Romans 11:13,14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For I speak, &c.— Some read these verses in a parenthesis, thus: (I say to you, Gentiles, so far as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I am used to honour my ministry, Romans 11:14. That I may by any means excite to emulation them who are of my flesh, and may save some of them:). Magnify, unless when applied to the Most High, who never can be too highly exalted, in our language carries in it the idea of stretching beyond the bounds of truth, or making a thing seem greater than it really is. The word is δοξαζω, I glorify,—honour: so we render it, 1 Corinthians 12:26 and so it should be translated here;—I honour my ministry: for the word διακονια, in the like case, is always rendered ministry. See Acts 21:19; 1 Timothy 1:12; 1 Timothy 1:20. St. Paul honoured his ministry, by speaking magnificently of the state of the Gentiles, whom he had converted to the faith, in comparison of the poor and low condition to which the unbelieving Jews were reduced. His sense will appear, if in reading Romans 11:12-13 we lay the emphasis upon the RICHES of the world,—the RICHES of the Gentiles. St. Peter sets the honours of the believing Gentiles, and the degraded state of the infidel Jews, in a still more striking contrast, 1 Peter 2:8-9. They stumbled at the word, and are fallen; but ye are raised to the honour of being a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.