2 

2:11 The saving grace of God - So it is in its nature, tendency, and design. Hath appeared to all men - High and low.

2:12 Instructing us - All who do not reject it. That, having renounced ungodliness - Whatever is contrary to the fear and love of God. And worldly desires - Which are opposite to sobriety and righteousness. We should live soberly - In all purity and holiness. Sobriety, in the scripture sense, is rather the whole temper of a man, than a single virtue in him.It comprehends all that is opposite to the drowsiness of sin, the folly of ignorance, the unholiness of disorderly passions.Sobriety is no less than all the powers of the soul being consistently and constantly awake, duly governed by heavenly prudence, and entirely conformable to holy affections. And righteously - Doing to all as we would they should do to us.And godly - As those who are consecrated to God both in heart and life.

2:13 Looking - With eager desire. For that glorious appearing - Which we hope for. Of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ - So that, if there be (according to the Arian scheme) a great God and a little God, Christ is not the little God, but the great one.

2:14 Who gave himself for us - To die in our stead. That he might redeem us - Miserable bondslaves, as well from the power and the very being, as from the guilt, of all our sins.

3 

3:4 When the love of God appeared - By the light of his Spirit to our inmost soul.

3:5 Not by works - In this important passage the apostle presents us with a delightful view of our redemption. Herein we have,

1. The cause of it; not our works or righteousness, but "the kindness and love of God our Saviour."
2. The effects; which are,
   1. Justification; "being justified," pardoned and acceptedthrough the alone merits of Christ, not from any desert in us, but according to his own mercy, "by his grace," his free, unmerited goodness.
   2. Sanctification, expressed by the laver of regeneration, (that is, baptism, the thing signified, as well as theoutward sign,) and the renewal of the Holy Ghost; which purifies the soul, as water cleanses the body, and renews it in the whole image of God.
3. The consummation of all; - that we might become heirs ofeternal life, and live now in the joyful hope of it.

3 

3:13  Mar 1:9; Luk 3:21

3:15 It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness - It becometh every messenger of God to observe all his righteous ordinances.But the particular meaning of our Lord seems to be, that it becometh us to do (me to receive baptism, and you to administer it) in order to fulfil, that is, that I may fully perform every part of the righteous law of God, and the commission he hath given me.

3:16 And Jesus being baptized - Let our Lord's submitting to baptism teach us a holy exactness in the observance of those institutions which owe their obligation merely to a Divine command. Surely thus it becometh all his followers to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus had no sin to wash away. And yet he was baptized. AndGod owned his ordinance, so as to make it the season of pouring forth the Holy Spirit upon him. And where can we expect this sacred effusion, but in an humble attendance on Divine appointments? Lo, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God - St. Luke adds, in a bodily form - Probably in a glorious appearance of fire, perhaps in the shape of a dove, descending with a hovering motion, till it rested upon him. This was a visible token of those secret operations of the blessed Spirit, by which he was anointed in a peculiar manner; and abundantly fitted for his public work.

3:17 And lo, a voice - We have here a glorious manifestation of the ever - blessed Trinity: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son spoken to, the Holy Ghost descending upon him. In whom I delight - What an encomium is this! How poor to this are all other kindsof praise! To he the pleasure, the delight of God, this is praise indeed: this is true glory: this is the highest, the brightest light, that virtue can appear in.

4 

4:7 According to the measure of the gift of Christ - According as Christ is pleased to give to each.

4:8 Wherefore he saith - That is, in reference to which God saith by David, Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive - He triumphed over all his enemies, Satan, sin, and death, which had before enslaved all the world: alluding to the custom of ancient conquerors, who led those they had conquered in chains after them.And, as they also used to give donatives to the people, at their return from victory, so he gave gifts to men - Both the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Psa 68:18.

4:9 Now this expression, He ascended, what is it, but that he descended - That is, does it not imply, that he descended first?Certainly it does, on the supposition of his being God. Otherwise it would not: since all the saints will ascend to heaven, though none of them descended thence. Into the lower parts of the earth - So the womb is called, Psa 139:15; the grave, Psa 63:9.

4:10 He that descended - That thus amazingly humbled himself.Is the same that ascended - That was so highly exalted. That he might fill all things - The whole church, with his Spirit, presence, and operations.

4:11 And, among other his free gifts, he gave some apostles - His chief ministers and special witnesses, as having seen him after his resurrection, and received their commission immediately from him.And same prophets, and some evangelists - A prophet testifies of things to come; an evangelist of things past: and that chiefly by preaching the gospel before or after any of the apostles. All these were extraordinary officers. The ordinary were. Some pastors - Watching over their several flocks. And some teachers - Whether of the same or a lower order, to assist them, as occasion might require.

4:12 And each of these has three parts, standing in the same order. For the perfecting the saints - The completing them both in number and their various gifts and graces. To the work of the ministry - The serving God and his church in their various ministrations. To the edifying of the body of Christ - The building up this his mystical body in faith, love, holiness.

4:13 Till we all - And every one of us. Come to the unity of the faith, and knowledge of the Son of God - To both an exact agreement in the Christian doctrine, and an experimental knowledge of Christ as the Son of God. To a perfect man - To a state of spiritual manhood both in understanding and strength.To the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ - To that maturity of age and spiritual stature wherein we shall be filled with Christ, so that he will be all in all.

4 

4:12 He retired into Galilee - This journey was not immediately after his temptation. He first went from Judea into Galilee, Joh 1:43; Joh 2:1. Then into Judea again, and celebrated thepassover at Jerusalem, Joh 2:13. He baptized in Judea while John was baptizing at Enon, Joh 3:22-23. All this time John was at liberty, Joh 3:24. But the Pharisees being offended, Joh 4:1; and John put in prison, he then took this journey into Galilee. Mar 1:14.

4:13 Leaving Nazareth - Namely, when they had wholly rejected his word, and even attempted to kill him, Luk 4:29.

4:15 Galilee of the Gentiles - That part of Galilee which lay beyond Jordan was so called, because it was in a great measure inhabited by Gentiles, that is, heathens. Isa 9:1-2.

4:16 Here is a beautiful gradation, first, they walked, then they sat in darkness, and lastly, in the region of the shadow of death.

4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach - He had preached before, both to Jews and Samaritans, Joh 4:41, Joh 4:45. But from this time begin his solemn stated preaching. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand - Although it is the peculiar business of Christ to establish the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men, yet it is observable, he begins his preaching in the same words with John the Baptist: because the repentance which John taught still was, and ever will be, the necessary preparation for that inward kingdom. But that phrase is not only used with regard to individuals in whom it is to be established, but also with regard to the Christian Church, the whole body of believers. In the former sense it is opposed to repentance; in the latter the Mosaic dispensation.