 8. It shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; that is an old thing, the remembrance of which will be in a manner lost in the new thing, in the new proof that the Lord liveth, for he brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north. Though former mercies must not be forgotten, fresh mercies must in a special manner be improved. Now it springs forth, as it were a surprise upon you; you are like those that dream. Shall you now know it? And will you not own God’s hand in it?"
"V. He promises not only to deliver them out of Babylon, but to conduct them safely and comfortably to their own land (Isa. 43:19, 20): I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; for, it seems, the way from Babylon to Canaan, as well as from Egypt, lay through a desert land, which, while the returning captives passed through, God would provide for them, that their camp should be both well victualled and under a good conduct. The same power that made a way in the sea (Isa. 43:16) can make a way in the wilderness, and will force its passage through the greatest difficulties. And he that made dry land in the waters can produce waters in the dryest land, in such abundance as not only to give drink to his people, his chosen, but to the beasts of the field, also the dragons and the ostriches, who are therefore said to honour God for it; it is such a sensible refreshment, and yields them so much satisfaction, that, if they were capable of doing it, they would praise God for it, and shame man, who is made capable of praising his benefactor and does not. Now, 1. This looks back to what God did for Israel when he led them through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, and fetched water out of a 5367 rock to follow them; what God did for them formerly he would do again, for he is still the same. And, though we do not find that the miracle was repeated in their return out of Babylon, yet the mercy was, in the common course of Providence, for which it became them to be no less thankful to God. 2. It looks forward, not only to all the instances of God’s care of the Jewish church in the latter ages of it, between their return from Babylon and the coming of Christ, but to the grace of the gospel, especially as it is manifested to the Gentile world, by which a way is opened in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; the world, which lay like a desert, in ignorance and unfruitfulness, was blessed with divine direction and divine comforts, and, in order to both, with a plentiful effusion of the Spirit. The sinners of the Gentiles, who had been as the beasts of the field, running wild, fierce as the dragons, stupid as the owls or ostriches, shall be brought to honour God for the extent of his grace to his chosen among them."
"VI. He traces up all these promised blessings to their great original, the purposes and designs of his own glory (Isa. 43:21): This people have I formed for myself, and therefore I do all this for them, that they may show forth my praise. Note, 1. The church is of God’s forming, and so are all the living members of it. The new heaven, the new earth, the new man, are the work of God’s hand, and are no more, no better, than he makes them; they are fashioned according to his will. 2. He forms it for himself. He that is the first cause is the highest end both of the first and of the new creation. The Lord has made all things for himself, his Israel especially, to be to him for a people, and for a name, and for a praise; and no otherwise can they be for him, or serviceable to him, than as his grace is glorified in them, Jer. 13:11; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14. 3. It is therefore our duty to show forth his praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his service. As he formed us, so he feeds us, and keeps us, and leads us, and all for himself; for every instance therefore of his goodness we must praise him, else we answer not the end of the beings and blessings we have."
NURTURING
THE
SOUL
MATTHEW 5:13-16
(KING JAMES VERSION)
DECEMBER 2022
Background
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Matthew 5:13-16
https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Matt.5.13-Matt.5.16
"Christ had lately called his disciples, and told them that they should be fishers of men; here he tells them further what he designed them to be—the salt of the earth, and lights of the world, that they might be indeed what it was expected they should be.
I. Ye are the salt of the earth. This would encourage and support them under their sufferings, that, though they should be treated with contempt, yet they should really be blessings to the world, and the more so for their suffering thus. The prophets, who went before them, were the salt of the land of Canaan; but the apostles were the salt of the whole earth, for they must go into all the world to preach the gospel. It was a discouragement to them that they were so few and so weak. What could they do in so large a province as the whole earth? Nothing, if they were to work by force of arms and dint of sword; but, being to work silent as salt, one handful of that salt would diffuse its savour far and wide; would go a great way, and work insensibly and irresistibly as leaven, Matt. 13:33. The doctrine of the gospel is as salt; it is penetrating, quick, and powerful (Heb. 4:12); it reaches the heart Acts 2:37. It is cleansing, it is relishing, and preserves from putrefaction. We read of the savour of the knowledge of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14); for all other learning is insipid without that. An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt (Num. 18:19); and the gospel is an everlasting gospel. Salt was required in all the sacrifices (Lev. 2:13), in Ezekiel’s mystical temple, Ezek. 43:24. Now Christ’s disciples having themselves learned the doctrine of the gospel, and being employed to teach it to others, were as salt. Note, Christians, and especially ministers, are the salt of the earth.
[...]
II. Ye are the light of the world, Matt. 5:14. This also bespeaks them useful, as the former (Sole et sale nihil utilius—Nothing more useful than the sun and salt), but more glorious. All Christians are light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8), and must shine as lights (Phil. 2:15), but ministers in a special manner. Christ call himself the Light of the world (John 8:12), and they are workers together with him, and have some of his honour put upon them. Truly the light is sweet, it is welcome; the light of the first day of the world was so, when it shone out of darkness; so is the morning light of every day; so is the gospel, and those that spread it, to all sensible people. The world sat in darkness, Christ raised up his disciples to shine in it; and, that they may do so, from him they borrow and derive their light."
NURTURING
THE
SOUL
ISAIAH 40:29-31
(KING JAMES VERSION)
NOVEMBER 2022