5 

5:22 Lay hands suddenly on no man - That is, appoint no man to church offices without full trial and examination; else thou wilt be accessary to, and accountable for, his misbehaviour in his office.Keep thy self pure - From the blood of all men.

5:24 Some men's sins are manifest beforehand - Before any strict inquiry be made. Going before to judgment - So that you may immediately judge them unworthy of any spiritual office. And some they - Their sins.Follow after - More covertly.

5:25 They that are otherwise - Not so manifest.Cannot be long hid - From thy knowledge. On this account, also, be not hasty in laying on of hands.

6 

6:1 Let servants under the yoke - Of heathen masters. Account them worthy of all honour - All the honour due from a servant to a master.Lest the name of God and his doctrine be blasphemed - As it surely will, if they do otherwise.

6:2 Let them not despise them - Pay them the less honour or obedience. Because they are brethren - And in that respect on a level with them. They that live in a religious community know the danger of this; and that greater grace is requisite to bear with the faults of a brother, than of an infidel, or man of the world. But rather do them service - Serve them so much the more diligently. Because they are joint partakers of the great benefit - Salvation. These things - Paul, the aged, gives young Timotheus a charge to dwell upon practical holiness. Less experienced teachers are apt to neglect the superstructure, whilst they lay the foundation; but of so great importance did St. Paul see it to enforce obedience to Christ, as well as to preach faith in his blood, that, after strongly urging the life of faith on professors, he even adds another charge for the strict observance of it.

6:3 If any teach otherwise - Than strict practical holiness in all Its branches. And consent not to sound words - Literally, healthful words; words that have no taint of falsehood, or tendency to encourage sin. And the doctrine which is after godliness - Exquisitely contrived to answer all the ends, and secure every interest, of real piety.

6:4 He is puffed up - Which is the cause of his not consenting to the doctrine which is after inward, practical religion. By this mark we may know them. Knowing nothing - As he ought to know. Sick of questions - Doatinglyy fond of dispute; an evil, but common, disease; especially where practice is forgotten. Such, indeed, contend earnestly for singular phrases, and favourite points of their own. Everything else, however, like the preaching of Christ and his apostles, is all "law," and "bondage," and "carnal reasoning." Strifes ofwords - Merely verbal controversies. Whereof cometh envy - Of the gifts and success of others. Contention - For the pre - eminence.Such disputants seldom like the prosperity of others, or to be less esteemed themselves. Evil surmisings - It not being their way to think well of those that differ from themselves in opinion.

6:5 Supposing that gain is godliness - Thinking the best religion is the getting of money: a far more common case than is usually supposed.

6:6 But godliness with content - The inseparable companion of true, vital religion. Is great gain - Brings unspeakable profit in time, as well as eternity.

6:7 Neither can we carry anything out - To what purpose, then, do we heap together so many things? O, give me one thing, - a safe and ready passage to my own country!

6:8 Covering - That is, raiment and an house to cover us.This is all that a Christian needs, and all that his religion allows him to desire.

6:9 They that desire to be rich - To have more than these; for then they would be so far rich; and the very desire banishes content, and exposes them to ruin. Fall - plunge - A sad gradation! Into temptation - Miserable food for the soul! And a snare - Or trap. Dreadful "covering!" And into many foolish and hurtful desires - Which are sown and fed by having more than we need. Then farewell all hope of content! What then remains, but destruction for the body, and perdition for the soul?

6:10 Love of money - Commonly called "prudent care" of what a man has. Is the root - The parent of all manner of evils.Which some coveting have erred - Literally, missed the mark. They aimed not at faith, but at something else. And pierced themselves with many sorrows - From a guilty conscience, tormenting passions, desires contrary to reason, religion, and one another. How cruel are worldly men to themselves!

6:11 But thou, O man of God - Whatever all the world else do. A man of God is either a prophet, a messenger of God, or a man devoted to God; a man of another world. Flee - As from a serpent, instead of coveting these things. Follow after righteousness - The whole image of God; though sometimes this word is used, not in the general, but in the particular, acceptation, meaning only that single branch of it which is termed justice. Faith - Which is also taken here in the general and full sense; namely, a divine, supernatural sight of God, chiefly in respect of his mercy in Christ. This faith is the foundation of righteousness, the support of godliness, the root of every grace of the Spirit. Love - This St. Paul intermixes with everything that is good: he, as it were, penetrates whatever he treats of with love, the glorious spring of all inward and outward holiness.

15 

15:1 All the publicans - That is, all who were in that place.It seems our Lord was in some town of Galilee of the Gentiles, from whence he afterward went to Jerusalem, Luk 17:11.

15:3 He spake - Three parables of the same import: for the sheep, the piece of silver, and the lost son, all declare (in direct contrariety to the Pharisees and scribes) in what manner God receiveth sinners.

15:4 Leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness - Where they used to feed: all uncultivated ground, like our commons, was by the Jews termed wilderness or desert. And go after - In recovering a lost soul, God as it were labours. May we not learn hence, that to let them alone who are in sin, is both unchristian and inhuman! Mat 18:12.

15:7 Joy shall be - Solemn and festal joy, in heaven - First, in our blessed Lord himself, and then among the angels and spirits of just men, perhaps informed thereof by God himself, or by the angels who ministered to them. Over one sinner - One gross, open, notorious sinner, that repenteth - That is, thoroughly changed in heart and life; more than over ninety and nine just persons - Comparatively just, outwardly blameless: that need not such arepentance - For they need not, cannot repent of the sins which they never committed. The sum is, as a father peculiarly rejoices when an extravagantchild, supposed to be utterly lost, comes to a thorough sense of his duty; or as any other person who has recovered what he had given up for gone, has a more sensible satisfaction in it, than in several other things equally valuable, but not in such danger: so do the angels in heaven peculiarly rejoice in the conversion of the most abandoned sinners. Yea, and God himself so readily forgives and receives them, that he may be represented as having part in the joy.