4. Personal marks.—The marks of Jesus of no avail unless you possess them. No man can really trouble you if you bear branded on your body the marks of Jesus.—Local Preacher’s Treasury.
Suffering for Jesus.
I. The scars of the saints for the maintenance of the truth are the sufferings, wounds, and marks of Christ Himself, seeing they are the wounds of the members of that body whereof He is Head.
II. They convince the persecutors that they are the servants of Christ who suffer thus for righteousness’ sake.
III. If men be constant in their profession—in faith and obedience—the marks of their suffering are banners of victory.—No man ought to be ashamed of them, no more than soldiers of their wounds and scars, but rather in a holy manner to glory of them. Constantine the Great kissed the holes of the eyes of certain bishops who had them put out for their constant profession of the faith of Christ, reverencing the virtue of the Holy Ghost which shined in them. 1. By suffering bodily afflictions we are made conformable to Christ. 2. They teach us to have sympathy with the miseries of our brethren. 3. Our patient enduring of affliction is an example to others and a means of confirming them in the truth. 4. They serve to scour us from the rust of sin.—Perkins.
Ver. 18. Concluding Benediction.
I. The apostle invokes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.—1. Because He is the fountain of it. 2. Because He is the conduit or pipe by which it is conveyed to us.
II. Christ is called our Lord—1. By right of creation. 2. Of inheritance. 3. Of redemption. 4. Of conquest. 5. Of contract and marriage.
III. Observe the emphasis with which the apostle concludes the epistle.—1. Opposing Christ, the Lord of the house, to Moses, who was but a servant. 2. The grace of Christ to inherent justice and merit of works. 3. The spirit in which he would have grace to be seated, to the flesh in which the false teachers gloried so much. 4. Brotherly unity one with another—implied in the word “brethren”—to the proud and lordly carriage of the false teachers.—Ibid.