Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 23:34 - 23:34
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify.’
Mat_23:34
I. The world’s hatred.—‘Marvel not, My brethren, if the world hate you,’ was a warning of the Master, and soon, in the history of His Church, the penalty of an uncompromising witness for righteousness was to be shown. We are too ready to shrink from this hatred of the world, too ready to forget the warning, ‘woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you!’ Has there ever been an age when popularity was the hall-mark of goodness?
II. The sanctification of business life.—There is a message, too, to the Christian man of business. The first call of St. Stephen to work recorded is his call and ordination to the diaconate, for a work which in these days we would not associate with the ministry at all. The fulness of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, and faith, should then be the equipment of the man of business or of toil. Surely it sets a noble standard to all workers, and it is God’s standard. We realise its dignity and importance as, day by day, we can perform our allotted task as a service to Him.
III. Consecrate your gift.—Again it encourages us to take our gift and lay it upon the altar—to devote some portion of our business ability or of our skill to God’s holy Church. What room there is in parish matters for the sanctified experience and common sense of the layman! Like St. Stephen, to take up a share of the secular work, that the preaching of the Word of God be not hindered.
—
The Rev. H. G. Wheeler.