II. The cure of vainglory.—1. Meditation. (1) God resisteth all proud persons and gives grace to the humble, because the vainglorious man, seeking himself and not God, robs God of His honour. (2) It is the work of the devil to puff up the mind with self-liking and conceit, that thereby he may work man’s perdition. (3) There is no religion in that heart that is wholly bent to seek the praise of men. The man who desires to be talked of and admired by others gives notice to the world that his heart is not sound in the sight of God. 2. Practice. (1) Endeavour to acknowledge the great majesty of God, and our own baseness before Him. (2) We ought to ascribe all good things we have or can do to God alone, and nothing to ourselves. (3) In all actions and duties of religion we must first endeavour to approve ourselves to God, and the next place is to be given to man. (4) When we are reviled we must rest content; when we are praised take heed. Temptations on the right hand are far more dangerous than those on the left. (5) Men who are ambitious, if they be crossed, grow contentious; if they prosper, they are envied by others. Abhor and detest vainglory; seek to preserve and maintain love.—Perkins.
CHAPTER VI.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Overtaken in a fault.—Be caught red-handed in any transgression, the result of some sudden and overpowering gust of evil impulse. Restore such an one.—The same word used of a dislocated limb reduced to its place. Such is the tenderness with which we should treat a fallen member in restoring him to a better state. In the spirit of meekness.—Meekness is that temper of spirit towards God whereby we accept His dealings without disputing; then towards men whereby we endure meekly their provocations, and do not withdraw ourselves from the burdens which their sins impose upon us (Trench).
Ver. 2. Bear ye one another’s burdens.—The word is “weights,” something exceeding the strength of those under them. “One another’s” is strongly emphatic. It is a powerful stroke, as with an axe in the hand of a giant, at censoriousness or vainglorious egotism. We are not to think of self, but of one another. To bear the burden of an erring brother is truly Christ-like. And so fulfil the law of Christ.—If you must needs observe a law, let it be the law of Christ.
Ver. 3. He deceiveth himself.—He is misled by the vapours of his own vanity, he is self-deceived.
Ver. 4. Rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.—In that his own work stands the test after severe examination, and not that he is superior to another.
Ver. 6. Communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.—Go shares with him in the good things of this life. While each bears his own burden he must think of others, especially in ministering out of his earthly goods to the wants of his spiritual teacher (see 2 Cor. xi. 7, 11; Phil. iv. 10; 1 Thess. ii. 6, 9; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18).
Ver. 7. God is not mocked.—The verb means to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt. Excuses for illiberality may seem valid before men but are not so before God.