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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Philippians 4:20 - 4:20
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Note here, 1. The endearing title given to Almighty God, God our Father; the word Father is a title of great honour; the word our is a word of singular comfort. The appropriating positive terms, mine, thine, ours, have a great sweetness in them, and breathe abundance of affection. As Luther used to say, "The comfort of the gospel lay in pronouns possessive, when we can say with believing Thomas, My Lord and my God; with blessed Paul, Who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Learn, That God is a Father in a more peculiar and special manner to all that are interested in his Son Jesus Christ. The word Father implies spiritual generation, that we are begotten by him, and like unto him; it implies vehemency of affection, no bowels comparable unto a father's; it implies designed benefit by correction, that he exercises in unto profit.
And in the word our is implied, that God is the Father of every believer, the weakest as well as the strongest; we are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus: and it points out our duty also, that as there is one God and Father of all, so all believers should be of one heart and of one mind among themselves.
Note, 2. What it is which our apostle attributes and ascribes unto God, namely, glory, and that for ever and ever. Glory, that is, the manifestation of all his glorious excellences and perfections.
Learn hence, That it is the fervent desire of all believers to have the worth and excellences of God everlastingly acknowledged, and in a boundless manner displayed: Unto God be glory for ever and ever.
This word, for ever and ever, is, upon different accounts, the saddest and sweetest word in all the Bible. When applied to sinners, and what they suffer from God as the desert, the due desert, of their sins, then it is a word of the saddest weight, Rev_14:11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;
They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. 2Th_1:9
'Tis the word for ever and ever that sets all hell a roaring, and it is the same word that fills heaven with joy and rejoicing. To God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.