Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Luke 9:55 - 9:55
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Here we have our Saviour's censure of the rash and hot motion of his disciples, which proceeded first from ignorance of themselves, Ye know not what spirit ye are of; you are not now under the rough and sour dispensation of the law, but under the calm and gentle institution of the gospel, which designs universal love, peace, and good-will, to all mankind.
Hence learn, first, that a cruel and revengeful spirit is directly contrary to the design and temper of Christianity.
Secondly, that no difference in religion, no pretence of zeal to God, can warrant and justify such a spirit and temper.
Again, this rashness in the disciples proceeded from their ignorance of Christ their Lord and Master, as well as of themselves: the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them; that is, the proper intent and design of my coming was to save, and not to destroy, though the accidental event of it may be otherwise, through the malice and perverseness of men.
Learn, that it is the design of Christ and his holy religion to discountenance all fierceness, rage, and cruelty, in men, one towards another, and to inspire them universally with a spirit of love and unity. Christ is so far from allowing us to persecute them that hate us, that he forbids us to hate them that persecute us.