(13) Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: (14) Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (15) For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (16) But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. (17) Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
What a beautiful transition the Apostle makes from the subject of the foregoing verses, to what is contained in the opening of this? From the frail tenure of human life, which, in numberless cases, is sometimes crushed, even before the moth, and, in its highest strength, is but as the vapor exhaled from the earth, or the bubble on the water, which are scarce formed before they both dissolve into air, and are instantly lost; the Apostle shews the Church the inconsiderateness and folly of all plans, but such as are founded in divine wisdom, and are looking for divine strength to carry them on. How can any man, who is not the sure proprietor of the present hour, calculate on a day or a year. Reader! bring home the reasoning to your own heart. Know you that there will be a morrow for you? Is it certain your life will be prolonged to that morrow? Nay, if it should, is it certain health wilt come with it? Will strength also, intellect, ability, purpose, yea, all things concur, in such a way and manner, that the schemes of this day shall be realized on the morrow?
But those words of the Holy Ghost, by his servant, to a child of God, may be spiritually considered, I conceive, with great sweetness. There is a day, a year fast approaching, when the redeemed will enter into that blessed city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. They are now the citizens of that country; and it is their proper home. There they will indeed continue a year, even an eternal year, for they will go out no more, Revelation 7:15, and in the truest sense of the words, buy and sell, and get gain, Proverbs 23:23. Even now, then, they are supposed, by virtue of their union with Christ and interest in Christ, to be on the daily look out for that morrow which shall call them home. They are God's property, and consequently God's care. And, as in this life, the Lord raiseth for them waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to his people, his chosen; Isaiah 43:20. so in that blessed climate, where none of the inhabitants shall any longer say I am sick, there the Lord will give them living waters, and all tears will be wiped away from all eyes, Isaiah 33:24; Revelation 7:17. Reader, pause over the subject. God's sovereignty in the choice is the bottom and everlasting foundation of all these mercies, Ephesians 1:4-6. The Son of God's betrothing his Church before all worlds, and the redemption of his Church in the time-state of her being, brings up the vast blessing, and places it on its own proper basis, Ephesians 1:7. And God the Holy Ghost, by regenerating life, and grace, and unction, makes the redeemed suited subjects for glory in the inheritance, among, all them that are sanctified. See Commentary, Ephesians 1:3-10. Oh! the blessedness of that morrow, when the whole Church shall enter into the gates of the holy city
They are God's chosen, the first fruits of his increase and holiness to the Lord, Jeremiah 2:3. They are consecrated to his service, to be kings end priests to God and the Father: and all their holy employment in this city will be the gain of durable riches and righteousness, Revelation 1:6; Proverbs 8:18. And, as the culminating crown of all, to sum up their unspeakable felicity, the nearness and union into which the whole Church, and every individual of it, as the spouse of Christ, will then be brought, is that of an everlasting communion with God and the Lamb. This people have I formed for myself! Isaiah 43:21. Reader! is it your language.? My soul! is it thine? When will that morrow come, when I shall go to this blessed city! Haste, haste, my beloved, and until the day break and the shadows flee away, be thou like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of division, Song of Solomon 2:17.