Lessons.—1. God should be gratefully recognised as the Giver of all good. 2. The special endowments of one are for the benefit of all. 3. It is a solemn responsibility to be entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. The Power of the Gospel.—1. Free grace doth often light upon the most unworthy, not only by giving salvation to themselves, but making them instrumental for the kingdom of Christ, and bringing about the salvation of others. 2. Faithful and called ministers of Christ are to be so far from cowardly ceding, or heartless fainting under the bold, bitter, and unjust aspersions of those who question their calling, and thereby weaken their authority and render the truth of their doctrine doubtsome, that they ought the more to avow their calling against all who question it. 3. The office of an apostle had this peculiar to itself, that the designation was not mediately by the election and suffrages of men, as in the calling of ordinary office-bearers, but immediately from God, so that the function of the apostles ceased with them and did not pass by succession to a pope or any other. 4. The false apostles, that they might shake the truth preached by Paul and establish their own contrary error, alleged that he was no lawful apostle. This Paul refutes by showing he was called by Christ after He was raised from the dead and had taken possession of His kingdom, so that his calling had at least no less dignity and glory in it than if he had been called by Christ when He was on earth.—Fergusson.
Ver. 2. The Church a Witness.—1. The more they are whom God maketh use of to hold out the beauty of truth that we may embrace and follow it, or the deformity and danger of error that we may fly from and hate it, we are the more to take heed how we reject or embrace what is pressed upon us, as there will be the more to bear witness of our guilt and subscribe to the equity of God’s judgment if we obey not. 2. We are not so to stumble at the many sinful failings which may be in Churches, as to unchurch them, by denying them to be a Church, or to separate from them, if their error be not contrary to fundamental truths, or if they err from human frailty, and not obstinately and avowedly.—Ibid.
Ver. 3. Christian Salutation.—1. God’s gracious favour and goodwill is to be sought by us in the first place, whether for ourselves or others, that being a discriminating mercy betwixt the godly and the wicked. 2. Peace is to be sought after grace, and not to be expected before it. Peace without grace is no peace. There can be no peace with God or His creatures, nor sanctified prosperity, except through Jesus Christ we lay hold on God’s favour and grace. 3. Grace and peace we cannot acquire by our own industry or pains. They come from God, are to be sought from Him, and His blessing is more to be depended on than our own wisdom or diligence. 4. They to whom grace and peace belong are such as acknowledge Christ to be their Lord to command and rule them, and yield subjection to Him in their heart and life.—Ibid.
Grace and Peace.
I. Grace is not any gift in man but is God’s and in God. It signifies His gracious favour and goodwill, whereby He is well pleased with us in Christ.
II. Peace is a gift not in God, but in us. 1. Peace of conscience—a quietness and tranquillity of mind arising from a sense of reconciliation with God. 2. Peace with the creatures—with angels, with the godly, with our enemies. 3. Prosperity and good success.
III. Whereas Paul begins his prayer with grace we learn that grace in God is the cause of all good things in us.
IV. The chief things to be sought after are the favour of God in Christ and the peace of a good conscience.