Mat 3:16, 12:28, 1Cor 2:11, 14, 3:16, 6:11 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 16. Out of the water . This shows that he had descended to the river. It literally means, "he went up directly FROM the water ." The original does not imply that they had descended into the river. The heavens were opened unto him . This was done while he was praying, . The sacred ordinance of baptism he attended with prayer. The ordinances of religion will be commonly ineffectual without prayer. If in those ordinances we look to God, we may expect he will bless us; the heavens will be opened; light will shine upon our path; and we shall meet with the approbation of God. The expression "the heavens were opened," is one that commonly denotes the appearance of the clouds when it lightens. The heavens appear to open, or give way. Something of this kind probably appeared to John at this time. The same appearance took place at Stephen's death, . The expression means, he was permitted to see far into the heavens beyond what the natural vision would allow. To him . Some have referred this to Jesus, others to John. It probably refers to John. See . It was a testimony given to John that this was the Messiah. He saw . John saw. The Spirit of God . See . This was the Third Person of the Trinity, descending upon him in the form of a dove, . The dove , among the Jews, was the symbol of purity or harmlessness, ( ) and of softness, ( .) The form chosen here was doubtless an emblem of the innocence, meekness, and tenderness of the Saviour. The gift of the Holy Spirit, in this manner, was the public approbation of Jesus, ( ,) and a sign of his being set apart to the office of the Messiah. We are not to suppose that there was any change wrought in the moral character of Jesus, but only that he was publicly set apart to his work, and solemnly approved by God in the office to which he was appointed. (y) "Spirit of God" .

Matthew 3:16

Verse 16. Out of the water. This shows that he had descended to the river. It literally means, "he went up directly FROM the water." The original does not imply that they had descended into the river.

The heavens were opened unto him. This was done while he was praying, Lk 3:21. The sacred ordinance of baptism he attended with prayer. The ordinances of religion will be commonly ineffectual without prayer. If in those ordinances we look to God, we may expect he will bless us; the heavens will be opened; light will shine upon our path; and we shall meet with the approbation of God. The expression "the heavens were opened," is one that commonly denotes the appearance of the clouds when it lightens. The heavens appear to open, or give way. Something of this kind probably appeared to John at this time. The same appearance took place at Stephen's death, Acts 7:56. The expression means, he was permitted to see far into the heavens beyond what the natural vision would allow.

To him. Some have referred this to Jesus, others to John. It probably refers to John. See Jn 1:33. It was a testimony given to John that this was the Messiah.

He saw. John saw.

The Spirit of God. See Mt 3:11. This was the Third Person of the Trinity, descending upon him in the form of a dove, Lk 3:22. The dove, among the Jews, was the symbol of purity or harmlessness, (Mt 10:16) and of softness, (Ps 55:7.) The form chosen here was doubtless an emblem of the innocence, meekness, and tenderness of the Saviour. The gift of the Holy Spirit, in this manner, was the public approbation of Jesus, (Jn 1:33,) and a sign of his being set apart to the office of the Messiah. We are not to suppose that there was any change wrought in the moral character of Jesus, but only that he was publicly set apart to his work, and solemnly approved by God in the office to which he was appointed.

(y) "Spirit of God" Isa 11:2, 42:1, 61:1, Jn 3:34.

Matthew 12:28

Verse 28. But if I--by the Spirit of God, etc. The Spirit of God, here, means the power of God--in Luke, by the finger of God. Compare Ex 8:19, Ps 8:3. If this work is not by the aid of Satan, then it is by the aid of God. Then his kingdom, or reign, is come, Mt 3:2. The reign of Satan over men, and the reign of God, are in opposition. If God expels Satan from his dominion over men, then his reign has come.

(z) "kingdom of God" Dan 2:44, Mt 6:33, Lk 11:20, 17:21, Rom 14:17

1 Corinthians 2:11

Verse 11. For what man, etc. The design of this is to illustrate what he had just said by a reference to the way in which man acquires a knowledge of himself. The purpose is to show that the Spirit has an exact and thorough knowledge of the things of God; and this is done by the very striking thought that no man can know his own mind, his own plans and intentions, but himself--his own spirit. The essential idea is, that no man can know another; that his thoughts and designs can only be known by himself, or by his own spirit; and that unless he chooses to reveal them to others, they cannot ascertain them. So of God. No man can penetrate his designs; and, unless he chooses to make them known by his Spirit, they must for ever remain inscrutable to human view.

The things of a man. The "deep things"--the hidden counsels, thoughts, plans, intentions.

Save the spirit of man, etc. Except his own mind; i.e., himself. No other man can fully know them. By the spirit of man here, Paul designs to denote the human soul--or the intellect of man. It is not to be supposed that he here intends to convey the idea that there is a perfect resemblance between the relation which the soul of man bears to the man, and the relation which the Holy Spirit bears to God. The illustration is to be taken in regard to the point immediately before him; which is, that no one could know and communicate the deep thoughts and plans of God except his Spirit; just as no one could penetrate into the intentions of a man, and fully know them, but himself. The passage proves, therefore, that there is a knowledge which the Spirit has of God, which no man, no angel can obtain; just as every man's spirit has a knowledge of his own plans which no other man can obtain; that the Spirit of God can communicate his plans and deep designs, just as a man can communicate his own intentions; and, consequently, that while there is a distinction of some kind between the Spirit of God and God, as there is a distinction which makes it proper to say that a man has an intelligent soul, yet there is such a profound and intimate knowledge of God by the Spirit, that he must be equal with him; and such an intimate union, that he can be called" the Spirit of God," and be one with God, as the human soul can be called "the spirit of the man," and be one with him. In all respects we are not to suppose that there is a similarity. In these points there is. It may be added, that the union, the oneness of the Spirit of God with God, is no more absurd or inexplicable than the union of the spirit of man with the man; or the oneness of the complex person made up of body and soul, which we call man. When men have explained all the difficulties about themselves, in regard to their own bodies and spirits, it will be time to advance objections against the doctrines here stated in regard to God.

Even so. To the same extent; in like manner.

The things of God. His deep purposes and plans.

Knoweth no man. Man cannot search into them, any more than one man can search the intentions of another.

(a) "man" Prov 14:10 (b) "so the things" Rom 11:33,34

1 Corinthians 2:14

Verse 14. But the natural man. (ψυχικοςδεανθρωπος.) The word natural here stands opposed evidently to spiritual. It denotes those who are governed and influenced by the natural instincts; the animal passions and desires, in opposition to those who are influenced by the Spirit of God. It refers to unregenerate men; but it has also not merely the idea of their being unregenerate, but that of their being influenced by the animal passions or desires. 1Cor 15:44. The word sensual would correctly express the idea. The word is used by the Greek writers to denote that which man has in common with the brutes; to denote that they are under the influence of the senses, or the mere animal nature, in opposition to reason and conscience. Bretschneider. See 1Thes 5:23. Here it denotes that they are under the influence of the senses, or the animal nature, in opposition to being influenced by the Spirit of God. Macknight and Doddridge render it, "the animal man." Whitby understands by it the man who rejects revelation, the man who is under the influence of carnal wisdom. The word occurs but six times in the New Testament: 1Cor 15:44 twice, 1Cor 15:46, Jas 3:15 Jude 1:19. In 1Cor 15:44,46, it is rendered "natural," and is applied to the body as it exists before death, in contradistinction from that which shall exist after the resurrection-- called a spiritual body. In James 3:15, it is applied to wisdom: "This wisdom is earthly, surreal, devilish." In Jude 1:19, it is applied to sensual persons, or those who are governed by the senses, in opposition to those who are influenced by the Spirit: "These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." The word here evidently denotes those who are under the influence of the senses; who are governed by the passions and the animal appetites, and natural desires; and who are uninfluenced by the Spirit of God. And it may be observed that this was the case with the great mass of the heathen world, even including the philosophers.

Receiveth not. ουδεχεται. Does not embrace or comprehend them. That is, he rejects them as folly; he does not perceive their beauty or their wisdom; he despises them. He loves other things better. A man of intemperance does not receive or love the arguments for temperance; a man of licentiousness, the arguments for chastity; a liar, the arguments for truth. So a sensual or worldly man does not receive or love the arguments for religion.

The things of the Spirit of God. The doctrines which are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the things which pertain to his influence on the heart and life. The things of the Spirit of God here denote all the things which the Holy Spirit produces.

Neither can he know them. Neither can he understand or comprehend them. Perhaps, also, the word know here implies also the idea of loving, or approving of them, as it often does in the Scripture. Thus, to know the Lord often means to love him, to have a full, practical acquaintance with him. When the apostle says that the animal or sensual man cannot know those things, he may have reference to one of two things. Either,

(1.) that those doctrines were not discoverable by human wisdom, or by any skill which the natural man may have, but were to be learned only by revelation. This is the main drift of his argument, and this sense is given by Locke and Whitby. Or,

(2.) he may mean that the sensual, the unrenewed man cannot perceive their beauty and their force, even after they are revealed to man, unless the mind is enlightened and inclined by the Spirit of God. This is probably the sense of the passage. This is the simple affirmation of a fact, that while the man remains sensual and carnal, he cannot perceive the beauty of those doctrines. And this is a simple and well-known fact. It is a truth--universal and lamentable-that the sensual man, the worldly man, the proud, haughty, and self-confident man; the man under the influence of his animal appetites--licentious, false, ambitious, and vain--does not perceive any beauty in Christianity. So the intemperate man perceives no beauty in the arguments for temperance; the adulterer, no beauty in the arguments for chastity; the liar, no beauty in the arguments for truth. It is a simple fact, that while he is intemperate, or licentious, or false, he can perceive no beauty in these doctrines. But this does not prove that he has no natural faculties for perceiving the force and beauty of these arguments; or that he might not apply his mind to their investigation, and be brought to embrace them; or that he might not abandon the love of intoxicating drinks, and sensuality, and falsehood, and be a man of temperance, purity, and truth. He has all the natural faculties which are requisite in the case; and all the inability is his strong love of intoxicating drinks, or impurity, or falsehood. So of the sensual sinner. While he thus remains in love with sin, he cannot perceive the beauty of the plan of salvation, or the excellency of the doctrines of religion. He needs just the love of these things, and the hatred of sin. He needs to cherish the influences of the Spirit; to receive what he has taught, and not to reject it through the love of sin; he needs to yield himself to their influences, and then their beauty will be seen. The passage here proves that, while a man is thus sensual, the things of the Spirit will appear to him to be folly; it proves nothing about his ability, or his natural faculty, to see the excellency of these things, and to turn from his sin. It is the affirmation of a simple fact everywhere discernible, that the natural man does not perceive the beauty of these things; that while he remains in that state he cannot; and that if he is ever brought to perceive their beauty, it will be by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Such is his love of sin, that he never will be brought to see their beauty except by the agency of the Holy Spirit. "For wickedness perverts the judgment, and makes men err with respect to practical principles; so that no one can be wise and judicious who is not good."--Aristotle, as quoted by Bloomfield.

They are spiritually discerned. That is, they are perceived by the aid of the Holy Spirit enlightening the mind and influencing the heart.

(*) "natural man" "Carnal" (a) "receiveth not" Mt 13:11, Rom 8:5,7 (+) "discerned" "discerneth"

1 Corinthians 3:16

Verse 16. Know ye not, etc. The apostle here carries forward and completes the figure which he had commenced in regard to Christians. His illustrations had been drawn from architecture; and he here proceeds to say that Christians are that building, 1Cor 3:9; that they were the sacred temple which God had reared; and that, therefore, they should be pure and holy. This is a practical application of what he had been before saying.

Ye are the temple of God. This is to be understood of the community of Christians, or of the church, as being the place where God dwells on the earth. The idea is derived from the mode of speaking among the Jews, where they are said often in the Old Testament to be the temple and the habitation of God. And the allusion is probably to the fact that God dwelt by a visible symbol--the Shechinah---in the temple, and that his abode was there. As he dwelt there among the Jews---as he had there a temple, a dwelling place--so he dwells among Christians. They are his temple, the place of his abode. His residence is with them; and he is in their midst. This figure the apostle Paul several times uses, 1Cor 6:19, 2Cor 6:16, Eph 2:20-22. A great many passages have been quoted by Elsner and Wetstein, in which a virtuous mind is represented as the temple of God, and in which the obligation to preserve that inviolate and unpolluted is enforced. The figure is a beautiful one, and very impressive. A temple was an edifice erected to the service of God. The temple at Jerusalem was not only most magnificent, but was regarded as most sacred,

(1.) from the fact that it was devoted to his service; and,

(2.) from the fact that it was the peculiar residence of JEHOVAH. Among the heathen, also, temples were regarded as sacred. They were supposed to be inhabited by the divinity to whom they were dedicated. They were regarded as inviolable. Those who took refuge there were safe. It was a crime of the highest degree to violate a temple, or to tear a fugitive who had sought protection there from the altar. So the apostle says of the Christian community. They were regarded as his temple --God dwelt among them--and they should regard themselves as holy, and as consecrated to his service. And so it is regarded as a species of sacrilege to violate the temple, and to devote it to other uses, 1Cor 6:19. 1Cor 3:17.

And that the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. This is conclusively proved by 1Cor 6:19, where he is called "the Holy Ghost."

Dwelleth in you. As God dwelt formerly in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple, so his Spirit now dwells among Christians. This cannot mean

(1.) that the Holy Spirit is personally united to Christians, so as to form a personal union; or

(2.) that there is to Christians any communication of his nature or personal qualities; or

(3.) that there is any union of essence or nature with them, for God is present in all places, and can, as God, be no more present at one place than at another. The only sense in which he can be peculiarly present in any place is by his influence, or agency. And the idea is one which denotes agency, influence, favour, peculiar regard; and in that sense only can he be present with his church, The expression must mean,

(1.) that the church is the seat of his operations, the field or abode on which he acts on earth;

(2.) that his influences are there, producing the appropriate effects of his agency, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering," etc., Gal 5:22,23;

(3.) that he produces there consolations, that he sustains and guides his people;

(4.) that they are regarded as dedicated or consecrated to him;

(5.) that they are especially dear to him--that he loves them, and thus makes his abode with them. Jn 14:23.

(a) "ye are" 2Cor 6:16 (*) "in" "among"

1 Corinthians 6:11

Verse 11. And such. Such drunkards, lascivious and covetous persons. This shows

(1) the exceeding grace of God, that could recover even such persons from sins so debasing and degrading.

(2.) It shows that we are not to despair of reclaiming the most abandoned and wretched men.

(3.) It is well for Christians to look back on what they once were. It will produce

(a) humility,

(b) gratitude,

(d) an earnest desire that others may be recovered and saved in like manner. Comp. Eph 2:1,2, 5:8, Col 3:7, Tit 3:3-6. The design of this is to remind them of what they were, and to show them that they were now under obligation to lead better lives--by all the mercy which God had shown in recovering them from sins so degrading, and from a condition so dreadful.

But ye are washed. Heb 10:22. Washing is an emblem of purifying. They had been made pure by the Spirit of God. They had been indeed baptized, and their baptism was an emblem of purifying; but the thing here particularly referred to is not baptism, but it is something that had been done by the Spirit of God, and must refer to his agency on the heart in cleansing them from these pollutions. Paul here uses three words--washed, sanctified, justified--to denote the various agencies of the Holy Spirit by which they had been recovered from sin. The first, that of washing, I understand of that work of the Spirit by which the process of purifying was commenced in the soul, and which was especially signified in baptism--the work of regeneration or conversion to God. By the agency of the Spirit, the defilement of these pollutions had been washed away or removed--as filth is removed by ablution. The agency of the Holy Ghost in regeneration is elsewhere represented by washing. Tit 3:5, "The washing of regeneration." Compare Heb 10:22.

Ye are sanctified. This denotes the progressive and advancing process of purifying which succeeds regeneration in the Christian. Regeneration is the commencement of it--its close is the perfect purity of the Christian in heaven. Jn 17:17. It does not mean that they were perfect--for the reasoning of the apostle shows that this was far from being the case with the Corinthians; but that the work was advancing, and that they were in fact under a process of sanctification.

But ye are justified. Your sins are pardoned, and you are accepted as righteous, and will be treated as such on account of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 1:17''; Rom 3:25, Rom 3:26; Rom 4:3. The apostle does not say that this was last in the order of time, but simply says that this was done to them. Men are justified when they believe, and when the work of sanctification commences in the soul

In the name of the Lord Jesus. That is, by the Lord Jesus; by his authority, appointment, influence. Acts 3:6. All this had been accomplished through the Lord Jesus; that is, in his name remission of sins had been proclaimed to them, Lk 24:47; and by his merits all these favours had been conferred on them.

And by the Spirit of our God. The Holy Spirit. All this had been accomplished by his agency on the heart. This verse brings in the whole subject of redemption, and states in a most emphatic manner the various stages by which a sinner is saved; and by this single passage a man may obtain all the essential knowledge of the plan of salvation. All is condensed here in few words.

(1.) He is by nature a miserable and polluted sinner--without merit, and without hope.

(2.) He is renewed by the Holy Ghost, and washed by baptism.

(3.) He is justified, pardoned, and accepted as righteous, through the merits of the Lord Jesus alone.

(4.) He is made holy--becomes sanctified--and more and more like God, and fit for heaven.

(5.) All this is done by the agency of the Holy Ghost.

(6.) The obligation thence results that he should lead a holy life, and forsake sin in every form.

(c) "such were" Eph 2:1,2, 5:8, Col 3:7, Tit 3:3-6 (d) "washed" Heb 10:22 (e) "sanctified" Heb 2:11 (f) "justified" Rom 8:30