Matthew 7:1
Judge not — any man without full, clear, certain knowledge, without absolute necessity, without tender love. Luke 6:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
Judge not — any man without full, clear, certain knowledge, without absolute necessity, without tender love. Luke 6:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you — Awful words! So we may, as it were, choose for ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us. God and man will favour the candid and benevolent: but they must expect judgment without mercy, who have showed no mercy.... [ Continue Reading ]
In particular, why do you open your eyes to any fault of your brother, while you yourself are guilty of a much greater? The mote — The word properly signifies a splinter or shiver of wood. This and a beam, its opposite, were proverbially used by the Jews, to denote, the one, small infirmities, the o... [ Continue Reading ]
How sayest thou — With what face?... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hypocrite — It is mere hypocrisy to pretend zeal for the amendment of others while we have none for our own. Then — When that which obstructed thy sight is removed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here is another instance of that transposition, where of the two things proposed, the latter is first treated of. Give not — to dogs — lest turning they rend you: Cast not — to swine — lest they trample them under foot. Yet even then, when the beam is cast out of thine own eye, Give not — That is, t... [ Continue Reading ]
But ask — Pray for them, as well as for yourselves: in this there can be no such danger. Seek — Add your own diligent endeavours to your asking: and knock — Persevere importunately in that diligence. Luke 11:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
For every one that asketh receiveth — Provided he ask aright, and ask what is agreeable to God's will.... [ Continue Reading ]
To them that ask him — But on this condition, that ye follow the example of his goodness, by doing to all as ye would they should do to you. For this is the law and the prophets — This is the sum of all, exactly answering Matthew 5:17. The whole is comprised in one word, Imitate the God of love. Thu... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 6:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
The strait gate — The holiness described in the foregoing chapters. And this is the narrow way. Wide is the gate, and many there are that go in through it — They need not seek for this; they come to it of course. Many go in through it, because strait is the other gate — Therefore they do not care fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Beware of false prophets — Who in their preaching describe a broad way to heaven: it is their prophesying, their teaching the broad way, rather than their walking in it themselves, that is here chiefly spoken of. All those are false prophets, who teach any other way than that our Lord hath here mark... [ Continue Reading ]
By their fruits ye shall know them — A short, plain, easy rule, whereby to know true from false prophets: and one that may be applied by people of the weakest capacity, who are not accustomed to deep reasoning. True prophets convert sinners to God, or at least confirm and strengthen those that are c... [ Continue Reading ]
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither a corrupt tree good fruit — But it is certain, the goodness or badness here mentioned respects the doctrine, rather than the personal character. For a bad man preaching the good doctrine here delivered, is sometimes an instrument of converting sinne... [ Continue Reading ]
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire — How dreadful then is the condition of that teacher who hath brought no sinners to God!... [ Continue Reading ]
Not every one — That is, no one that saith, Lord, Lord — That makes a mere profession of me and my religion, shall enter — Whatever their false teachers may assure them to the contrary: He that doth the will of my Father — as I have now declared it. Observe: every thing short of this is only saying,... [ Continue Reading ]
We have prophesied — We have declared the mysteries of thy kingdom, wrote books; preached excellent sermons: In thy name done many wonderful works — So that even the working of miracles is no proof that a man has saving faith.... [ Continue Reading ]
I never knew you — There never was a time that I approved of you: so that as many souls as they had saved, they were themselves never saved from their sins. Lord, is it my case? Luke 13:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 6:47.... [ Continue Reading ]
He taught them — The multitudes, as one having authority — With a dignity and majesty peculiar to himself as the great Lawgiver, and with the demonstration and power of the Spirit: and not as the scribes — Who only expounded the law of another; and that in a lifeless, ineffectual manner.... [ Continue Reading ]