Isa 48:1-2, Mat 25:11-12, Luk 6:46, 13:25, Rom 2:13 | Barnes

Isaiah 48:1-2

Matthew 25:11-12

Verse 11. Open to us. This is not to be understood as implying that any will come after the righteous shall be admitted into the kingdom, and claim admission then. It is a part of the parable to illustrate the general truth inculcated, or to prepare the way for what is afterwards said, and keep up the narrative, and make it consistent.

(f) "saying, Lord" Mt 7:21-23, Heb 12:17 Verse 12. I know you not. You were not in the company of those who attended me to the marriage feast, and are unknown to me. Applied to professing Christians, having only a profession of religion, but no real piety, it means I know, or acknowledge you not as Christians. I do not approve of you, or delight in you, or admit you to be my friends. The word know is often used in the sense of approving, loving, acknowledging as real friends and followers. See Mt 7:23 Psa 1:6, 2Ti 2:19, 1Thes 5:12.

(g) "I know you not" Hab 1:13

Luke 6:46

Verse 46. Mt 7:21; Mt 7:22; Mt 7:23; Mt 7:24; Mt 7:25; Mt 7:26; Mt 7:27.

Luke 13:25

Verse 25. When once the master, &c. The figure here used is taken from the conduct of a housekeeper, who is willing to see his friends, and who at the proper time keeps his doors open. But there is a proper time for closing them, when he will not see his guests. At night it would be improper and vain to seek an entrance--the house would be shut. So there is a proper time to seek an entrance into heaven; but there will be a time when it will be too late. At death the time will have passed by, and God will be no longer gracious to the sinner's soul.

(w) "When once the master" Ps 32:6, Is 55:6 (x) "hath shut the door" Mt 25:10 (y) "Lord, Lord open to us" Lk 6:46

Romans 2:13

Verse 13. For not the hearers, etc. The same sentiment is implied in Jas 1:22, Mt 7:21,24, Lk 6:47. the apostle here doubtless designed to meet an objection of the Jews; to wit, that they had the law, that they manifested great deference for it, that they heard it read with attention, and professed a willingness to yield themselves to it. To meet this, he states a very plain and obvious principle, that this was insufficient to justify them before God, unless they rendered actual obedience.

Are just. Are justified before God, or are personally holy. Or, in other words, simply hearing the law is not meeting all its requirements, and making men holy. If they expected to be saved by the law, it required something more than merely to hear it. It demanded perfect obedience.

But the doers of the law. They who comply entirely with its demands; or who yield to it perfect and perpetual obedience. This was the plain and obvious demand, not only of common sense, but of the Jewish law itself, De 4:1, Lev 18:5. Comp. Rom 10:9.

Shall be justified. This expression is evidently synonymous with that in Lev 18:5 where it is said that "he shall live in them." The meaning is, that it is a maxim or principle of the law of God, that if a creature will keep it, and obey it entirely, he shall not be condemned, but shall be approved, and live for ever. This does not affirm that any one ever has thus lived in this world, but it is an affirmation of a great general principle of law, that if a creature is justified BY the law, the obedience must be entire and perpetual. If such were the case, as there would be no ground of condemnation, man would be saved by the law. If the Jews, therefore, expected to be saved by their law, it must be, not by hearing the law, nor by being called a Jew, but by perfect and unqualified obedience to all its requirements. This passage is designed, doubtless, to meet a very common and pernicious sentiment of the Jewish teachers, that all who became hearers and listeners to the law would be saved. The inference from the passage is, that no man can be saved by his external privileges, or by an outward respectful deference to the truths and ordinances of religion.

(v) "For not the hearers" Jas 1:22,25