11:17. And if some of the branches be broken and thou, being a wild olive, art ingrafted in them and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree:
11:18. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root: but the root thee.
11:19. Thou wilt say then: The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.
11:20. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear.
Thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear… We see here that he who standeth by faith may fall from it; and therefore must live in fear, and not in the vain presumption and security of modern sectaries.
11:21. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps also he spare not thee.
11:22. See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off… The Gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory against the Jews: but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. Not that the whole church of Christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular.
11:23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
11:24. For if thou were cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and, contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good olive tree: how much more shall they that are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?