Chapter 5:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 Corinthians Galatians
2 Corinthians 5
Verse 1. Our earthly house - Which is only a tabernacle, or tent, not
designed for a lasting habitation.
Verse
2. Desiring to be clothed upon - This body, which is now covered
with flesh and blood, with the glorious house which is from
heaven. Instead of flesh and blood, which cannot enter heaven, the
rising body will be clothed or covered with what is analogous
thereto, but incorruptible and immortal. Macarius speaks largely
of this.
Verse
3. If being clothed - That is, with the image of God, while we are
in the body. We shall not be found naked - Of the wedding
garment.
Verse
4. We groan being burdened - The apostle speaks with exact
propriety. A burden naturally expresses groans. And we are here
burdened with numberless afflictions, infirmities, temptations.
Not that we would be unclothed - Not that we desire to remain
without a body. Faith does not understand that philosophical
contempt of what the wise Creator has given. But clothed upon -
With the glorious, immortal, incorruptible, spiritual body. That
what is mortal - This present mortal body. May be swallowed up
of life - Covered with that which lives for ever.
Verse
5. Now he that hath wrought us to this very thing - This longing
for immortality. Is God - For none but God, none less than the
Almighty, could have wrought this in us.
Verse
6. Therefore we behave undauntedly - But most of all when we
have death in view; knowing that our greatest happiness lies
beyond the grave.
Verse
7. For we cannot clearly see him in this life, wherein we walk by
faith only: an evidence, indeed, that necessarily implies a kind of
"seeing him who is invisible;" yet as far beneath what we shall
have in eternity, as it is above that of bare, unassisted reason.
Verse
8. Present with the Lord - This demonstrates that the happiness of
the saints is not deferred till the resurrection.
Verse
9. Therefore we are ambitious - The only ambition which has
place in a Christian. Whether present - In the body. Or absent -
From it.
Verse
10. For we all - Apostles as well as other men, whether now
present in the body, or absent from it. Must appear - Openly,
without covering, where all hidden things will be revealed;
probably the sins, even of the faithful, which were forgiven long
before. For many of their good works, as their repentance, their
revenge against sin, cannot other wise appear. But this will be
done at their own desire, without grief, and without shame.
According to what he hath done in the body, whether good or evil
- In the body he did either good or evil; in the body he is
recompensed accordingly.
Verse
11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we the more
earnestly persuade men to seek his favour; and as God knoweth
this, so, I trust, ye know it in your own consciences.
Verse
12. We do not say this, as if we thought there was any need of
again recommending ourselves to you, but to give you an
occasion of rejoicing and praising God, and to furnish you with an
answer to those false apostles who glory in appearance, but not in
heart, being condemned by their own conscience.
Verse
13. For if we are transported beyond ourselves - Or at least,
appear so to others, treated of, 2 Cor. v, 15-21, speaking or
writing with uncommon vehemence. It is to God - He understands
(if men do not) the emotion which himself inspires. If we be sober
- Treated of, chap. vi, 1-10. If I proceed in a more calm, sedate
manner. It is for your sakes - Even good men bear this, rather than
the other method, in their teachers. But these must obey God,
whoever is offended by it.
Verse
14. For the love of Christ - To us, and our love to him.
Constraineth us - Both to the one and the other; beareth us on with
such a strong, steady, prevailing influence, as winds and tides
exert when they waft the vessel to its destined harbour. While we
thus judge, that if Christ died for all, then are all, even the best of
men, naturally dead - In a state of spiritual death, and liable to
death eternal. For had any man been otherwise, Christ had not
needed to have died for him.
Verse
15. And that he died for all - That all might be saved. That they
who live - That all who live upon the earth. Should not henceforth
- From the moment they know him. Live unto themselves - Seek
their own honour, profit, pleasure. But unto him - In all
righteousness and true holiness.
Verse
16. So that we from this time - That we knew the love of Christ.
Know no one - Neither ourselves, nor you, neither the rest of the
apostles, Gal. ii, 6, nor any other person. After the flesh -
According to his former state, country, descent, nobility, riches,
power, wisdom. We fear not the great. We regard not the rich or
wise. We account not the least less than ourselves. We consider
all, only in order to save all. Who is he that thus knows no one
after the flesh? ln what land do these Christians live? Yea, if we
have known even Christ after the flesh - So as to love him barely
with a natural love, so as to glory in having conversed with him
on earth, so as to expect only temporal benefits from him.
Verse
17. Therefore if any one be in Christ - A true believer in him.
There is a new creation - Only the power that makes a world can
make a Christian. And when he is so created, the old things are
passed away - Of their own accord, even as snow in spring.
Behold - The present, visible, undeniable change! All things are
become new - He has new life, new senses, new faculties, new
affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole
tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in
a new world. God, men, the whole creation, heaven, earth, and all
therein, appear in a new light, and stand related to him in a new
manner, since he was created anew in Christ Jesus.
Verse
18. And all these new things are from God, considered under this
very notion, as reconciling us - The world, 2 Cor. v, 19, to
himself.
Verse
19. Namely - The sum of which is, God - The whole Godhead, but
more eminently God the Father. Was in Christ, reconciling the
world - Which was before at enmity with God. To himself - So
taking away that enmity, which could no otherwise be removed
than by the blood of the Son of God.
Verse
20. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ-we beseech you in
Christ's stead - Herein the apostle might appear to some
"transported beyond himself." In general he uses a more calm,
sedate kind of exhortation, as in the beginning of the next chapter.
What unparalleled condescension and divinely tender mercies are
displayed in this verse! Did the judge ever beseech a condemned
criminal to accept of pardon? Does the creditor ever beseech a
ruined debtor to receive an acquittance in full? Yet our almighty
Lord, and our eternal Judge, not only vouchsafes to offer these
blessings, but invites us, entreats us, and, with the most tender
importunity, solicits us, not to reject them.
Verse
21. He made him a sin offering, who knew no sin - A
commendation peculiar to Christ. For us - Who knew no
righteousness, who were inwardly and outwardly nothing but sin;
who must have been consumed by the divine justice, had not this
atonement been made for our sins. That we might be made the
righteousness of God through him - Might through him be
invested with that righteousness, first imputed to us, then
implanted in us, which is in every sense the righteousness of God.
Chapter 5:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 Corinthians Galatians
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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