1Cor 7:25, 2Cor 4:1, 1Ti 1:14, 16, Heb 2:17 | JFB | STEP | 25. no commandment of the Lord: yet . . . my judgment —I have no express revelation from the Lord commanding it, but I give my judgment (opinion); namely, under the ordinary inspiration which accompanied the apostles in all their canonical writings (compare ). The Lord inspires me in this case to give you only a recommendation, which you are free to adopt or reject—not a positive command. In the second case ( ) it was a positive command; for the Lord had already made known His will ( ). In the third case ( ), the Old Testament commandment of God to put away strange wives ( ), Paul by the Spirit revokes. mercy of the Lord — ( ). He attributes his apostleship and the gifts accompanying it (including inspiration) to God's grace alone. faithful —in dispensing to you the inspired directions received by me from the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:25

25. no commandment of the Lord: yet . . . my judgment—I have no express revelation from the Lord commanding it, but I give my judgment (opinion); namely, under the ordinary inspiration which accompanied the apostles in all their canonical writings (compare 1Co 7:40; 1Co 14:37; 1Th 4:15). The Lord inspires me in this case to give you only a recommendation, which you are free to adopt or reject—not a positive command. In the second case (1Co 7:10, 11) it was a positive command; for the Lord had already made known His will (Mal 2:14, 15; Mt 5:31, 32). In the third case (1Co 7:12), the Old Testament commandment of God to put away strange wives (Ezr 10:3), Paul by the Spirit revokes.

mercy of the Lord— (1Ti 1:13). He attributes his apostleship and the gifts accompanying it (including inspiration) to God's grace alone.

faithful—in dispensing to you the inspired directions received by me from the Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:1

1. Therefore—Greek, "For this cause": Because we have the liberty-giving Spirit of the Lord, and with unveiled face behold His glory (2Co 3:17, 18).

seeing we have this ministry—"The ministration of the Spirit" (2Co 3:8, 9): the ministry of such a spiritual, liberty-giving Gospel: resuming 2Co 3:6, 8.

received mercy—from God, in having had this ministry conferred on us (2Co 3:5). The sense of "mercy" received from God, makes men active for God (1Ti 1:11-13).

we faint not—in boldness of speech and action, and patience in suffering (2Co 4:2, 8-16, &c.).

1 Timothy 1:14

14. And—Greek, "But." Not only so (was mercy shown me), but

the grace—by which "I obtained mercy" (1Ti 1:13).

was exceeding abundant—Greek, "superabounded." Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Ro 5:20).

with faith—accompanied with faith, the opposite of "unbelief" (1Ti 1:13).

love—in contrast to "a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious."

which is in Christ—as its element and home [ALFORD]: here as its source whence it flows to us.

1 Timothy 1:16

16. Howbeit—Greek, "But"; contrasting his own conscious sinfulness with God's gracious visitation of him in mercy.

for this cause—for this very purpose.

that in me—in my case.

first—"foremost." As I was "foremost" (Greek for chief, 1Ti 1:15) in sin, so God has made me the "foremost" sample of mercy.

show—to His own glory (the middle Greek, voice), Eph 2:7.

all long-suffering—Greek, "the whole (of His) long-suffering," namely, in bearing so long with me while I was a persecutor.

a pattern—a sample (1Co 10:6, 11) to assure the greatest sinners of the certainty that they shall not be rejected in coming to Christ, since even Saul found mercy. So David made his own case of pardon, notwithstanding the greatness of his sin, a sample to encourage other sinners to seek pardon (Ps 32:5, 6). The Greek for "pattern" is sometimes used for a "sketch" or outline—the filling up to take place in each man's own case.

believe on him—Belief rests ON Him as the only foundation on which faith relies.

to life everlasting—the ultimate aim which faith always keeps in view (Tit 1:2).

Hebrews 2:17

17. Wherefore—Greek, "Whence." Found in Paul's speech, Ac 26:19.

in all things—which are incidental to manhood, the being born, nourished, growing up, suffering. Sin is not, in the original constitution of man, a necessary attendant of manhood, so He had no sin.

it behooved him—by moral necessity, considering what the justice and love of God required of Him as Mediator (compare Heb 5:3), the office which He had voluntarily undertaken in order to "help" man (Heb 2:16).

his brethren— (Heb 2:11); "the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16), and so also the spiritual seed, His elect out of all mankind.

be, &c.—rather as Greek, "that He might become High Priest"; He was called so, when He was "made perfect by the things which He suffered" (Heb 2:10; Heb 5:8-10). He was actually made so, when He entered within the veil, from which last flows His ever continuing intercession as Priest for us. The death, as man, must first be, in order that the bringing in of the blood into the heavenly Holy Place might follow, in which consisted the expiation as High Priest.

merciful—to "the people" deserving wrath by "sins." Mercy is a prime requisite in a priest, since his office is to help the wretched and raise the fallen: such mercy is most likely to be found in one who has a fellow-feeling with the afflicted, having been so once Himself (Heb 4:15); not that the Son of God needed to be taught by suffering to be merciful, but that in order to save us He needed to take our manhood with all its sorrows, thereby qualifying Himself, by experimental suffering with us, to be our sympathizing High Priest, and assuring us of His entire fellow-feeling with us in every sorrow. So in the main CALVIN remarks here.

faithful—true to God (Heb 3:5, 6) and to man (Heb 10:23) in the mediatorial office which He has undertaken.

high priest—which Moses was not, though "faithful" (Heb 2:1-18). Nowhere, except in Ps 110:4; Zec 6:13, and in this Epistle, is Christ expressly called a priest. In this Epistle alone His priesthood is professedly discussed; whence it is evident how necessary is this book of the New Testament. In Ps 110:1-7, and Zec 6:13, there is added mention of the kingdom of Christ, which elsewhere is spoken of without the priesthood, and that frequently. On the cross, whereon as Priest He offered the sacrifice, He had the title "King" inscribed over Him [BENGEL].

to make reconciliation for the sins—rather as Greek, "to propitiate (in respect to) the sins"; "to expiate the sins." Strictly divine justice is "propitiated"; but God's love is as much from everlasting as His justice; therefore, lest Christ's sacrifice, or its typical forerunners, the legal sacrifices, should be thought to be antecedent to God's grace and love, neither are said in the Old or New Testament to have propitiated God; otherwise Christ's sacrifices might have been thought to have first induced God to love and pity man, instead of (as the fact really is) His love having originated Christ's sacrifice, whereby divine justice and divine love are harmonized. The sinner is brought by that sacrifice into God's favor, which by sin he had forfeited; hence his right prayer is, "God be propitiated (so the Greek) to me who am a sinner" (Lu 18:13). Sins bring death and "the fear of death" (Heb 2:15). He had no sin Himself, and "made reconciliation for the iniquity" of all others (Da 9:24).

of the people—"the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16); the literal Israel first, and then (in the design of God), through Israel, the believing Gentiles, the spiritual Israel (1Pe 2:10).