Notes
Song of Solomon 1:6. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard have I not kept. ‘Look not upon me’ אַל תִּרְאֻנִי al tiruni. Look not at me. ZOCKLER. Gaze not on me. WILLIAMS. With surprise and doubt, as if wondering at her presumption. NOYES. In admiration of her beauty. HITZIG. With scorn or disdain. WITHINGTON, GINSBURG. With too much scrutiny. TAYLOR. With indignation. DURHAM. With delight at my affliction, as Obadiah 1:12. AINSWORTH. With an evil eye. MERCER. DO not survey me in my vile dress, but consider how I have it. DEL RIO. Allegorically; TARGUM: Spoken by the Congregation of Israel to the nations: Do not despise me because I am more sorrowful than you, having done according to your deeds in worshipping your false gods, and having brought upon myself the Divine displeasure. FOLIOT: Do not look so much at my sufferings, as at the reason why I endure them, and the fruit which I shall receive from them. WEISS: Addressed by Israel to the nations wondering at their boldness after the sin of the golden calf, or astonished that they could commit so great a sin.
‘Because the sun hath looked upon me.’ שֶׁשְׁזָפַתְנִי sheshzaphathni; from שָׁזַר shazaph; to burn or scorch; to blacken; hence also to look upon, as Job 20:9; Job 28:1. From שָׁדַר by the change of ד into ז. VULGATE: Hath discoloured me. AQUILA: Hath blackened me. WICKLIFF: Has scorched me. COVERDALE: Has shined on me. LUTHER: Has so burned me. DIODATI: Has touched me with his rays. MARTIN: Has looked on me. VATABLUS: Has fixed his rays on me. TIGURINE VERSION: Striking me with his beams. PARKHURST: Has looked down on me, or has shined on me. WILLIAMS: Has beamed upon me. FRY: Properly, looked with penetrating rigour. WEISS: Has glanced or gazed on me. BURROUGHS and GINSBURG: Has browned me. THRUPP: Fiercely scanned me. ZÖCKLER: Scorched me. MERCER: The blackness not natural but accidental. RASHI: Not natural, and therefore may be removed. A. CLARKE observes that the brown complexion of the Egyptians is attributed to the influence of the sun or climate. But probably no Egyptian in the text. Allegorically; TARGUM: Israel made black by the worship of the sun. FAUSSET: Scorched with God’s anger, executed on her through the world-powers, because of her unfaithfulness before Messiah’s coming. GREGORY, &C.: The sun of righteousness blackens the soul by the sufferings endured on his account, or by showing it its own blackness in his presence. PHILO CARPATHIUS: DO not despise me for my sins; since Christ the sun of righteousness has shone upon me. AINSWORTH, GILL, &C.: The Church blackened by the sun of persecution. ROSENMÜLLER: By miseries and calamities.
‘My mother’s children were angry with me.’ נִחֲרוּ־בי (nikharu bhi); from חָרָה to burn, or Piel of נָחַר EWALD. SEPTUAGINT, VULGATE, &c.: Fought against me. COVERDALE: Had evil will. LUTHER, DIODATI, MARTIN: Were angry with me. So EWALD, DELITZSCH, and GESENIUS. Acted severely against me. A. CLARKE. Were severe with me. PERCY, GOOD, BOOTHROYD. Despised me; literally snorted at me: expresses the ill-treatment she received from her relations in exposing her to servile employments, which caused her dark complexion. Hence the Bride of low extraction compared with her royal Bridegroom. FRY. ‘My mother’s children’ synonymous with brothers: her father probably no longer living at the time of this transaction. ZOCKLER. The children those of her mother by a former husband. HOUBIGANT, UMBREIT, EWALD, &c. Her countrymen. HARMER. Allegorically; TARGUM: False prophets and teachers, the cause of God’s anger against Israel. RASHI: The children of Egypt, among whom I was brought up, and who came up from Egypt with me; and the the offspring of my mother in the wilderness. KEIL: Israel experienced, in consequence of their sin, the anger of the nations, and lost their beauty and glory. WEISS: The Egyptians were incensed against Israel on account of Noah’s curse on Ham, and his blessing on Shem, and so treated them cruelly. COCCEIUS, &c.: Persecuting Jews. MUNSTER, &C.: False prophets and kings. SANCTIUS: The Gentiles. MERCER: Nominal members of the Church. DUTCH ANNOTATORS: False brethren. PISCATOR: Affections of carnal corrupt nature. MENOCHIUS: All enemies, external or internal.
‘They made me Keeper of the vineyards.’ הַכְּרָמִים hak-keramim, plural of כֶּרֶם kerem, a vineyard; from the unused root כָרַם = كَرَمَ, to be of a noble disposition; hence noble, fruitful; כֶרֶם, land planted with noble plants (Judges 15:5; Job 24:18). GESENIUS. A vineyard, possession, estate. EWALD. The noblest, most valued possession. ZÖCKLER. Ground cultivated like a garden; used generally of vineyards, gardens, and plantations. SIMON. ‘Made me keeper,’ &c.; made her a drudge in their service, to her own personal injury; keeping vineyards, a servile work. PERCY, COBBIN. BOSSUET, on the supposition of the bride being an Egyptian princess, observes: ‘The princess, by one of those family intrigues common at Eastern Courts, had perhaps been banished to some southern part of Egypt, where she had been employed on secular labour, till by a counter intrigue and revolution equally common, she was recalled from her banishment.’ Allegorically; TARGUM: Taught me to worship their idols and to walk in their statutes. MERCER: Forced me to observe rites not prescribed by God. DU VEIL: Made me a zealous observer of their human traditious SANCTIUS: Forced me to follow sinful pleasures and practices. COCCEIUS: Excommunicating me from their synagogues. AINSWORTH: To fall in with their corrupt worship and vain traditions. SCOTT: Drawn by original sin to evil things against my will. THEODORET, however, takes another view of the words, applying them to the Apostles: They gave me (the Gentile Church) the divine ordinances to keep. ORIGIN views them as spoken by the Apostles and others, who anxious about the salvation of men, suffered outwardly themselves. LYRA applies them to the drudgery of Israel in Egypt. DEL RIO thinks the vineyards were in the first instance the synagogue, then the Churches of the Gentiles. So COCCEIUS also views the vineyards as including the congregations of the faithful. FROMONDI sees the pastoral office indicated: Dispersed me among the Gentiles, and caused me to be made pastors and keepers of the Gentile Churches. DAVIDSON: The Christian Church charged with the care both of Jew and Gentile vineyards, in consequence of the Jews’ rejection of God and His laws; or made the depository of the oracles of God with which they are to be fed. HAHN: The brothers, or Hamitic Heathendom, having withdrawn from the service of God and given themselves to the service of Satan, and so made their vineyard or the vineyard of God to become a vineyard of Satan, alienated the weaker sister from the service of God, and drew her into that of Satan, causing her to keep the vineyard, like themselves, in his service.
‘But mine own vineyard have I not kept.’ פַרְמִי שֶׁלִּי carmi shelli, ‘my vineyard which belongs to me.’ MERCER: which was committed to me. ZÖCKLER: שֶׁלִּי (shelli), not only gives special emphasis to the suffix ‘my,’ but distinguishes her vineyard as quite distinct and of another kind from what she had been forced to keep, viz., herself, with all she has and is. GESENIUS, EWALD, &c., apply it in like manner to her beauty. SANCTIUS: That with which she was bought at her dowry, according to usual practice (Hosea 3:2); the same mentioned in chap. Song of Solomon 8:12. Allegorically; TARGUM: The Lord who is my God I have not served. The vineyard, according to THEODORET, the traditions received before accepting Christianity; or, her own soul. SANCTIUS: The more noble part of our nature. BERNARD, &c.: The Jewish people (Isaiah 5:1); or, the primitive Church composed of Jews, to whom Christ and the Apostles were first sent. MENOCHIUS: The charge of all the world’s vineyards, and especially that of the synagogue, was committed to me. DEL RIO: I forsook the vineyard, at first committed to me on account of the conduct of the Jewish husbandmen in killing the heir (Matthew 22) JUNIUS: I departed from my duty. PISCATOR: Did not adhere steadily to the worship of God. AINSWORTH: The charge not kept either from her own infirmity and negligence, or from the tyranny of others, or from both: persecutions and afflictions often the effect of chastening for sin. PATRICK: I was like one set to keep the vineyard of others, and could not look after his own: picture of the Gentiles seduced by false teachers into idol worship. GILL: Her own vineyard, either the Church or her own soul: not kept, either from fear or infirmity, or both. SCOTT: The treatment she received proved a temptation to neglect her duty and the care of her own soul, and so conduced to mar her loveliness. HAWKER: Neglected her own soul while engaged in the service of others. ROSENMULLER: Her own country’s religion and institutions forsaken. De WETTE: The Jewish vineyard neglected by the Jewish shepherds (Ezekiel 34:7-9; Zechariah 11:8). THRUPP: The religions culture of all Israel. HAHN. The vineyard committed to her in the service of Satan she has not kept; having awoke to the painful feeling of her unrest, and learned to long after the better home with Israel’s King.
SHULAMITE
TO THE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM, OR LADIES OF SOLOMON’S COURT
Gives an Account of herself in justification of her presence in the King’s Chambers.
I am black,
But comely,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem;
As the tents of Kedar,
As the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me,
Because I am black,
Because the sun hath looked upon me.
My mother’s children were angry with me;
They made me keeper of the vineyards;
But mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Shulamite, in the Allegory, originally a rustic damsel, employed by her brothers in watching the vineyards. Though thus tanned and discoloured by the sun, yet not uncomely in herself, and therefore not to be despised by the ladies of the court. The words indicate the believer’s twofold character, and the reason of it.
The Christian Paradox.
“I am black, but comely.”
Shulamite, black or tawny in complexion from the reason given; but comely in feature and proportion. Swarthy, as the coarse tents of Kedar or Arabia, made of dark coloured goats’ or camels’ hair, and farther blackened by exposure to the sun and rain (Isaiah 21:13; Isaiah 21:17; Isaiah 42:11; Ezekiel 27:21; Psalms 120:5-6). Comely, as the beautiful embroidered hangings of Solomon’s palace (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8; Esther 1:5-6).
Hence observe—
I. DARK side of the Paradox.—‘I am black.’ The believer black—
1. With sin. In common with others, the believer blackened—
(1) With original sin;
(2) With actual transgression. The character of sin to make men black. Sin black in itself, and blackens those who carry it in their nature and commit it in their life. Black, as contrary to the nature and will of God, who is Light. The least sin in a believer like a dark spot on the sun’s disk. Sin pervading our whole nature renders us moral Ethiopians. Man, originally created ‘upright,’ made black by the Fall (Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 5:12-19). Black with sin, both original and actual, now the character of the human race (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; 2 Chronicles 6:36; Proverbs 20:9; Psalms 14:1-3; Romans 3:9-19; Romans 3:23; James 2:10; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8). The experience and confession of David (Psalms 51:5). The teaching of Christ (John 3:5-7). Observe—
(1) The believer black through inbred corruption and daily transgressions, even while in Christ and enjoying His love. A law in his members warring against the law of his mind (Romans 7:23). Peter’s fall immediately after the feast. The believer carries his blackness into the King’s chambers. Good to remember and confess it in the midst of his spiritual enjoyments. ‘Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged’ (Isaiah 51:1).
(2) The believer not only black, but conscious of it. The great distinction between him and others. Others as black as he; but he alone sees and feels his blackness.
(3) The believer not afraid to acknowledge that he is black. His safety and comfort not in his not being black, or less black than others; but in his being comely in Christ, and washed in His blood. His sense of blackness, therefore, no hindrance to his rejoicing in Christ, but rather a help to it. Confession of blackness part of our rejoicing in Christ’s comeliness. The blacker we are in our own eyes, the more precious is Christ (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
(4) The confession, ‘I am black,’ often the turning point in a soul’s history. Paul’s experience at Damascus (Acts 9:1-18; Romans 7:9). That of Isaiah in the temple (Isaiah 6:5-8). Never comely till we realize we are ‘black.’
(5) Our whole nature black. I,—not a part of me; the whole natural man; the ‘me’ and ‘I’ of the Apostle. ‘In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. I am carnal, and sold under sin’ (Romans 7:14; Romans 7:17).
(6) Believers always black with sin while in this world. Times when the believer may be without suffering; no time when he is without sin.
2. With suffering. Suffering and grief blacken us as well as sin (Jeremiah 8:21; Lamentations 4:8; Psalms 119:83). Like others, the believer, while in this world, black with suffering as well as with sin. Sin draws suffering with it as its dark shadow. Believers no exception to this law. That believers have suffering, no more to be concealed than that they have sin. The difference between them and other men, not that they have less suffering, but that they have more comfort and better hope. The testimony of Scripture and the experience of believers, that ‘many are the afflictions of the righteous,’ and that ‘through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom.’ Believers, though having the first-fruits of the Spirit, yet groan within themselves (Romans 8:23). Groan, being burdened (2 Corinthians 5:2). Believers not only not exempt from grief and suffering in this life, but have naturally a large share of it. Their sufferings partly such as are common to men; partly, peculiar to themselves as believers. Various causes of their suffering.
(1) The love of their Father, who chastens them for their profit, to make them partakers of His own holiness (Hebrews 12:6-11).
(2) The hatred of the world, which persecutes the members as it did the Head (John 15:18-21; John 17:14; 2 Timothy 3:12).
(3) The temptations of Satan, acting both directly on the mind himself, and indirectly through the agency of others (2 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Peter 5:9; Revelation 2:10).
(4) Indwelling sin, or the body of sin and death which we carry with us, occasioning a constant warfare within, and often extorting the cry, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Romans 7:23-24; Galatians 5:17; James 4:1; 1 Peter 2:11).
(5) The sins and sufferings of others, as well of their own brethren as of the unconverted; these often awakening the cry of the prophet: ‘O that my head were waters,’ &c. (Jeremiah 9:1; Jeremiah 8:21; 1 Corinthians 12:26; 2 Corinthians 11:29; Romans 12:15).
(6) Faithful and self-denying efforts for the spiritual and eternal benefit of others; thus filling up in their flesh that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake, the Church (Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28). Believers, having the Spirit of Christ, suffer in seeking to save others, and grieve to see so many remain unsaved.
II. BRIGHT side of the Paradox. ‘But comely.’ The Bride, notwithstanding external blackness, ‘all glorious within’ (Psalms 45:14). Shulamite’s comeliness rather that of the soul, which lighted up and gave a charming expression to her swarthy features. Believers’ comeliness that ‘in the hidden man of the heart,’ and diffusing a spiritual beauty over the life Believers comely—
1. Through imputed righteousness. Comely through the comeliness of their Head and Saviour put upon them (Ezekiel 16:14). Believers made the Righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Made accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). Christ made righteousness to those who are in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30). The language of faith: ‘In the Lord have I righteousness’ (Isaiah 45:24). The name by which the promised Saviour was to be called: The Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6). The guests at the King’s marriage-supper accepted not in their own garments, but in those provided for and given to them by the King Himself (Matthew 22:11-12). Paul’s desire to be found not in his own righteousness which was by the law, but that which was ‘through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith’ (Philippians 3:9). Believers, like Jacob, blessed in the garments of their Elder Brother (Genesis 27:15; Genesis 27:27). Men made sinners by one man’s disobedience; made righteous by the obedience of another (Romans 5:19).
2. Through imparted holiness. Believers saved and made comely as well by impartation as by imputation; made personally holy by the one, as they are made legally righteous by the other. Made righteous in our Representative, we are made holy in our own persons. Christ made to us ‘sanctification,’ as well as ‘righteousness’ (1 Corinthians 1:30). Faith says: ‘In the Lord I have righteousness and strength,’—the latter for personal holiness, as the former for acceptance with God (Isaiah 45:24). Believers clothed with ‘the beauty of holiness,’ as well as with the ‘robe of righteousness.’ Made to put on Christ in His spirit and character, as well as in His Surety righteousness. Renewed in the image of God, and conformed to the likeness of His Son. Made one with Christ, they possess His Spirit, and live because He lives in them (Galatians 2:20). Sanctified as well as justified in Him (1 Corinthians 1:2). Christ our Life, as well as our Peace and Hope. ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His’ (Romans 8:9). Believers chosen and blessed by the Father in Christ, in order to be holy and without blame before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4). Predestinated by Him to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Redeemed by Christ to be sanctified and cleansed, and so presented to Himself a glorious Church, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27). Believers accepted in Christ without any holiness; but accepted in order to their being made holy.
III. The COMBINATION of the two. The believer, like Shulamite, at once black and comely. The paradox: Black and yet comely. Comely while yet black. The explanation: Believers black in themselves, comely in Christ; black by nature, comely by grace; black in the flesh or old man in them; comely in the spirit or new man. Believers carry in them two natures at once,—the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new. Like Rebekah, with two nations in her womb. The elder, or old carnal nature, to serve the younger, or the new and spiritual one. In the believer, with his twofold nature of flesh and spirit lusting and warring against each other, is seen ‘the company of two armies.’ Hence both inward conflict and outward incongruities. The believer both a saint and a sinner. Has in him the roots of all sin, and the principles of all holiness. Hence the believer’s frequent doubts and disquietude about his spiritual condition. The question natural to the inexperienced Christian: If I am a child of God, why am I thus? A part of spiritual wisdom to know that we can be, and that, if believers, we actually are, both black and comely at the same time. Not less black in ourselves because comely in Christ; and not less comely in Christ because black in ourselves. Believers often black outwardly in respect to condition and circumstances, when comely inwardly in respect to character and affections. Black like their Master, in the eyes of the world; comely in the eyes of God. Black in suffering; comely in the patience and meekness with which they endure it.—Observe—
1. Believers to be as conscious of their comeliness in Christ, as of their blackness in themselves. Our duty to know ourselves, that Christ is in us; and that while black in ourselves, we are comely in Him. Hence both the believer’s humility and joy.
2. Our duty and privilege to confess both our blackness and our comeliness. Grace not to be denied while blackness is acknowledged. To see and confess ourselves at once black and comely—black in ourselves and comely in Christ—the mark of a believer. Pride forbids both.
3. Our comeliness to attract and convince the world, more than our blackness might offend and deter them. The excellence of Christ and His Gospel seen in the comeliness of believers, notwithstanding their blackness. Believers to seek that others may think highly of Christ on their account, and rejoice in Him along with them. The world and weak professors apt to stumble at the blackness in believers, as seen in their sufferings, and especially in their sins. More power in their comeliness to attract, than in their blackness to repel. Believers more to be envied for their comeliness than despised for their blackness.
4. Much in the believer and the spiritual life mysterious and incomprehensible to the world. Apparent contradictions: black, yet comely; ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich.’ Strange in the eyes of natural reason that the children of God should be black at all; still more, that they should be comely at the same time. Yet natural—
(1) That the Bride of the Man of Sorrows should be also for a short time a sufferer, and that the Wife of the Persecuted One should herself be persecuted;
(2) That the blackness of her own fallen nature should not be all at once removed, but allowed for wise and important purposes in part to remain till the Bridegroom comes and takes her to Himself. The blackness daily passing away; the comeliness ever increasing. The blackness carried only till death; the comeliness perfected in the New Jerusalem.
5. The glory of the work of Christ and of the grace of God, that those who are ‘black’ are thereby rendered ‘comely.’ Our blackness in respect to suffering assumed by the Surety, that we might have His comeliness put upon us. That comeliness imparted in regeneration and conversion. ‘Even when we were dead in sins, hath He quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ ‘Neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God: and such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God’ (Ephesians 2:5-6; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; read also Titus 3:3-7).
Notice the PARTY ADDRESSED
‘O ye daughters of Jerusalem.’
These, in the Allegory probably the ladies of Solomon’s court, now present with Shulamite in the King’s chambers. Now addressed by the rustic Stranger who has just been introduced among them. The probable representatives—
(1) Of the professing Church;
(2) Of persons only partially or carnally acquainted with Christ. Charged not to disturb the Beloved One’s rest (chap. Song of Solomon 2:7). Connected in some way with the marriage of the King and Shulamite (chap. Song of Solomon 3:10). Supposed to have some knowledge of the Bridegroom, though not possessing Him as their own (chap. Song of Solomon 5:8). Made desirous to learn more about Him, and to seek Him with the Bride (chap. Song of Solomon 6:1). Becomes interested in the Bride, and admires her beauty (chap. Song of Solomon 6:13). The women of Jerusalem who followed Jesus to Calvary, called by this name; with a probable reference to the term in the text, and indicating the connection of the Song with the Gospel history, and the identity of the Bridegroom with Christ. Observe, in reference to—
The Visible Church.
1. Possible to be near Christ and yet not to belong to Him; to have a knowledge of the Saviour, but not a saving one; to have a place in Christ’s House, and yet not to be Christ’s Bride.
2. The duty of believers to have regard to the spiritual welfare of the unconverted in the visible Church, and to seek their salvation.
3. Believers to be careful to remove all stumbling-blocks out of the way of the Church’s unsaved members, especially such as are in themselves.
4. Young believers to regard the members of the visible Church with charity, and to treat them with deference and respect.
5. Believers to be able and willing, humbly and for edification, to declare, especially to the members of the Church, their spiritual standing and condition in Christ.
APPEAL AND EXPLANATION
“Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked (or glanced) upon me (to scorch me); my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards: but mine own vineyard have I not kept” (Song of Solomon 1:6).
Shulamite begs the ladies of the court not to gaze upon her with such prying eyes nor yet to regard her with disdain, or be offended on account of her swarthy complexion; a dusky hue being a mark of inferior condition among Eastern females. She intimates the cause of her blackness—exposure to the sun whilst fulfilling a rural task imposed on her by hostile relatives under whose control she had been,—unmarried females in the East being under the guardianship of older male relations; and whilst watching the vineyards during the summer while the fruit was ripening,—a work which could easily be done by a young female, though both menial in itself and injurious to her complexion. This last circumstance perhaps figurately alluded to in the concluding clause of the verse: ‘Mine own vineyard’—my own interest, or what concerned my own person, namely, my complexion—‘I have not kept,’ or attended to. Or perhaps emphasizing the circumstance that it was in attending to the vineyards of others,—and not to her own,—and therefore unwillingly and by constraint,—that her otherwise fair countenance had become thus discoloured. Observe—
1. The condition of believers on earth, whether as one of sin or suffering, no just cause of offence to others; their sin being the result of a corrupt nature inherited from their first parents, and their suffering being partly the necessary consequence of that sin, and partly from the hostility of their unrenewed brethren (Romans 5:12; Romans 5:19; Romans 7:15; Romans 7:19; John 15:18; John 15:20; John 16:2; 1 Peter 1:6).
2. Men of the world and unrenewed Church members apt to look more on believers’ blemishes than on their beauty.
3. Believers, like Christ Himself, often, through men’s sin, a stumbling-stone and rock of offence to others; partly from their unavoidable imperfections, and partly from their constrained sufferings. Chosen out of the world, and therefore made an offence to it. Sharers of Christ’s cross, and, therefore, of its offence (Galatians 4:11; Hebrews 13:12-13).
4. The duty and desire of believers to remove as far as possible all occasions of stumbling from the way of others; and to guard them against stumbling at what must necessarily exist. Paul’s exhortation to believers: ‘Give none offence, neither to the Jew, nor to the Gentile, nor to the Church of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 14:13). His own resolution: ‘If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend’ (1 Corinthians 8:13). His anxiety in respect to his sufferings: ‘I desire that ye faint not at my tribulation for you.’ ‘That no man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto (Ephesians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:3).
5. Connection with Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, sure to blacken us; as—
(1) Discovering to us our own corruption;
(2) Exposing us to persecution and tribulation from the world (John 16:2; John 16:33).
6. Our “mother’s children,” whether naturally or ecclesiastically, not always the children of our heavenly Father, or the Bride of His Son (Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 4:22-31; John 7:5).
7. No uncommon thing for believers to experience the anger and persecution of their ‘mother’s children’ (Isaiah 66:5; Matthew 10:21; Matthew 10:35-36).
8. A sinning and suffering condition in this world, a necessity laid upon believers in common with others in consequence of the Fall. All men, believers included, children of wrath by nature, as well as children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2-3) The creature made subject to vanity not willingly (Romans 8:20).
9. The duty of each to be careful in looking to the interests of his own soul. Each man’s soul his own vineyard given him by his Creator to keep (Proverbs 4:23). Loss of spiritual beauty the result of negligence and unwatchfulness (Proverbs 24:30-34). Ministers, while keeping the vineyard of others, to be especially careful to keep their own (1 Corinthians 9:27).
10. The part of a believer to look to the interests of others as well as, and to a certain extent, beyond his own. ‘I seek not mine profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved.’ ‘Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth’ (or welfare). ‘Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others: let this mind be in you which was also in Christ, (1 Corinthians 10:2; 1 Corinthians 10:33; Philippians 2:4-5). True ministers the servants of others for Jesus’ sake (2 Corinthians 4:5). Self-forgetting love one mark of the Bride of Jesus Christ.