2:16-17
By Divine will there is a trouble common to man a trouble of life in which all and each may expect some share, and which, at particular times of life, grows very intense. If any one seems to be excepted, such an one might almost fear Divine desertion thereby, or some Divine displeasure resting on him; for how few of God’s own children get through the world and into the heavenly home with little or no trouble by the way. There is a sense in which Christians drink more deeply of trouble than ordinary men, for in proportion as they are really Christian they have more refined and developed sensibilities. They live with Christ; therefore they feel with Christ, and receive life’s trouble full on the Christian moral sense; and if that does not make the trouble more in itself, it makes it more to them. (Nicoll)
Our sorrow is greatly enhanced by the mystery of life. If we could only understand the reason of it, it would be easier to bear. But the tears seem to be so unnecessary, the wounding so needless, the pain and anguish so inexplicable. Life is a tangled skein, and we can get no clue. Now in this mystery and perplexity of life there comes One who says, “Trust Me.” He does not, indeed, throw scientific light on the mystery of life. He does not solve its enigma. He does not put the clue into our hands. But He says “Trust Me.” It is not a poet who speaks to us, who has gotten a little deeper insight than we have gotten. It is a witness-bearer, who out of the eternal life is come and into the eternal life is going. His is the witness; and in this is the root and ground of all that Christianity has offered us faith, not in a poet, not in a philosopher, not in a theologian, but faith in a witness-bearer. (Nicoll)
You cannot think through the problem by the unaided human faculty, and you cannot drive yourself through it by the unaided human faculty, and you cannot forget it. No, there is but one way, and that is to come to God; all consolation is in Him. He is everlasting, and from everlasting He hath loved us. Believe the Gospel; accept its truth; hold its truth; do its duty; breathe its spirit; conform to its ideal in no transcendental spirit, but humbly and earnestly, in common things and in daily life and you have the everlasting consolation of God. Our God consoles us not only by surprising us with mercies, and lighting all our great future by hope, but by binding us to daily duty, and helping us day by day, amid trouble and care and toil, from the fountains of His everlasting care and purity, so that we are in some humble measure stablished in every good word and work.
(Nicoll; he cited A. Raleigh, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 822.)
3:1
Paul often ascribes his preservation to the prayers of the saints. He solicits prayer that the Lord would go before his messengers in all places, and clear the race ground of all opposing powers, that the word might be glorified in the conversion of multitudes. His personal preservation he makes but a secondary consideration, to the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom. For all men, high pretenders to the law of Moses, have not faith, being destitute of probity, truth, and justice. They obstruct our course, and fight against God. (Sutcliffe)
3:2
Closely allied to this great preliminary obstacle is the misconception which looks upon religion as concerned solely about the life to come, and as not likely to bring in considerable light or strength into our present concerns. Many persons deliberately put aside religion, believing that it would interfere with legitimate pursuits, waste their energies, and introduce gloom and constraint into their life. The professed secularist and the practical secularist each says to himself, “I have occupations and duties now that require all my strength, and if there is another world the best preparation for it that I can make is to do thoroughly, and with all my strength, the duties now pressing upon me.” Most of us have felt the attraction of this position. It has a sound of candid, manly common-sense. It appeals to the Anglo-Saxon within us, and to our esteem for what is practical, and has its foot upon the solid earth. Moreover, it is directly true that the very best preparation, the only preparation, for any future world is to do thoroughly well the duties of the present. Of course that is so. But the whole question remains: What are the duties of the present? Can we determine what these duties are until we determine whether the proclamation made by Christ is true or false? If there is a God, it is not in the future only that we have to do with Him, but now. All our duties must be tinged with the idea of this sovereign purpose and of God’s relation to us. (Nicoll)
Turning to the other great class of men, we find that many are really willing; their thoughts are always turning towards Christ and His religion; and yet they are continually held back by some misconception of the way in which a fellowship with Him is formed, or some other misconception. One of these misconceptions is the not unnatural, nor altogether unworthy idea that some preparation for coming to Christ is necessary a deeper conviction, a firmer assurance of continuing in His service, or, perhaps, more feeling is thought to be required. This is a very common state of mind; because it is difficult for any man among us to grasp once for all the idea that Christ has been sent into this world to save us from every kind of evil, and especially from every kind of spiritual faultiness. Uniformly Christ offers Himself to men as they are; He offers the one effectual remedy for our whole condition, whatever it is. (Nicoll)
3:5
The Apostle gathers up the whole sum of his desires for his friends, and presents to us the whole aim of our efforts for ourselves, in these two things, a steadfast love to God, and a calm endurance of evil and persistence in duty, unaffected by suffering or by pain. If we have these two we shall not be far from being what God wishes to see us. (MacLaren)
Now the Apostle’s thought here, of ‘leading us into’ these two seems to suggest the metaphor of a great home with two chambers in it, of which the inner was entered from the outer. The first room is ‘the love of God,’ and the second is ‘the patience of Christ.’ It comes to the same thing whether we speak of the heart as dwelling in love, or of love as dwelling in the heart. The metaphor varies, the substance of the thought is the same, and that thought is that the heart should be the sphere and subject of a steadfast, habitual, all-pleasing love, which issues in unbroken calmness of endurance and persistence of service, in the face of evil. (MacLaren)
Nor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this resolve to do the will of God, in spite of all antagonism and opposition, lies a condition at once of moral perfection and of blessedness. So, dear friends, if we would have a home for our hearts, let us pass into that sweet, calm, inexpugnable fortress provided for us in the love of God and the patience of Christ. (MacLaren)
Passive and active patience is the direct fruit of love to God. The one chamber opens into the other. For they whose hearts dwell in the sweet sanctities of the love of God, will ever be those who say, with a calm smile, as they put out their hand to the bitterest draught, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (Nicoll)
All those movements in our hearts, so often neglected, so often resisted, by which we are compelled to a holier life, to a deeper love, to a more unworldly consecration, all these, rightly understood, are Christ’s directions. (Nicoll)
3:7
“Every man shall bear his own burden,” his own proper and personal load. The word is used to signify a soldier’s kit or knapsack. In Christian warfare, then, each faithful soldier must see that he has his own weight, and that he does not encumber another with it, or take up another’s instead of his own. All acts of this kind are a walking disorderly. (Nicoll)
Believers then have daily work to do; not only Christian work, but all work done in a Christian spirit. The record of their days must never be like that said to have been found in the diary of Louis XVI., after the first French Revolution, the simple word occurring on almost every page, “Nothing, nothing!” Time rather must be redeemed, not wasted. (Nicoll)
3:8
To the Greeks manual labor was for slaves only, but the Bible affirms work as from God. In Genesis work is both before the Fall and after … The concept of working for one’s own needs is crucial to this context. Some believers had rejected work because they assumed the Second Coming was near, but they still expected the church to feed them. (Utley)
3:9
Paul was affirming the concept that believers should support their leaders … . However, in this specific situation he acted to set an example for those who had quit working [and] to avoid possible criticism. (Utley)
3:14
Otherwise, by associating with such a one, you justify his conduct, and become partakers of his sin. You make the church also to cover the defects of which the public complain; but if he be a penitent, and exhibit the fruits of repentance, then the church may own him as a son. (Sutcliffe)
It is uncertain if this involved a full excommunication, an exclusion from the collective church meals (agape feasts), [or] some type of exclusion from leadership roles or fellowship situations. (Utley)
NOTE: Please see the following web-page for most of the works cited: https://insidecrosspoint.org/sermons/2022/july/bibliography.html. Works cited on this web-page correspond to the verses they are are grouped or outlined with.