Bishop of your souls.— The word 'Επισκοπος, here translated bishop, signifies "an overseer or inspector of any person or business;" and it is added to the word shepherd, to strengthen the expression concerning Christ's fidelity and watchfulness over his people. See Isaiah 1:11; Isaiah 53:6. Luke 15:4.
Inferences.—Let us examine our own hearts seriously and impartially, with respect to those branches of the Christian temper, and those views of the Christian life, which are exhibited in this excellent portion of holy writ. Let us especially inquire, in what manner, and to what purposes, we receive the word of God. Is it with the simplicity of babes, or children? do we desire it, as they desire the breast? do we lay aside those evil affections of mind, which would incapacitate us for receiving it in a becoming manner? And does it conduce to our spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace? have we indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious? do we experimentally know, that to the true believer the Redeemer is inestimably precious? have we indeed come to him, as to a living stone; and, notwithstanding all the neglect and contempt with which he may be treated by many infatuated and miserable men, by wretches who are bent on their own destruction, do we regard, and build on him as our great and only foundation? and do we feel that spiritual life diffused through our souls, which is the genuine consequence of a real and vital union with him?—If these be our happy circumstances, we shall not be ashamed or confounded.
Are we conscious of our high dignity, as we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people? are our hearts suitably affected with a sense of the divine goodness, in calling us to be a people, who once were not a people; and us beloved, who were comparatively not beloved; in leading us from the deplorable darkness of ignorance and vice, in which our ancestors were involved, into the marvellous light of his gospel; yea, in dissipating those thick clouds of prejudice and error, which once vailed this sacred light from our eyes, that its enlivening beams might break in upon our souls? And are we now shewing forth his praises? are we now offering to him spiritual sacrifices, in humble dependance on Christ, our great High-priest, who continually intercedes for our acceptance with God? Then shall we indeed make our calling and our election sure, and shall ere long appear in his heavenly temple, both as kings and priests unto God, to participate of our Redeemer's glory, to reign with him, and minister to him for ever.
Let us be careful, in the mean time, to remember, that we are strangers and sojourners on earth, as all our fathers were; and that our days in this transitory life are but as a shadow that declineth; and let us learn to regard the appetites of our animal nature, and the interests of this mortal life, with a noble superiority, reflecting, for how little a space of time they will solicit our attention. And as for fleshly lusts, let us consider them as making war against the soul; arming ourselves with that resolution and fortitude which are necessary to prevent their gaining a victory over us; which would be, at once, our disgrace and our ruin. There is an additional argument to be derived, for a strenuous opposition to them, from our circumstances and situation in the present world; where there are so many enemies to our holy religion, who cannot be more effectually silenced than by our good conversation. Let it be, therefore, our principal care to cut off from them the occasion of speaking against us as evil doers; and by exhibiting a clear and unexceptionable pattern of good words in our daily conversation, let us invite and allure them to improve the day of their visitation, and, glorify their Father who is in heaven.
Again. As the honour of God is eminently concerned in the regard shewn by his people to the relative duties, let us, out of a due respect to that, pay a very careful and diligent attention to them; that the ignorance of foolish men, of those who reproach our good conversation in Christ, may be utterly silenced. Let magistrates especially be reverenced, and, in all things lawful, obeyed. And if they desire to secure reverence to their persons and authority, let them remember the end and design of their office, namely, to be a terror to evil-doers, and a praise and encouragement to the regular and virtuous. And let us, who rejoice in our liberty, that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, be very careful, that it be not abused as a cloke of licentiousness; but as we would manifest our fear and reverence of God, let us remember to honour the king; yea, to render to every man, and every station and character, the esteem and respect which it justly claims; feeling, at the same time, the constraints of a peculiar affection to all those who are united to us by the endearing character of our brethren in the Lord.—Should men who fill superior stations and relations in life, not be so regular, and without exception, in their private and public deportment as they ought, let us perform our duty, not only to the gentle and obliging, but to the perverse and froward; remembering our Lord's example, which was set before us that we might follow his steps. And let his marvellous love, in bearing our sins in his own sacred body on the tree, endear both his example and his precepts to our souls, and constrain us to a holy conformity to him.
Since he, who is the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, came on the most gracious and condescending errand of seeking and saving that which was lost, of gathering us into his fold, who were wandering in the way to perdition; let us shew so much gratitude and wisdom, as not to wander any more; but as we regard our security and our very life, let us keep our Shepherd in our eye, submit ourselves to his pastoral inspection, and cheerfully follow him in whatsoever path he shall condescend to conduct us.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The apostle proceeds,
1. To exhort the Hebrews to shew a temper suitable to their profession. Wherefore laying aside all malice, every thing spiteful, envious, and revengeful; and all guile, every thing deceitful in word or behaviour; and hypocrisies, whether in the profession of religion towards God, or in pretences of respect and friendship towards men; and envies, repining at the prosperity of others; and all evil speakings, which proceed from those vile tempers in the heart; in opposition to all these things, as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, the pure unadulterated gospel, that ye may grow thereby in every divine and holy temper, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: if so be, or forasmuch as ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, experimentally proving the riches of his mercy, and having begun to enjoy a sweet favour of that grace, which, though but a taste compared with what it shall be to the faithful, is yet so precious and reviving. Note; (1.) All malice, guile, hypocrisy, and slander, are direct contradictions to the Christian character. (2.) By nature, all evil cleaves to us closer than our garments; but it must be put off as filthy rags, if we mean with comfort to appear in the presence of God. (3.) The word of God supplies milk for babes, and strong meat for men; and they who feel an appetite for it, verily shall be fed and nourished up in the words of sound doctrine. (4.) The grace which is in Jesus Christ, is rich and free to the poorest and most miserable sinner; and to those who have tasted of it, he will indeed be precious.
2. He described that blessed Jesus, the true foundation of the sinner's hope, of whose grace they had been made partakers. To whom coming by faith, as unto a living stone, even Christ, who is the only foundation, everlastingly durable, and never to be shaken; a living stone, the head of vital influence, and communicating to all his members life and strength; disallowed indeed of men, rejected and slighted by the Jewish rulers, and all unbelievers, who will not come to him that they may have life; but chosen of God, and precious, appointed by him to bear the massy structure of his church, as most excellent in himself, and most able to exalt the glory of God, and to secure the salvation of his faithful saints.—Coming therefore to him, ye also, as lively stones, animated by virtue of union with him, are built up a spiritual house, in which God the Spirit is pleased to take up his blest abode; an holy priesthood, consecrated for God's immediate service, and devoted to his glory; not to offer up the blood of beasts, but the better spiritual sacrifices of your bodies, souls, and spirits, in prayer and praise, which are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Note; (1.) Every child of God is the temple of the Trinity, where he abidingly dwells. (2.) They who reject Christ as their foundation, must build on the sand, and be swept away by the deluge of wrath. (3.) All Christians are consecrated as priests to God, and must approve their peculiar relation to him by their unreserved devotedness to his service.
3. He supports what he had advanced by the testimony of Isaiah. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, with wonder, love, and praise, behold, I lay in Sion, in my holy mountain, a chief corner-stone, the great Messiah, on whom all his believing people's hopes are built; elect and chosen for this blessed purpose, to unite Jews and Gentiles, and the whole body of the faithful, in one glorious church; precious in my sight, and who is also above all things dear to those who are grounded on him as their foundation: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded, having confidence through a Redeemer's blood to approach a throne of grace. Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious; Jesus is inexpressibly amiable in your eyes; you count your relation to him the highest honour, and firmly trust your everlasting hopes upon him: but unto them which be disobedient and unbelieving, as another scripture observes, the stone which the builders, the Jewish priests and rulers, disallowed and rejected, the same, as was foretold, is made the head of the corner, exalted to the greatest honour, and setting up his gospel church in defiance of their enmity and opposition. And, as Isaiah in another place prophesies, he is become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, and through pride and prejudice will not bear the humbling manner in which the Messiah appeared, and the doctrines which he taught, being disobedient and infidel, having rejected him as the promised hope of Israel, and split upon this rock; whereunto also they were appointed: because they would obstinately and wilfully stand out against the gospel, they were appointed by God to stumble and fall at that Stone, to be bruised and ruined by that means, to be destroyed among the crucifiers of the Messiah, and condemned with them hereafter; it being just with God, that they who wilfully reject the gospel, and of course receive no benefit from it, should, for their obstinacy, be condemned, and so be the worse for it. Note; (1.) Christ is indeed precious to the believer, so precious, that, compared with the excellency of the knowledge of him, he counts all things beside but dung and dross. (2.) They who disbelieve the gospel, and disobey God's word, rush on their own ruin, and must suffer shipwreck in eternity.
4. He reminds them of the rich and invaluable blessings and privileges which in the Redeemer they had obtained. But ye are a chosen generation, elect, called, invited to infinitely greater privileges than those which the visible church of Israel enjoyed; a royal priesthood having an unction from the Holy One, and made kings and priests unto God, Revelation 1:6 victorious over your spiritual foes, and separated for God; an holy nation, consecrated to the Lord, and in spirit and temper conformed to his image; a peculiar people, in a nobler sense than ever Israel was of old, called to the highest dignity, and enriched with the most distinguishing blessings; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who, by his grace, hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light of gospel truth, brought from the cloudy dispensation of legal institutions, or from the still darker dispensation of Gentilism, into that bright day, which the Sun of righteousness makes, arising with healing in his wings. Which in time past were not a people,, having been disowned and divorced from God, in a national sense, (see Hosea 1:9-10; Hosea 2:23 and the Annotations,) but are now the people of God, through Jesus admitted experimentally into the gospel church, and acknowledged as the Lord's: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy; even pardon, grace, and all the privileges of the gospel.
2nd, While they are in the flesh, the best of men have need to be warned and exhorted to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. The apostle therefore admonishes them,
1. To guard against all worldly and carnal affections. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as becomes strangers and pilgrims, for such you profess yourselves to be upon the earth, abstain from fleshly lusts, subduing every inordinate appetite and every covetous desire, which war against the soul, and threaten its defilement and destruction; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, adorning your profession by every thing commendable and excellent; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, and misrepresent you as a wicked, refractory, and lawless people, they may be confuted by your good works which they shall behold, be ashamed of their unjust aspersions, and compelled to glorify God in the day of visitation, either when in the day of judgment he shall punish them for their ill usage of you; or, when their hearts are turned by his grace to the wisdom of the just, and he leads them to approve and imitate your good conversation.
2. To be obedient to magistrates. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, under whatever form of government you live, or whoever they be whom the divine Providence sets over you; whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, and bear his commission, for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well; from whom faithful and obedient subjects having nothing to fear, have every thing to hope for. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, by your loyalty and cheerful submission to the civil government, confuting the calumnies of those who would brand you as seditious; but as free indeed from the tyranny of sin, Satan, and the curse of the law, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, to cover any treasonable design, or other malignant evil; but as the servants of God, conscientiously observant of his holy will in all things, and obedient to magistrates not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
3. He adds four short but important precepts. Honour all men according to their rank and station. Love the brotherhood, high or low, rich or poor; bear them an unfeigned regard as members of Christ, shew it in every act of kindness to their bodies and their souls. Fear God with all reverence, and filial awe of offending. Honour the king, the sovereign power of your country, by whatever name distinguished, as God's representative, and governing under him.
3rdly, As the Jews very hardly bore a foreign yoke as a nation, they were also unwilling to submit to any Gentile masters; and many of those of them who believed in Christ, were persuaded by their Judaizing teachers, to think that they owed no obedience to unbelieving masters. To correct so dangerous an imagination, the apostle,
1. Inculcates the duty of servants. Be subject to your masters with all fear and reverence, and be obedient to all their lawful commands; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, if such be your lot to be placed under their power. For this is thank-worthy, a matter of real commendation, and a gracious gift of God, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, and bearing patiently the ill usage of a cruel master, to whom he has given no just cause of provocation. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? this can bring no credit to your religion; you receive but the just reward of your deeds. But if, when ye do well, faithful to your trust, and true to your profession, and suffer for it, that is, for your conscientious regard to God and his service, ye take it patiently, with all meekness, and without murmuring, this is acceptable with God, and a sure proof of his grace in your hearts. Note; (1.) The spirit of independence, which is in men, hardly brooks subjection, and correction still less. (2.) Patient suffering for well-doing, is our distinguished honour. (3.) Though the duty of servants is submission, yet their guilt is not the less who abuse their authority over them; and they will find a Master shortly, who will call them to account, with whom there is no respect of persons.
2. He enforces what he had enjoined with the most powerful arguments. For even hereunto were ye called,—the cross which the Christian must be content to bear: and we should the more readily take it up, because Christ also suffered for us as our substitute, and to make atonement for us, for the meanest servant as well as for the highest of the sons of men; leaving us an example of patience and long-suffering under all the most cruel and unjust treatment which he met with, that ye should follow his steps, and be conformed to his blessed pattern; who, grievously as he suffered, yet did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; his bitterest enemies could not so much as fix upon him the shadow of a crime; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but observed an admirable silence, as the sheep before her shearers is dumb: when he suffered, he threatened not, nor discovered the least anger at his tormentors; but committed himself and his cause to him that judgeth righteously, and to whom vengeance belongeth: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, submitting, as our surety, with his own blood to pay the penalty due to our iniquities; that we, being dead to sin, as crucified with him, should live unto righteousness, quickened by his Spirit unto newness of life: by whose stripes ye were healed; and the deadly wounds of your souls, far worse than those which the most cruel masters can make in your bodies, were cured by the sovereign balm of that Blood which streamed from his scourgings and flowed from his side. For ye were as sheep going astray, foolish, disobedient, deceived, in time past; but are now by grace recovered, and returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, the blessed and adored Jesus. Note; (1.) Christ's example should animate us with cheerfulness to take up every cross which in his providence he is pleased to lay upon us. (2.) Our sufferings, however cruel and unjust, will never be an excuse for our impatience under them, or for any anger toward the instruments of them, however wicked and unreasonable they may be. By nature, by practice, we have all gone astray. Reader, art thou then returning by faith in the atoning blood to the great Shepherd of our souls? art thou under his government, and dost thou tread in the footsteps of his flock?