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4:17 This therefore I say - He returns thither where he begun, Eph 4:1.And testify in the Lord - In the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus. In the vanity of their mind - Having lost the knowledge of the true God, Rom 1:21. This is the root of all evil walking.

4:18 Having their understanding darkened, through the ignorance that is in them - So that they are totally void of the light of God, neither have they any knowledge of his will.Being alienated from the life of God - Utter strangers to the divine, the spiritual life. Through the hardness of their hearts - Callous and senseless. And where there is no sense, there can be no life.

4:19 Who being past feeling - The original word is peculiarly significant. It properly means, past feeling pain. Pain urges the sick to seek a remedy, which, where there is no pain, is little thought of. Have given themselves up - Freely, of their own accord. Lasciviousness is but one branch of uncleanness, which implies impurity of every kind.

4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ - That is, ye cannot act thus, now ye know him, since you know the Christian dispensation allows of no sin.

4:21 Seeing ye have heard him - Teaching you inwardly by his Spirit.As the truth is in Jesus - According to his own gospel.

4:22 The old man - That is, the whole body of sin. All sinful desires are deceitful; promising the happiness which they cannot give.

4:23 The spirit of your mind - The very ground of your heart.

4:24 The new man - Universal holiness. After - In the very image of God.

4:25 Wherefore - Seeing ye are thus created anew, walk accordingly, in every particular. For we are members one of another - To which intimate union all deceit is quite repugnant.

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4:22 The gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth - A person of spiritual discernment may find in all the discourses of our Lord a peculiar sweetness, gravity, and becomingness, such as is not to be found in the same degree, not even in those of the apostles.

4:23 Ye will surely say - That is, your approbation now outweighs your prejudices. But it will not be so long. You will soon ask, why my love does not begin at home? Why I do not work miracles here, rather than at Capernaum? It is because of your unbelief. Nor is it any new thing for me to be despised in my own country. So were both Elijah and Elisha, and thereby driven to work miracles among heathens, rather than in Israel.

4:24 No prophet is acceptable in his own country - That is, in his own neighbourhood. It generally holds, that a teacher sent from God is not so acceptable to his neighbours as he is to strangers.The meanness of his family, or lowness of his circumstances, bring his office into contempt: nor can they suffer that he, who was before equal with, or below themselves, should now bear a superior character.

4:25 When the heaven was shut up three years and six months - Such a proof had they that God had sent him. In Ki1 18:1, it is said, The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year: namely, reckoning not from the beginning of the drought, but from the time when he began to sojourn with the widow of Sarepta.A year of drought had preceded this, while he dwelt at the brook Cherith. So that the whole time of the drought was (as St. James likewise observes) three years and six months. Ki1 17:19; Ki1 18:44.

4:27  Ki2 5:14.

4:28 And all in the synagogue were filled with fury - Perceiving the purport of his discourse, namely, that the blessing which they despised, would be offered to, and accepted by, the Gentiles.So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So little are their starts of love to be depended on! So unable are they to bear the close application, even of a discourse which they most admire!

4:30 Passing through the midst of them - Perhaps invisibly; or perhaps they were overawed; so that though they saw, they could not touch him.