1 Corinthians, Chapter 4, verses 1-5
1 In what account the ministers ought to be hadMatthew, Chapter 23, verses 1-12
1 Christ admonisheth the people to follow the good doctrine, not the evil examples of the scribes and Pharisees, 5 His disciples must beware of their ambition23
23:1 Then - Leaving all converse with his adversaries, whom he now left to the hardness of their hearts.
23:2 The scribes sit in the chair of Moses - That is, read and expound the law of Moses, and are their appointed teachers.
23:3 All things therefore - Which they read out of the law, and enforce therefrom.
23:4 Luk 11:46.
23:5 Their phylacteries - The Jews, understanding those words literally, It shall he as a token upon thy hand, and as frontlets between thine eyes, Exo 13:16.And thou shalt bind these words for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, Deu 6:8;used to wear little scrolls of paper or parchment, bound on their wrist and foreheads, on which several texts of Scripture were writ. These they supposed, as a kind of charm, would preserve them from danger. And hence they seem to have been called phylacteries, or preservatives. The fringes of their garments - Which God had enjoined them towear, to remind them of doing all the commandments, Num 15:38.These, as well as their phylacteries, the Pharisees affected to wear broader and larger than other men. Mar 12:38.
23:8 The Jewish rabbis were also called father and master, by their several disciples, whom they required,
- To believe implicitly what they affirmed, without asking any farther reason;
- To obey implicitly what they enjoined, without seeking farther authority.
23:9 See note ... Mat 23:8.
23:10 See note ... Mat 23:8.
23:11 Mat 20:26.
23:12 Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble himself shall he exalted - It is observable that no one sentence of our Lord's is so often repeated as this: it occurs, with scarce any variation, at least ten times in the evangelists. Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14.
4
4:1 Let a man account us, as servants of Christ - The original word properly signifies such servants as laboured at the oar in rowing vessels; and, accordingly, intimates the pains which every faithful minister takes in his Lord's work.O God, where are these ministers to be found? Lord, thou knowest. And stewards of the mysteries of God - Dispenseth of the mysterious truths of the gospel.
4:3 Yea, I judge not myself - My final state is not to be determined by my own judgment.
4:4 I am not conscious to myself of anything evil; yet am I not hereby justified - I depend not on this, as a sufficient justification of myself in God's account. But he that judgeth me is the Lord - By his sentence I am to stand or fall.
4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time - Appointed for judging all men. Until the Lord come, who, in order to pass a righteous judgment, which otherwise would be impossible, will both bring to light the things which are now covered with impenetrable darkness, and manifest the most secret springs of action, the principles and intentions of every heart. And then shall every one - Every faithful steward, have praise of God.