Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00100

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 21KB | 514 lines

00100
 # Mt 5:10
    \\Blessed [are] they who are persecuted for righteousness'\\
 \\sake.\\ The Jews expected a conquering kingdom, and its
 citizens to be lords among the nations, but Christ pronounces a
 blessing on those who are persecuted, not for misdeeds, but for
 righteousness. These shall have the kingdom. Doubtless these
 words have sustained and cheered many a martyr.
 (PNT 36)
00101
 # Mt 5:11
    \\Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you.\\ This is a
 personal application of what has just preceded. Some of those
 who listened were reviled by the Jews, and persecuted unto
 death.
    \\For my sake.\\ In the preceding verse it is said "for
 righteousness' sake." The two expressions mean the same.
 (PNT 36)
00102
 # Mt 5:12
    \\Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.\\ On account of
 persecution. The reason why they may justly rejoice is given:
 "Great is your reward in heaven."
    \\So they persecuted the prophets.\\ Isaiah is said to have
 been sawed asunder; Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon and
 threatened with death; Elijah was hunted by Ahab and Jezebel.
 (PNT 36)
00103
 # Mt 5:13
    \\Ye are the salt of the earth.\\ Salt preserves from
 corruption. The disciples of Christ preserve the world from
 general corruption. Whatever becomes utterly corrupted is doomed
 to be destroyed.
    \\But if the salt hath lost its savour.\\ Salt is worthless
 if it has lost its qualities. It preserves no longer. It is fit
 only to be cast out and trodden under foot. So, too, if those
 who are the salt of the earth cease to communicate saving power,
 they are fit only to be cast out, and Christ will cast such out
 of his mouth See
 # Re 3:16
 (PNT 36)
00104
 # Mt 5:14
    \\Ye are the light of the world.\\ The business of the church
 is not only to save, but to enlighten. Christ is light, and his
 disciples must be light.
    \\A city that is set on an hill.\\ Anciently cities, for the
 sake of defense, were placed on hills. Such cities are seen from
 afar. So must the church give forth its light.
 (PNT 36)
00105
 # Mt 5:15
    \\Light a lamp, and put it under a bushel.\\ It would be
 foolishness to light a lamp and put it under a bushel measure.
 (PNT 36)
00106
 # Mt 5:16
    \\Let your light so shine.\\ Like the city set on a hill, or
 the lighted lamp on a stand. We are told,
 (1) To let our light shine.
 (2) Before men.
 (3) By good works.
 (4) That they may glorify the Father in heaven.
 Christ is the Light; we will shine reflected light if we walk
 in his light. If we give forth light it will honour God.
 (PNT 36)
00107
 # Mt 5:17
    \\Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
 \\prophets.\\ The preceding verses were so opposed to the
 teachings of the scribes and Pharisees that some might assert
 that he was a destroyer of the law. He replies that he has not
 come to destroy it, but to fulfil. He does not say that he has
 come to perpetuate it.
    \\To fulfil.\\ To complete its purpose. He was the end of
 the law. It was a "school-master to bring us to Christ," but
 "after faith is come we are no longer under the school-master."
 # Ga 3:24,25
 (PNT 36-37)
00108
 # Mt 5:18
    \\One jot or one tittle.\\ "Jot" means the smallest letter of
 the Hebrew alphabet, while "tittle" refers to a simple turn by
 which one letter is distinguished from another. The expression,
 "jot or tittle," was proverbial for the smallest part.
    \\Till all be fulfilled.\\ "Till," says Dr. Schaff, "implies
 that after the great events of Christ's life, and the
 establishment of his kingdom, the old dispensation, as a
 dispensation of the letter and yoke of bondage, as a system of
 types and shadows, will pass away, and has passed away; while
 the spirit and substance of the law, i.e., love to God and man,
 will last forever."
 # Eph 2:15 Col 2:14 Heb 8:13
 (PNT 37)
00109
 # Mt 5:19
    \\Shall break one of the least of these least commandments.\\
 The Pharisees taught that some commands were more important than
 others, and that it was a trivial matter to break the smallest
 commands. The papists still divide sin into "mortal" and
 "venial." Christ shows that the spirit of obedience does not
 seek to make such distinction.
    \\Shall be called the least.\\ He may get into the kingdom,
 possibly, but such a spirit will give him a very low spiritual
 rank.
 (PNT 37)
00110
 # Mt 5:20
    \\Your righteousness shall exceed.\\ The righteousness of the
 scribes and Pharisees has just been referred to. See
 # 3:7
 They claimed to be the teachers and examples of righteousness,
 but they lacked the humble spirit of true obedience.
 (PNT 37)
00111
 # Mt 5:21
    \\Ye have heard.\\ Jesus now gives the law a new form to
 adapt it to his kingdom. It takes a new, a deeper, a more
 spiritual shape and meaning.
    \\Of them of old time.\\ In this case, Moses. See
 # Ex 20:13 De 5:17
    \\Thou shalt not kill.\\ One of the ten commandments. Christ,
 the Divine Lawgiver, modifies it.
    \\In danger of the judgment.\\ The civil courts. The law
 provided in every city a court of seven judges, who could
 sentence a criminal to death. See
 # De 16:18
 (PNT 37)
00112
 # Mt 5:22
    \\But I say to you.\\ Jehovah had spoken the Decalogue to
 Israel. Christ assumes the right to amend it. Such a claim is
 based on a claim of divinity.
    \\Whoever is angry with his brother.\\ Jesus goes back of the
 murderous act, and forbids the anger and the reproachful words
 that precede it and are likely to lead it. He places the
 murderous heart on the level of actual murder.
    \\Raca.\\ An epithet of contempt; "empty head," or "spit
 out," that is, a heretic.
    \\The council.\\ The Sanhedrin, the highest court of Israel.
 It corresponded to our Supreme Court, and had seventy members.
    \\Thou fool.\\ The original implies a stupid, wicked fool.
    \\Of hell fire.\\ The Greek is "the Gehenna of fire." The
 term Gehenna arose from the valley of Hinnom, south of
 Jerusalem, where the Canaanites burned human sacrifices to
 Moloch. After the return of the Jews from the Captivity they
 made it a place of defilement, where the refuse of the city was
 thrown and burned. The name was applied to the place of future
 punishment by the Jews. The word is often used in the New
 Testament, and always denotes a place of future punishment.
 # 23:33 5:29 10:28 18:9 Mr 9:43
 (PNT 37-38)
00113
 # Mt 5:23-24
    \\Therefore if thou shalt bring thy gift to the altar.\\ This
 springs immediately out of the modification of the law, Thou
 shalt not kill, which required that there should be no anger
 with a brother. If about to offer a gift on the altar, and the
 remembrance comes that a brother hath aught against thee, leave
 the gift, go and make it right with him, and then offer thy
 gift. This shows that one guilty of wrongs to his fellow-man
 cannot offer acceptable worship of God.
 (PNT 38)
00115
 # Mt 5:25
    \\Agree with thy adversary quickly.\\ By adversary is meant
 an opponent in a lawsuit who is supposed to have a just claim,
 in this case a creditor.
    \\Officer.\\ The same as our sheriff. Under all the old laws
 debt could be punished with imprisonment.
 (PNT 38)
00116
 # Mt 5:26
    \\Thou shalt by no means come out from there.\\ After the
 debtor was cast into prison he was held until the debt was paid,
 and if it were not, he remained in prison until he died.
    \\Farthing.\\ A small, insignificant copper coin. The warning
 against lawsuits is clear, but there is a higher idea still. The
 Lord would warn us to make everything right before it is too
 late. Before the judgment there is a chance; after it there is
 nothing but payment.
 (PNT 38)
00117
 # Mt 5:27-28
    \\Thou shalt not commit adultery.\\ The Jewish rabbis held
 that a man was guiltless who did not commit the act. Christ, as
 he always did, lays the laws upon the heart. If it is impure,
 full of unholy desires, one is guilty. It is our duty to keep
 the heart pure.
 (PNT 38)
00119
 # Mt 5:29
    \\If thy right eye offend thee.\\ The eye that giveth a
 lustful look. A licentious passion, or anything that tempts to
 sin, whether thoughts within, friends, or surroundings.
    \\Pluck it out.\\ Cast far from you what would lead to sin.
    \\It is profitable.\\ Better to suffer deep mortification by
 self-denial than to be judged worthy of hell.
    \\Thy whole body.\\ Used for the whole man.
 (PNT 38)
00120
 # Mt 5:30
    \\If thy right hand.\\ The same thought as in the previous
 verse, with a new illustration.
 # 5:29
 (PNT 38)
00121
 # Mt 5:31-32
    \\Whoever shall put away his wife.\\ The divorce laws were
 very lax among the Jews. A man could put away his wife "for any
 cause."
 # 19:8
 Moses directed a legal letter of divorcement.
 # De 24:1
 Christ positively forbids divorce except for unchastity.
 Marriage is a divine institution, and the obligation is for
 life.
 # 19:3-9 Ro 7:1-3 1Co 7:10-17
 (PNT 39)
00123
 # Mt 5:33
    \\Thou shalt not swear falsely.\\ The Jews held that this
 only prohibited swearing falsely and by the name of God. See
 # Le 19:12 Nu 25:2
 (PNT 39)
00124
 # Mt 5:34-35
    \\Swear not at all.\\ Christ does not forbid judicial oaths.
 Note,
 (1) God sometimes swears by himself;
 # Ge 22:16,17
 (2) Jesus made oath before the Sanhedrin;
 # 26:63
 (3) Paul made oath to the Corinthians.
 # 2Co 1:23
 He does forbid all profanity and idle oaths, such as were
 common among the Jews, and still so defile the mouths of men.
    \\Neither by heaven.\\ The Jews held that it was impious to
 swear by the name of God, but that one could swear "by heaven,"
 "by the earth," "by Jerusalem." One was God's throne, the second
 his footstool, Jerusalem the city of the Messiah King, all too
 holy for profanation.
 (PNT 39)
00126
 # Mt 5:36
    \\By thy head.\\ Senseless, since the oath could have no
 meaning. Dr. Thompson ("The Land and the Book") says the
 Orientals are still terribly profane, swearing continually by
 the head, the beard, the heart, the temple, the church.
 (PNT 39)
00127
 # Mt 5:37
    \\Let your communication be, Yea, yea.\\ All foolish appeals
 are forbidden. A simple statement is all Christ permits.
    \\Whatever is more than these cometh of evil.\\ Indeed, it
 makes one doubt the truth of him who was to confirm every
 assertion by oath.
 (PNT 39)
00128
 # Mt 5:38
    \\An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\\ The law
 quoted is found in
 # Ex 21:23-25 Le 24:18-20
 Moses intended it to protect person and property by prescribing
 what punishment the law should inflict. He who took a life
 should lose his life; he who robbed another of an eye should be
 punished by the loss of an eye. The Jews perverted it to justify
 private retaliation.
 (PNT 39)
00129
 # Mt 5:39
    \\Resist not evil.\\ Jesus does not forbid the judicial
 application of the law, but personal revenge, such as was common
 among the Jews. Instead of turning upon those who injure us, and
 becoming a party to personal broils, it is the duty of
 Christians to suffer meekly.
    \\Turn to him the other.\\ This must be the Christian spirit,
 the great law of love, which "endureth all things."
 # 1Co 13:7
 This is not a code to be slavishly observed in the letter, but
 its spirit must always be preserved. For the application, see
 # Joh 18:22 Ac 23:3
 (PNT 39-40)
00130
 # Mt 5:40
    \\If any man will sue.\\ That is, is about to sue thee.
    \\Take away thy coat.\\ The inner garment, the tunic or
 shirt.
    \\Coat.\\ The outer garment, the covering at night. It could
 not be held by a creditor.
 # Ex 22:26-27
 Better to give it up, too, than to engage in litigation. Many a
 poor soul has realized this when it was too late, and the
 lawyers had divided his property. Avoid lawsuits.
 (PNT 40)
00131
 # Mt 5:41
    \\Constrain thee to go one mile.\\ In those days, when there
 were no stages, rail road trains, postal lines, or regular means
 of conveyance. It was common for officers travelling to impress
 men to assist them on the route. It was a necessary, but
 oppressive, exaction. Christ directs to yield the service, and
 double it rather refuse it.
    \\Mile.\\ A Roman word from \\mille\\, a thousand. A Roman
 miles was a thousand paces, 1,520 yards.
 (PNT 40)
00132
 # Mt 5:42
    \\Give to him that asketh thee.\\ Palestine swarmed with
 blind, lepers, and maimed, who were dependent on charity.
    \\Turn not thou away.\\ The Lord does not bid to give to
 every one, not to loan to every one, for this would not be a
 blessing, but to have a spirit that will be ready to do so
 whenever it is right.
 (PNT 40)
00133
 # Mt 5:43
    \\Thou shalt love thy neighbour.\\ See
 # Le 19:18
 The Jews gave the command a very limited application. For
 Christ's application, see parable of the Good Samaritan.
 # Lu 10:30-37
 It embraces any one so near us as to need and to receive our
 acts of kindness.
    \\Hate thy enemy.\\ A Jewish perversion of the meaning of
 # De 23:6
 It exhibits the spirit of the whole heathen world. Plato
 praises the Athenians because they hated the Persians more than
 any of the other Greeks.
 (PNT 40)
00134
 # Mt 5:44
    \\I say to you, Love your enemies.\\ The fundamental law of
 Christ's kingdom. Henceforth love is to be boundless as the
 ocean. His own earthly life is its perfect application. The
 enemies are to be conquered by love. See
 # Joh 3:16
 Love will return blessing for cursing, good will for hating,
 prayers for evil treatment and persecution. Christ on the cross
 prayed for his enemies; so did Stephen, the first Christian
 martyr.
 # Lu 23:34 Ac 7:60
 (PNT 40)
00135
 # Mt 5:45
    \\That ye may be children of your Father.\\ We are God's
 children when we have the spirit of our Father. We are not if we
 have the spirit of the world. Our Father above sends blessing,
 the rain, and the sunshine, on the just and the unjust. He loves
 all, and even sent his son to have a wicked world because he
 loved.
 # Joh 3:16
 (PNT 40)
00136
 # Mt 5:46
    \\Do not even the tax collectors the same?\\ The tax
 collectors, the gatherers of the Roman tribute, were generally
 odious, and deemed the scum of the earth, but even they loved
 those who loved them.
 (PNT 40)
00137
 # Mt 5:47
    \\Greet your brethren only.\\ The Jews usually disdained to
 speak to a Gentile, a publican, or a "sinner," but would salute
 orthodox Jews. Even the Gentiles, the heathen nations, had
 enough of love for this. Unless the disciples could love better
 than the Jews, they would be on a level with publicans and
 heathen.
 (PNT 40)
00138
 # Mt 5:48
    \\Be ye therefore perfect.\\ To carry out fully this great
 law of love would lift man to the Divine standard of perfection.
 This must be the aim of life. We have before us as a pattern for
 the perfect God; we have the Divine perfection embodied in
 Christ. It will require a constant struggle while in the flesh
 to come near so high an ideal, but it must be our continual aim.
 This does not teach such sanctification that we cannot sin, nor
 that we, here on earth, attain absolute perfection, but we have
 placed before us, as a model, the perfect ideal, and we will
 constantly ascend higher by striving to attain it.
 (PNT 41)
00139
 # Mt 6:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 6
  \\The Sermon on the Mount (cont'd)\\

  The Right and Wrong Way of Righteousness
  Charity Not for Show
  Our Alms-Giving Not to Be Sounded with a Trumpet
  Prayer Not to Be Offered for Public Praise
  The Model Prayer
  Fasting to Be in Secret
  Impossible to Serve God and Mammon
  Trust in the Heavenly Father
  The First Aim of Life

    \\Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to
 \\be seen\\ (ASV). The KJV is wrong, and the ASV right, in using
 the word "righteousness." The Saviour condemns ostentatious
 piety, and then he singles out three illustrations of his
 meaning. The Christian is not forbidden to practice
 righteousness before men, but to make it his object to be seen.
 (PNT 41)
00140
 # Mt 6:2
    \\Therefore when thou doest [thy] alms.\\ This is the first
 example. The wrong way, that of the hypocrites, is described.
 The Greek word rendered "hypocrite" means a theatrical actor,
 one who is not real, but acts a part. Their method was to give
 ostentatiously. In our age the world rings with the praises of
 the millionaire who gives a few thousands, but is silent
 concerning the humble ones who have taken from their necessities
 and given to the same cause.
    \\Sound a trumpet before thee.\\ This seems to be a
 proverbial expression to denote the making of a thing publicly
 known. The meaning is, when you give to the poor, do not make a
 show of it.
    \\Hypocrite.\\ A Grecian actor. The actors wore masks and
 appeared to be somebody else than they really were. So, too,
 the religious hypocrites.
 (PNT 41)
00141
 # Mt 6:3
    \\Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.\\ A
 strong expression to indicate that there must be no publishing
 of our alms deeds.
 (PNT 41)
00142
 # Mt 6:4
    \\That thy alms may be in secret.\\ It is not concealment
 that is required, so much as to avoid ostentation.
    \\Openly.\\ Literally, "in the open place," in the last day,
 when every secret thing is made manifest.
 (PNT 41)
00143
 # Mt 6:5
    \\And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be,\\ etc. The second
 example of the right and wrong kind of righteousness is now
 given. That men ought to pray is assured. The wrong way is that
 of the hypocrites, the men who make a public show of their
 devotions that they may have the name of sanctity.
    \\Love to pray standing in the synagogues.\\ These love not
 to pray, but to pray where they will be seen, and pray that they
 may be seen. So the Pharisees took pains to be in some public
 place, where they could strike an attitude of prayer in the
 sight of many observers. The same spirit is often seen still.
 (PNT 41-42)
00144
 # Mt 6:6
    \\When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.\\ Private
 devotions are meant, nor is this designed to prohibit prayers in
 public assemblies. The Lord himself both prayed "in the mountain
 alone," in the night alone, and in public in the presence of his
 disciples. We have records of many prayers offered by the
 apostles in public assemblies. "Thy closet" may mean any secret
 place. Peter's closet was on the house-top; the Saviour's on a
 mountain alone.
 (PNT 42)
00145
 # Mt 6:7
    \\Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do].\\ What is
 forbidden is not much praying, nor praying in the same words
 (the Lord did both), but making the number of prayers, length of
 prayers, or time spent in praying, a point of observance and of
 merit.
 # 1Ki 18:26
 gives an example of the repetitions of the heathen. Mohammedans
 and Catholics still hold that there is merit in repeating
 certain prayers a set number of times.
 (PNT 41)
00146
 # Mt 6:8
    \\For your Father knoweth.\\ Here is given abundant reason
 for short prayers. Many prayers apparently aim to give God
 information on matters connected with this world.
 (PNT 42)
00147
 # Mt 6:9
    \\After this manner therefore pray ye.\\ The Saviour does not
 bid us use these words, nor command any set form, but gives this
 as a proper example of prayer, simple, brief, condensed, yet
 all-embracing.
    \\Our Father who art in heaven.\\ These words reveal a very
 tender relationship between God and the true worshipper, and base
 the petition on the fact that the child speaks to the Father.
    \\Hallowed be thy name.\\ Of the seven petitions of the
 Lord's prayer the first three are in behalf of the cause of God:
 the glory of his name, the extension of his kingdom, and the
 prevalence of his will. The other four, which are properly
 placed last, as least important, pertain to our individual
 needs. No one can offer the first three petitions who is in
 disobedience.
    \\Hallowed.\\ Holy, sacred, reverenced.
 (PNT 42)
00148
 # Mt 6:10

    \\Thy kingdom come.\\ The Messiah's kingdom had not yet come, but
 was proclaimed by the Lord as "at hand."  It did come when the King
 ascended to the highest throne in heaven.  In its final triumph over
 evil, it has not yet fully appeared.  For this we may now pray, and
 the prayer is answered in part by each success of the gospel.

    \\Thy will be done on earth, as [it is] in heaven.\\ None can pray
 this who have not submitted their own wills to the divine will.

 (PNT 42 edited)
00149
 # Mt 6:11
    \\Give us this day our daily bread.\\ We are bidden to ask
 for our bread, not for future years, but for "this day."
 (PNT 42)