Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 26:16
But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
16. to make [ R. V. appoint] thee a minister ] The verb is that which in Act 22:14 is rendered “have chosen” ( R. V. appointed), and implies a deliberate selection and appointment. Saul was “a chosen vessel” (Act 9:15).
and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen ] Rev. Ver. “a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me,” with a certain amount of MS. authority, though A.V. is well supported. St Paul dwells not unfrequently in his Epistles on his having seen Jesus. Cp. 1Co 9:1; 1Co 15:8, &c., and he makes this the ground of his independence in the Apostolic work, so that he can say he is not a whit behind any of the other Apostles.
and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee ] St Paul was more favoured than the rest of the Apostles, as far as we gather from the N. T. records, with visions from God to guide and comfort him at critical points in his work. Cp. Act 18:9; Act 23:11; and 2Co 2:2. It was specially important that Paul should have seen Jesus, so that he might bear independent witness to the truth of his resurrection.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But rise … – The particulars mentioned in this verse and the two following are not recorded in the account of Pauls conversion in Acts 9; but it is not improbable that many circumstances may have occurred which are not recorded. Paul dwells on them here at length in order particularly to show his authority for doing what he had done in preaching to the Gentiles.
To make thee a minister – A minister of the gospel; a preacher of the truth.
And a witness – See the notes on Act 22:15.
Which thou hast seen – On the road to Damascus; that is, of the Lord Jesus, and of the fact that he was risen from the dead.
And of those things … – Of those further manifestations of my person, purposes, and will, which I will yet make to you. It is evident from this that the Lord Jesus promised to manifest himself to Paul in his ministry, and to make to him still further displays of his will and glory. Compare Act 22:17-18. This was done by his rescuing him from destruction and danger; by inspiration; by the growing and expanding view which Paul was permitted to take of the character and perfections of the Lord Jesus. In this we see that it is the duty of ministers to bear witness not only to the truth of religion in general, or of that which they can demonstrate by argument, but more especially of that which they experience in their own hearts, and which they understand by having themselves been the subjects of it. No man is qualified to enter the ministry who has not a personal saving view of the glory and perfections of the Lord Jesus, and who does not go to his work as a witness of those things which he has felt; and no man enters the ministry with these feelings who has not, as Paul had, a promise that he shall see still brighter displays of the perfections of the Saviour, and be permitted to advance in the knowledge of him and of his work. The highest personal consolation in this work is the promise of being admitted to ever-growing and expanding views of the glory of the Lord Jesus, and of experiencing his presence, guidance, and protection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 26:16-18
But rise, and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister and a witness.
Christianity self-attested
If you had given you what was asserted to be a speech made long ago by your father, the first reading of it would settle the matter. Knowing your father, his sentiments, his mode of expression, you would be able to say instantly whether the speech was authentic or fabricated. We ought by this time to know enough of Christs manner to be able to say whether any speech purporting to be His was actually ever spoken by His lips. Is this? Let us see. Christ is reported as saying–
1. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. Here I recall the words which made the first ministers, Follow Me. He is as personal as ever.
2. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make– Here I remember the word, I will make you fishers of men. Jesus Christ is still Creator. The speaker does not propose to modify, add to, rearrange.
3. To make thee a minister–that is a new word–and a witness–that is an old word. Ye are, said Jesus Christ, witnesses of these things.
4. Proceed still further: a witness both of these things which thou hast seen. Why, that is the old method: Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. We speak as eyewitnesses; we are not quoters from authors of an ancient date.
5. Proceed further: and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. Jesus said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. There is no end to the meaning of revelation. There is no end to the literature of the alphabet. The letters are but six-and-twenty in number, and no man attempts to add another! It is the same with the New Testament. Observe, nothing is added to the revelation. However large the book, it is all in the alphabet; however magnificent the unfoldment of the truth by human eloquence, the truth itself is the distinct and direct gift of God alone.
6. Proceed now to verse 17: Delivering them from the people and from the Gentiles. Here is the Lords own speech: Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, etc. It is a marvellous thing if this was invented. It is impossible, considering Sauls antecedents, that he could have invented a speech so perfect, not only in the letter, but in the spirit.
7. The eighteenth verse is a summary of all that Jesus began both to do and to say. The miracles and the gospels are all there. For example, To open their eyes. That is what Jesus Christ was always doing. He could never be at rest in the presence of the blind. Again and again He said, According to your faith, be it unto you. Christ will not have any blind followers.
8. To turn them from darkness to light. When did He ever turn men from light to darkness? Whenever He visited a town, the inhabitants were startled by an excess of intellectual lustre; old thoughts stood up in new meanings when He breathed them; the law itself became a kind of gospel when He repronounced its awful words.
9. And from the power of Satan unto God. When did He ever reverse that process? His first battle was with the devil in the wilderness, and His last battle was with the devil on the Cross.
10. Go further: that they may receive forgiveness of sins. That is His very word: Son, daughter, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee. That is not the kind of word which a bad man would be likely to invent.
11. But how was this forgiveness to be accomplished? and how was it be followed? By inheritance among them which are sanctified. The whole process is set down to the action of faith. Have we ever heard that word before? Why, the word is the keyword of Christs ministry. Conclusion: So far the speech is self-proving. I find in it no syllable or tone that is not in vital accord with everything we have read in the Gospels ever spoken or done by the Son of God. This is a field of evidence to which I would invite every student of the Scriptures. Read the Book carefully through with a view to see how far its parts are confirmed by one another, and how far even apparent discrepancies admit of a kind of reconciliation which adds infinite force to the substantial argument for the unity of the Scriptures. Perhaps a more vivid instance of confirmation could hardly be produced than the one which is now before us. Paul is supposed to be in a fanatical state of mind; he is struck down to the ground, blinded, disabled; he is supposedly the victim of an hallucination of the most complete kind; yet when he himself reports what happened to him, no slip or flaw can be found in his evidence which throws the slightest doubt upon the identity of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the accepted Gospels. More than Chat, everything is here which is needed. Take this as a programme for the revolution, regeneration, and perfecting of the world, and add to it one line that is not involved in its unfathomable wisdom. It cannot be done. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Why am I saved
1. Notice the swiftness of the revelation of Gods purpose as to the apostle of the Gentiles. An ordinary call to the ministry usually involves long processes of self-examination and observation of Gods guiding providences.
2. The distinctness with which Paul comprehended his mission is notable. He continually declares his one, only aim in life to apprehend (or lay hold of) Him, he says, who has laid hold of me.
3. This obedient spirit deserves distinct mention. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He never was. At the end of his life he wrote, I have kept the faith. But turning away from these and other lines of discussion, let us accentuate the proposition that God has a purpose in our salvation. We ought to know what that purpose is. Am I saved merely to have my name entered on a Church roll? to keep up a form of godliness?
No; I am saved for a two-fold purpose–viz., to glorify Gods grace in my personal salvation and sanctification, and also to advance the kingdom of God in the world.
1. We infer, first of all, the need of the illuminating light from heaven to make us realise our high calling of God.
2. Again, we see our obligation to fulfil Christs purpose in our salvation as Paul saw the purpose of his salvation and accomplished it. (G. E. Reed.)
The objects of the Christian ministry
I. The object of the Christian ministry is the exhibition of the character of God. That there is a God, all Nature cries aloud through all her works (Psa 19:1-4; Rom 1:20). But Nature is a speechless beauty, waiting in silence till man shall find leisure and inclination to he instructed by dumb signs. She discloses some traces of his wisdom, goodness, and power; but a sinner, under a sense of his guilt, might remain in her presence for ages, without discovering what is essential to his relief. It was reserved to the gospel to reveal the character of Him whose perfections are unceasingly adored in the world of light, whose will is law, to whose designs all beings and all events are subservient, whose hands supply the wants of every creature, whose heart compassionates the children of sorrow, whose frown is hell, whose smile is heaven. Even the Old Testament afforded but partial discoveries of Him. A veil still remained over Him; which veil the gospel has drawn aside. His holiness, His justice, and His mercy, shine in the clearest light; there, if genuine Christians, we effectually discern the doctrines which demand our faith, the privileges which claim our gratitude, the promises which encourage our hope, the principles which compose our character.
II. The Christian ministry is designed to promote the destruction of the kingdom of satan and the establishment of that of Christ. The dominion of Satan commenced at an early period. Its foundation was laid in falsehood. The supports of his throne are delusion and depravity, wrought into a thousand fantastic and ten thousand odious forms. But the usurper was not permitted to reign without control. His final defeat was predicted in the very scene which had been disgraced by his victory. Then was the assurance given, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. At length the Messiah came, for the glorious purpose of recovering this colony of rebels to the duty they had renounced, and the felicity they had forfeited. His triumphs began in the wilderness, where He foiled the tempter, and compelled him to retire; they were extended, when the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy name. But it was after His resurrection and ascension that this mighty Conqueror shone forth in the splendour of His sublimest achievements. The commission with which He invested the apostles was accompanied with power from on high; and He bare them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. A thousand delusions were scattered by the beams of truth; the slumbers of insensibility were shaken off; the rock of impenitence was melted; faith opened to the moral wanderer a heavenly prospect; peace cheered the bosom that had throbbed with anguish; and the sceptre of righteousness was swayed over the faculties, passions, and appetites, that had been perverted and enslaved by the tyranny of hell.
III. The Christian ministry is established for the purpose of leading those among whom it is exercised to the practise of pure and undefiled religion, and thus effecting the most important change that can be introduced into the condition of mankind (verse 18). Accordingly, we find the same apostle afterwards stating (Tit 2:11-12). Such is the influence of the gospel on the character of everyone by whom it is cordially received. It not only reveals a Saviour, but is the instrument of conveying salvation. Through the medium of the gospel the Holy Spirit enlightens the understanding, subdues vicious propensities, restores the Divine image, and prepares the frail tenant of earth for the inheritance reserved in heaven.
IV. The Christian ministry will result in the brightest manifestation of the Saviours glory. To Him it owes its origin, its support, its conductors, and its efficacy. He is the Subject of it. Apart from His dignity and condescension; His virtues and sufferings; His doctrines, commandments, and promises; the miracles which He wrought, the atonement which He made, His triumph over His death, His constant intercession, and the grace which flows from His inexhaustible fulness–the Christian ministry were a mere name, and those who engage in it only beat the air. But when a man, saved from eternal ruin ascends before a congregation inspired with grateful astonishment, and anxious to see every hearer a participant of his own felicity, how can he forget his Divine benefactor, or allude to Him in obscure language, and with faint regard! Behold Him, and all who, being honoured with the same office, press forward in the same spirit, continually insisting on the all-important theme. They are the servants of Jesus Christ, and they urge His authority; they live upon His smile, and they want words to express the magnitude of the privilege; they are the almoners of His bounty, and they beseech, as on the bended knee, their fellow mortals to receive it. Great is the reward which awaits them all. (O. A. Jeary.)
Gods work upon minister and convert
I. A work wrought by God upon the minister.
1. Subjugation. While a man is a rebel, the Lord does not appoint him an ambassador; while he is dead in sin, a preacher of the way of life. Paul was struck down; for if he had not fallen, he would not have known how to lift others up. He remained blind for three days; otherwise he would not have been qualified to deal with others in darkness. See what God does in His ministers to fit them for your conversion. In order to slay your sins the shaft has been polished. Each of the best locks made by our eminent locksmiths is unique, and each needs its own special key: so God fits certain men for reaching certain men.
2. Encouragement. Rise, and stand upon thy feet. Men can hardly be very useful till they cease to be despondent, and become energetic and hopeful. I have noticed that those who do not believe that they will be successful seldom are so; but those who rise and stand upon their feet, and manfully expect that God will bless them, are not disappointed.
3. Ordination. And to this end he must see the Lord for himself. Our Lords appearing–
(1) Makes him willing to be a servant, for that is the meaning of the word minister. When the renewed mind beholds the Lord, it cries out, What wilt Thou have me to do?
(2) Qualifies him to act as a witness. We cannot bear witness to that which we have never seen. Hearsay is of small value. Heads are won by reasoning, but hearts are won by witness bearing.
4. Continuous instruction. He is to be a witness not only of those things which he has seen, but also of those things in the which the Lord will yet appear unto him.
5. Constant preservation. Delivering thee from the people, etc. Pauls life was always in danger, and yet never in real peril, for the Lord was his keeper. So shall every true servant of Christ be kept as with a garrison from all evil.
II. The work wrought in the hearer.
1. Illumination: the Lord sends His servant to open their eyes. Men are born blind, and continue blind till, by the power of Jesus, sight is given to them. Your education and surroundings have perhaps placed a film of prejudice over your eyes; if a candid, childlike spirit were given you, you would see. Or possibly some favourite sin is like a cataract upon the eye of your conscience, and you cannot see the evil of sin or the beauty of holiness. Or it may be that unbelief darkens your soul.
2. Conversion: to turn them from darkness to light. What a blessed turning is that which makes us face truth, and goodness, and God, and heaven; and leave ignorance, sin, and hell behind.
3. Translation. As the soul is brought into a new element, so is it also brought under a new government. From the power of Satan unto God. Somebody says, I do not understand how this can be performed in a minute. Well, two men are fighting, and we beg them to leave off. Do you recommend them to leave off gradually? If anybody held a pistol at my head, I should not say, Take it away by degrees. Changes of mind such as are necessary to conversion had need be quick when sin is to be forsaken, for every moment deepens the guilt. It may seem a very gradual process by which a man who was dead comes to life; but for certain there is a point at which he left the dead and became alive, and that point God sees very clearly, even though we do not.
4. Complete forgiveness. The same moment that we receive Christ, we receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified. What a blessing to become an heir of God! To what choice company is a sinner introduced when he believes in Jesus! He is a freeholder among the burgesses of the New Jerusalem.
5. And all this has for its certificate and mark of genuineness these words–By faith that is in Me. The whole process of salvation is by faith.
III. A work which must be done by the hearer himself. This text speaks of Paul being an instrument in the hands of God of opening mens eyes, etc., and they seem to be passive; but now they are called upon to be active. We are created thinking, intelligent beings, and we are saved as such. Never let us forget either the free agency of man or the purposes of God. Grace reigns not over slaves, but over obedient children.
1. You must repent. It is not the work of God the Holy Ghost to repent for you, but to lead you to repent.
2. You must turn to God. Your prayer may be, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; but the command is, Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? God will turn you, but you have willingly to yield, and thus turn yourself.
3. You must do works meet for repentance; for wherever there is true faith there will be corresponding works, such as these: restitution if you have wronged anyone, reconciliation if you are at enmity with anyone, acknowledgment if you have spoken falsely, giving up of evil habits, and an earnest endeavour to be pure and holy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Apostolic ministry
I. Its theme. What had he to testify?
1. All that he had seen of Christ. He had seen and heard great things amidst the bright light which struck him to the ground.
2. All that he should see of Christ. He would receive many more communications. A true minister will be always receiving fresh communications of truth, and he must proclaim the new as well as the old.
II. Its beneficence. He had to effect–
1. The highest good.
(1) Spiritual illumination: Open their eyes. An expression this implying–
(a) The moral blindness of the sinner.
(b) The restorative character of Christianity–it does not give new eyes, but opens the old ones.
(c) The genuineness of Christ as a reformer–the design of impostors is to close eyes.
(2) Soul emancipation: From the power of Satan unto God. Satan enslaves men by lust, worldliness, prejudice, superstition, etc. The ministers work is to manumit the slave.
(3) Divine forgiveness: That they may receive forgiveness of sins. This act is represented in the Bible as cancelling, forgetting, drowning sin; separating the sinner from his sin.
(4) Eternal blessedness: Inheritance amongst them which are sanctified, etc.
(a) Legitimate possession–having a kind of right to it.
(b) Social intercourse among them, not a scene of isolation.
(c) Moral purity sanctified. The Christian circle is holy.
2. The highest good by a simple method. By no onerous labour or costly sacrifices, but by faith that is in Me; not in priests, not in human creeds, not in the opinions of men about Me. Faith in Christ is not a mere thing of the intellect; it involves the deepest sympathies of the heart. Nor is it even a thing of thought and feeling combined; it takes the form of living acts; it moulds the life.
(1) Faith is in itself one of the easiest acts a man can perform. A child can believe; the propensity to believe is one of the strongest in human nature. Credulity has ruined the world.
(2) Faith in itself is one of the most influential acts. What a man really believes sways his thoughts, controls his passions, and regulates his life.
III. Its fulfilment. I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. He discharged this commission.
1. Self-denyingly.
2. Continuously. He began when he was converted, and went on. This is the true order. Begin with those nearest at hand.
3. Reformatively. His grand aim was spiritually to reform men, which includes two things–
(1) A renewed mind. Repent–a thorough change–and turn.
(2) A renewed life. Works meet for repentance: the conduct answering the new state of the soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Christian ministry defined
This is the kind of ministry which Christ wishes to establish. No other statement is needed. This conception is such as never entered into the uninspired mind, and, in particular, never could have entered into a mind constituted as was Sauls.
I. Rise and stand upon thy feet. Here is the typical manliness of the Christian ministry. We do not want crawling, fawning men, but men who can stand up and show their stature and force. The minister, realising Christs conception, does not apologise for his existence: he stands upon his feet. Jesus did not speak to Saul as he lay down in the dust. He will not send frightened things about His messages and errands; He will have the whole man at his best. But what kind of manliness? Only that manliness which is made possible by Christ. To stand without permission to stand is impertinence; to stand in obedience to Divine injunction is humility. God can make men sit down, roll in the dust of the ground; and it is out of such lying that the true strength comes. If we have not first been laid down by the Divine power, we cannot stand in the Divine strength. The command is a royal command. He who has stood before Christ may well stand before kings. We get over all our nervousness when we are with the Lord. Fear God, and have no other fear.
II. For I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister. Then ministers are not man made; they are not turned out by machinery. Only Christ can make ministers. We have forgotten this; we have taken to making a species of ecclesiastical pottery. We do not read, I have appeared unto thee to make thee an equal, a priest, but a minister–i.e., a servant, a slave. There is no mistaking the minister which Christ makes. The seal of Christ is not always the kind we like; but somewhere there is the indubitable sign–in one man in the intellect, in another in the tender heart; here in the eloquence that fills the ear with delight, and there in the pleading, holy intercession that lifts the listening soul into the quietude of heaven.
III. Christ must not only find the minister, He must find the sermon.
1. A minister and a witness of these things which thou hast seen. Not those things which thou hast imagined, invented; so that a man denying thy ministry must first deny thy character. Wondrous ministry! the soul continually upon oath, the voice forbidden to utter anything for the sake of uttering it, and charged to tell what the soul has already heard. No man could have imagined such a call, and especially no man like Paul.
2. Of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. There is a growing revelation. Christianity has a future as well as a past. Expect the vision; wait for the additional revelation. It will not be anything new in the sense of unrelated, but new in the sense of development, progress from the thing already in the soul. Sometimes we say of a sermon, How large a sermon from so small a text! No. In every acorn there is enough to clothe all the mountains of the earth with umbrageous oaks–forests out of which navies might be cut and palaces might be built. There is nothing new in the oak; everything was in the acorn. It is so when Jesus comes to us–the same Jesus, the same grace, the same Spirit, but growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles. Shall I, then, be in the clutch of evil men? Yes; but thou shalt be delivered from them. Every minister has his stormy career if he be a faithful minister. Sometimes a minister will tell you–as if he were preaching his own funeral sermon–that he never had a difference with any human creature. What an awful life to have lived! Hear the light saying, I never had a battle with darkness! The true minister cannot have a peaceful and luxurious life. Who wants the minister in his proper capacity? Not the makers of ill-gotten gain, profane men, worldly men, self-idolaters, nor men whose books have never been audited by pure sunlight. Many want him as a companion, a man as well-read as themselves, exchanging the pleasant word; but who wants him as a representative of the throne of God? Let any minister try that course, and he will soon see that it is impossible to be popular. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. But rise, c.] The particulars mentioned here, and in the two following verses, are not given in Ac 9:1-9, nor in Ac 22:6-11, where he gives an account of his conversion. He has detailed the different circumstances of that important event, as he saw it necessary and perhaps there were several others which then took place, that he had no opportunity of mentioning, because there was nothing in succeeding occurrences which rendered it necessary to produce them.
To make thee a minister] , An under-rower; that is, one who is under the guidance and authority of another; an assistant, or servant. So Paul was to act solely under the authority of Jesus Christ; and tug hard at the oar, in order to bring the vessel, through the tempestuous ocean, to the safe harbour. See the concluding observations on John 6, See Clarke on Joh 6:71.
And a witness] , A martyr. Though this word literally means a witness, yet we apply it only to such persons as have borne testimony to the truth of God at the hazard and expense of their lives. In this sense, also, ancient history states St. Paul to have been a witness; for it is said he was beheaded at Rome, by the command of Nero.
In the which I will appear] Here Christ gives him to understand that he should have farther communications from himself; and this may refer either to those interpositions of Divine Providence by which he was so often rescued from destruction, or to those encouragements which he received in dreams, visions, trances, &c., or to that general inspiration under which he was enabled to apprehend and reveal the secret things of God, for the edification of the Church. To all of which may be added that astonishing power by which he was so often enabled to work miracles for the confirmation of the truth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Stand upon thy feet; as Daniel was bidden by the angel, Dan 10:11, to mitigate his consternation and fear.
Of those things in the which I will appear unto thee: St. Paul accordingly had many visions and revelations, Act 28:9; 23:11; 2Co 12:2; as he was more abundant in his sufferings for Christ, so in consolations from Christ, 2Co 1:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16-18. But rise, c.Here theapostle appears to condense into one statement various sayings of hisLord to him in visions at different times, in order to present at oneview the grandeur of the commission with which his Master had clothedhim [ALFORD].
a minister . . . both ofthese things which thou hast seenputting him on a footing withthose “eye-witnesses and ministers of the word” mentionedin Lu 1:2.
and of those in which I willappear to theereferring to visions he was thereafter to befavored with such as Act 18:9;Act 18:10; Act 22:17-21;Act 23:11; 2Co 12:1-10,&c. (Ga 1:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But rise and stand upon thy feet,…. This, and what follows in this and the two next verses, are not in any of the former accounts; and these words are used not only because Saul was fallen to the earth, and are an encouragement to rise up, and stand corporeally, but to take heart, and be of good cheer; for though he had acted so vile and cruel a part by Christ, and his people, yet he had designs of grace, and good will to him; and this appearance was not for his destruction, but for his honour, comfort, and usefulness:
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose; not to take vengeance for past offences, but for the ends hereafter mentioned: and this appearance of Christ was real, corporeal, and personal, and not imaginary, or merely visionary and intellectual; and it was to this sight of Christ he more than once refers, partly in proof of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and partly to demonstrate the truth of his apostleship, 1Co 9:1.
to make thee a minister and a witness, both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; so that he was an apostle, not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, as he himself says, Ga 1:1. He was a minister, not of man’s making, but of Christ’s; and they are the only true ministers of the Gospel, who are made by Christ, who have their mission and commission, their qualifications, gifts, and abilities, their doctrine, work, and wages from him: and the apostle’s work, as a minister, was to be a witness; it was to testify what he had seen of Christ corporeally; and what knowledge of his person, office, and grace was now communicated to him by the spirit of wisdom and revelation; and what should hereafter be made known to him, either mediately by Ananias, or immediately by Christ and his Spirit; for the apostle had after appearances, visions, and revelations; see Ac 22:17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Arise and stand ( ). “Emphatic assonance” (Page). Second aorist active imperative of compound verb () and simplex (). “Stand up and take a stand.”
Have I appeared unto thee ( ). First aorist passive indicative of . See on Lu 22:43.
To appoint thee ( ). See Acts 3:30; Acts 22:14 for this verb.
Both of the things wherein thou hast seen me ( ). The reading (not in all MSS.) makes it the object of (didst see) and is genitive of (accusative of general reference) attracted to the case of the unexpressed antecedent . Paul is thus a personal eyewitness of the Risen Christ (Luke 1:1; 1Cor 4:1; 1Cor 9:1).
And of the things wherein I will appear unto thee ( ). Here again is genitive of the accusative (general reference) relative attracted to the case of the antecedent or as before. But is first future passive of and cannot be treated as active or middle. Page takes it to mean “the visions in which I shall be seen by you,” the passive form bringing out the agency of God. See those in Acts 18:9; Acts 23:11; 2Cor 12:2. The passive voice, however, like and , did become sometimes transitive in the Koine (Robertson, Grammar, p. 819).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Have I appeared [] . See on Luk 22:43.
To make [] . Better, as Rev., appoint. See on ch. Act 3:20. A minister and a witness. See on Mt 5:25; Act 1:22.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But rise and stand upon thy feet: (alla anastethi kai atethi epi tous podas sou) “But arise (stand upright) and stand (at attention) upon your feet:” Act 9:6, for orders from your Lord or commander, to denote respect for authority, as a soldier stands at attention before his commander, or a servant before a king, Eze 2:1-2.
2) “For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose,” (eis touto gar ophthen soi) “For regarding this purpose, I have appeared to you;” The purpose was then disclosed or explained to him, as God had done to Ezekiel, Eze 2:3-10; Eze 3:17-21.
3) “To make thee a minister and a witness,” (procheirisasthai se hupereten kai martura) “To appoint (choose) you (to be) an attendant and a witness;” It was a ministry and a witness for Christ to all nations, the Gentiles in particular, a trust in which he gloried, Eph 3:7-11; Eph 3:21; 1Ti 1:12; Gal 6:14; Rom 1:13-16.
4) “Both of these things which thou hast seen,” (hon te eides) “Both of the things which you have seen,” (me hon) of the things of me,” which you have seen, or “wherein thou hast seen or perceived me,” 1Co 9:11; 1Co 15:7-8.
5) “And of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; (te ophthesomai soi) “As well as things which I shall appear (hereafter) to show to you,” which He did, from time to time, throughout his ministry. In Corinth, Act 18:9-10; In Jerusalem, Act 22:18; Act 22:24; Act 23:11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
−
16. But rise. Christ did throw down Paul that he might humble him; now he lifteth him up, and biddeth him be of good courage. And even we are daily thrown down by his voice to this end, that we may be taught to be modest; but look whom he throweth down, he doth raise the same again gently. And this is no small consolation, when Christ saith that he appeared to him not as a revenger to plague him − (621) for his madness, for those stripes which he had unjustly and cruelly given, for his bloody sentences, or for that trouble wherewith he had troubled the saints, for his wicked resisting of the gospel, but as a merciful Lord, intending to use his industry, and to call him to an honorable ministry. For he made him a witness of those things which he saw, and which he should afterward see. This vision was worthy to be recorded, by which he learned that Christ reigneth in heaven, that he might no longer proudly contemn him, but acknowledge that he is the Son of God, and the promised Redeemer; he had other revelations afterward, as he saith in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and 12th chapter ( 2Co 12:1). −
(621) −
“
Qui poenam exigat,” to punish him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) But rise, and stand upon thy feet.The report of the words heard by the Apostle is much fuller than in either Act. 9:11 or Act. 22:10, and may fairly be thought of as embodying what followed on the actual words so recorded, the substance of the visions and revelations of the Lord (2Co. 12:1), by which, in those days of blindness and ecstasy, the future of his life was marked out for him, and the gospel which he was to preach revealed in its fulness. In such states of consciousness, the man who is in contact with the supernatural life does not take note of the sequence of thoughts with the precision of a short-hand reporter.
A minister and a witness.The first word is the same as that which the Apostle uses of himself in 1Co. 4:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16-18. Paul gives in rich clauses the great commission he received. Lechler, sustained by Alford, strangely maintains that Paul attributes to Jesus here words not spoken by him, but by Ananias. The words of Ananias, in Act 22:14-15, bear but slender resemblance to these of Jesus. They justify no supposition either that Jesus spoke not these words complete, or that Ananias spoke not just the words recorded as his. The supposition that both were uttered implies no tame repetition. The obvious truth appears to be that Ananias was inspired to utter a brief confirmatory witness of the reality of the full commission given by Jesus to Paul.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16. Stand upon thy feet The proper position for receiving the highest commission ever bestowed on man.
A witness (See note on Luk 1:2.)
Hast seen Namely, this wonderful manifestation of Christ, as proof of the divinity of his Gospel.
I will appear This was the first of many personal appearances of Jesus to him, as if his guardian angel were the Angel of the covenant. The other apostles had been under the tutelage of the terrene Jesus; this apostle of the risen Jesus.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“But arise, and stand on your feet, for to this end have I appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen me, and of the things in which I will appear to you.”
It was then that he had been given his commission. Like Ezekiel of old he was told to stand on his feet (Eze 22:3). For Jesus was in a position of total authority. And Jesus had told him that the reason why He had appeared to him was in order to appoint him as a minister/servant, and as a witness, both of what he had now seen of the Lord in His supernatural glory, and of the things concerning which He would appear to him in the future. He had been chosen by God to be a chosen messenger of Christ.
We should note that before this audience it was necessary to bring out what ‘the Lord’ had said to him. They would not recognise Ananias, but they could not fail to recognise a voice of such authority. When speaking to the Jews, however, he had been at pains to point out that his commission had been given to him by a pious and devout Jew. Here it was to be seen as from the Lord from Heaven Himself. Which then was true? We have no reason to doubt that both were true. While the commissions were similar they were not the same, and there is no reason why he should not have received one when Jesus was speaking to him, and a comparative one when his eyes were opened. Ananias had brought him confirmation of what he had already heard. Like many a testimony, each time Paul gave it, it was selective and concentrated on different aspects of his experience suited to the hearers. But in reality, psychologically the reminder and confirmation by Ananias would be necessary so as to enable him to be sure that he had remembered correctly what he had been told at a time when he was under great trauma. God had given him a second reading.
The Purpose behind The Commission
Act 26:16-18 . ] “Prostravit Christus Paulum, ut eum humiliaret; nunc eum erigit ac jubet bono esse animo,” Calvin.
] points emphatically to what follows ( . . .), and assigns the reason for what precedes ( . . .).
.] in order to appoint thee . See on Act 3:20 , Act 22:14 . He was, indeed, the , Act 9:15 .
] is to be resolved into ; but is not, with Luther, Bengel, and others, including Bornemann, to be taken as causative ( videre faciam ), but purely passive ( I shall be seen ). The contained in is equivalent to , on account of which ; see Stallb. ad Plat. Symp . p. 174 A; Ellendt, Lex. Soph . II. p. 374; especially Soph. Oed. T . 788, where is likewise to be resolved into . Consequently: and of those things, on account of which I shall appear to thee (tibi videbor ). Comp. Winer, p. 246 [E. T. 329], who, however, without reason contradicts himself, p. 135 [E. T. 178].
] is an accompanying definition to : rescuing thee (as thy deliverer) from the people ( i.e . , the Jewish nation) and from the Gentiles , from their hostile power. On ., comp. Act 7:10 , Act 12:11 , Act 23:27 ; Gal 1:4 , LXX. and Apocr.; Dem. 256. 2, al . Calvin appropriately says: “Hic armatur contra omnes metus, qui eum manebant, et simul praeparatur ad crucis tolerantiam.”
] is not, with Calvin, Grotius, and others, to be referred merely to , but, with Beza, Bengel, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, de Wette, to . . together, which is required by the significant bearing of Act 26:19-20 .
] not future, but strictly present.
] contains the aim of the mission. And this opening of their eyes, i.e . the susceptibility for the knowledge of divine truth (the opposite: Act 28:27 ; Rom 11:8 ), which was to be brought to them by the preaching of the gospel (Act 26:23 ), was to have the design: ( that they may turn themselves ; on account of Act 26:20 , less admissible is the rendering of Beza and Bengel: ut convertas ) , from darkness to light, i.e . from a condition, in which they are destitute of saving truth and involved in ignorance and sin, to the opposite element, ( ) . . . The two more precise definitions of apply to both, to the Jews and Gentiles; but the latter has respect in its predominant reference to the Gentiles , who are (Eph 2:12 ), under the power of Satan, the , Eph 2:2 .
] This now contains the aim of . . ., and so the ultimate aim of .
.] See on Act 20:32 .
] belongs to . Faith on Christ , as the subjective condition ( causa apprehendens ) of the forgiveness of sins and the attainment of the Messianic salvation, is with great emphasis placed at the close; the form also of the expression has weight.
Chapter 94
Prayer
Almighty God, we have come into thy house to find rest unto our souls. There is no rest outside. The peace of heaven is within the sanctuary of God. Lord, that sanctuary is thy Son Jesus Christ Blessed One, Man, Woman, Child; the wondrous Life, the mysterious Being, Alpha and Omega. We come by that door, for other entrance there is none. It is a wide door; Welcome is written upon it; it opens at a touch. Lord, give us an abundant entrance and a long time in the sacred house. Here we would leave our weariness, and here we would leave our sin. Is there not a River into which a man may plunge himself and there leave all the leprosy of his life? We bless thee for the quiet day with a light above the brightness of the sun, with a hush deeper than the calm of the earth the sweet day, the day of rest and hope and light and youth; thine own day, made by thyself for thine own purpose. May it enter into our souls. May there be Sabbath in the heart, a great holy rest in the secret places of the life. May we enter into this mystery through the resurrection of our Lord, who rose again from the dead. He must visit them for a moment and leave them to return to the living, that the living and dead may both be one in him, the Resurrection and the Life. May our hearts know the meaning of resurrection rising again from a death in trespasses and in sins, and standing up in the immortal strength of renewed and sanctified manhood. May this be our joy an inward pleasure, a gladness that cannot express itself in words, but in raptures and ecstasies and unspeakable utterance of triumph. This joy have all thy saints. It is madness to the cold reason of the world; it is the wildness which earthly prudence cannot comprehend. We would be found in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, saying things we do not understand, declaring things that cannot be proved by words, but that need no proof because of the joyous consent of the willing and thankful heart. Show us the treasures of thy wisdom, grace, and righteousness, and tell our hearts that all thou hast they have yea, unsearchable riches, an incorruptible inheritance. We bless thee for the green spaces of our life. We would, sometimes, they were larger; but they are of thine own making, and thou dost fix their four corners; the bounds of our habitation are fixed and appointed of God. But we love the green places, the verdant meadows, the blossoms that tell of spring, the singing birds that come with the gospel of summer. If thou dost drive us away from these places into rocks and deserts and caves of the earth, it is still well: the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; thou art preparing us for the greener heaven, the immortal spring, the summer that cannot die. We lay hold upon this hope, feed upon it, hide it in our hearts, recur to it in the dark and cloudy time, and renew our confidence under its warm and tender light. Help us to do our work better than ever, with a more willing heart, with a more industrious hand, with a more hopeful spirit. Sometimes we feel that some parts of our work are not worthy of us; then do we begin to realise our true quality yea, thou hast appointed us this drill and discipline, this weary work, that our patience may be perfected and that our confidence may be seriously tried. Help us to accept all work as from the Living God, and to do it as if eating and drinking the Holy Sacrament. Make our houses all that homes ought to be. May there be a fire in every room, light in every window, welcome on every door, rest on every couch; may the table be of thine own setting, and the appetite made keen by thyself; and thus in confidence sacred, loving, growing may our handful of days upon the earth be spent. Nurse the dear invalid; shake the pillow with thine own gentle hand, for we cannot make it soft enough for the weary head. Speak a word when our voices are choked with tears, and shed a light that can touch the eye-balls of the soul. Go after the prodigal thyself today, and bring him home at eventide. Then will we stir the fire and beat the drum and sound the trumpet and spread the feast, because in our house we have seen the Resurrection. Amen.
Act 26:16-18
16. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
17. Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
18. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Christian Ministry Defined
This is the kind of ministry which Jesus Christ wishes to establish in the earth. I will stake everything upon it that is dear to Christian faith and hope. No other statement is needed; no explanation is possible. The only competent exposition of these words can be found in their repetition. Say them over and over again in every tone possible to the heart, and you will find the result a complete knowledge of Christ’s meaning. I am prepared to maintain that this conception of the Christian ministry proves the deity of Jesus Christ, for the reason that it is such a conception as never entered into the uninspired mind, and, in particular, never could have entered into a mind constituted as was the intellectual nature of Saul of Tarsus. Reading those three verses is like roaming in a vineyard on an autumn afternoon. This is the Lord’s planting. Every syllable bursts out with new wine. If men would ask you what the Christian ministry aims at, point them to the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth verses. That is the answer. Let us note the particulars just as they occur, without inventing an order of our own.
“But rise, and stand upon thy feet” Here is the typical manliness of the Christian ministry. A noble challenge this! We do not want crawling men, fawning, crouching, disabled men, but men who can stand up and show their stature and their force. The Christian minister, realising Jesus Christ’s conception of the ministry, does not apologise for his existence, does not account for himself as one of the units of mankind, does not beg a corner on which to spend his dying life: he stands upon his feet, a man every whit bold, courageous, well-defined; a figure, a force, a factor not to be ignored. A beautiful incidental instance this of the quality of the ministry. Jesus did not speak to Saul as he lay down in the dust, a smitten and blighted thing, crushed with a new burden of light: he would speak to him, as it were, on equal terms, face to face. He is the Man Christ Jesus. He will not send frightened things about his messages and errands blind, blighted things that cannot tell their tale he will have the man, the whole man, the man at his best. That is the call today: the call for standing men, upright, forceful men; they can always make their own way under the Divine inspiration. But what kind of manliness? Only the manliness which is made possible by Christ. He gives the power to rise. This is not a carnal manliness, a thing of the flesh, an invention of the sense, an attitude, a posture, but an inspiration. That is the vital difference. You cannot stand up alone. Your very standing is an acceptance of the law that rules the universe. You can do nothing of yourself. If a man suppose that when he stands up he is doing something of his own accord, he is therein foolish. At whose bidding do we stand? What right have we to stand? This is a holy attitude, acquiring all its majesty from its humbleness a mystery of posture, formed from within, shaped from the centre. “Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.” The manliness, therefore, is a Divine creation. To stand without permission to stand is impertinence; to stand -in obedience to Divine injunction is humility. Here is power coming out of weakness. God can make men sit down, lie down, roll in the dust of the ground; he can seal their eyelids with light; he can deafen their ears with thunder. It is out of such lying and blindness and deafness that the true strength comes. It we have not first been laid down by the Divine power, we cannot stand in the Divine strength. We must have a momentary fall. The day of weakness must never be forgotten; the soul must say to itself, “Remember that noontide when you were overwhelmed, struck down, thundered upon from an infinite height; and remember that the Power which struck you down bade you stand up; the Voice was the same, the Power was identical, the experience was continuous and coherent.” He does not know what it is to see who does not know what it is to be blind. Vision becomes a commonplace to the man who has always seen; but what must it be to have the eyes opened and to see the whole visible creation all at once! It is through this experience that the ministry must come must have its hours of lying flat down light-struck, stunned, dazed, disabled; able only at least to ask questions with the tone of fear and yet with the accent of suppressed or concealed expectation.
These words cannot be without meaning. The very command to “rise, and stand upon thy feet,” is a royal command. The old tone is not taken out of the Voice with which we were familiar in the days of his flesh. We know that tone, there is none like it the rainbow tone that has in it every tint and flush of vocal colour; the grand imperative that makes all language quake, “Rise, and stand upon thy feet.” He who has stood before Christ may well stand before kings. We get over all our nervousness when We are with the Lord; having risen at his command and looked at him straight in his very eyes eyes of judgment, eyes of love, wells of heaven we cannot be intimidated by face of clay. You would have been fearless of men if you had been more fearful of God. Fear God, and have no other fear.
“For I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister.” Then ministers are not man-made, they are not manufactures, they are not turned out by machinery. “I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister.” This is our strength. Only Christ can make ministers. We have forgotten this we have taken to a kind of minister-making ourselves a species of ecclesiastical pottery. “I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister.” He never makes other than ministers. We do not read, “I have appeared unto thee to make thee an equal, a master, a priest,” but “a minister,” which, being interpreted, signalises a servant, a slave. “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.” He chooses whom he will: “Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble; but things that are foolish, and things that are despised, yea” mathematical mystery “and things which are not” nothings “to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.” There is no mistaking the ministers which Christ makes. There is a touch no other hand can give. We do not know where it began, or where it ends, or what it is. Who can define the aroma? Who can take off the bloom and put it back again? Who can clutch the light and hide it in his bosom? The seal of Christ is upon every minister of his own making not always the kind of seal we like. Jesus Christ writes his autograph in a thousand ways yea, as the chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand in number, and he may go forth in any one of them at his pleasure, so he hath chosen twenty thousand ministries, but each bears the signature and the touch Divine. I do not speak of ministers in the pulpit only, but all ministers, at home and in the market-place ministers who do not speak their sermons, but live them. We are all ministers, if we have been with the Lord, struck down at his feet, raised by his voice, charged with his Spirit. Never can I lose an opportunity of resenting the mischievous lie that only a certain class of men are the ministers of Christ. We are all God’s ministers, Christ’s apostles some in one way, some in another a sweet lute, the brazen telling trumpet made to summon things from the horizon. We are all instruments, ministers, agencies, through whom God speaks and illustrates His living and redeeming Word. A most blessed thing indeed that Christ’s stamp is upon every agent he sends out! His initials are burned into the character; somewhere there is the indubitable sign in one man in the intellect, in another in the tender heart; here in the eloquence that fills the ear with delight, and there in the pleading, holy intercession that lifts the listening soul into the quietude of heaven. Do not misjudge the Divine call. It is an infinite variety; it is not an invariable monotony.
“A minister and a witness” of what? Christ must not only find the minister, he must find the sermon. He never finds the one without the other; so he makes the minister and he makes the text. “A minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen.” Not “those things which thou hast imagined;” not “those things which thou hast invented”; but, emphatically, “these things which thou hast seen” so that a man denying thy ministry must first deny thy character. That is the strong argument. We have seen it in other instances; we see it again in this. To deny a sermon is to deny the man; to question the argument wherein it is factual is to question the character. Wondrous ministry! the soul continually upon oath, the voice forbidden to utter anything for the sake of uttering it, and charged to tell what the soul has already heard. We do not want an inventive ministry, an imaginative ministry, but a listening ministry and a truth-telling ministry, a pulpit that will only say over again, with exactitude and punctiliousness of recollection, what itself has heard. The man who preaches or teaches pledges his character, not his genius. No man could have imagined such a call, and especially no man like the Apostle Paul. He was so strong in mind, naturally so sagacious, so penetrating; he was gifted with that lightning mind which instantly burns its way through all difficulties. You must, in estimating the value of this call for evidential purposes, keep steadily before your mind the kind of man that Paul was in other directions. You have now to deal with a strong-minded man, with a resolute will, with a highly-trained intelligence; and a man so qualified and characterised tells us that he was called, not to stand upon a velvet knoll in an earthly paradise, to speak amid circumstances which are themselves luxuries, but called upon to lay down his life in attestation of the truth of the statement which he made. This never entered the human mind. Many a man might dream that he was called upon to marry the king’s daughter, to ride in the king’s chariot, to divide the king’s throne, to sun himself in the king’s favour dreams of that kind are not wanting in human history but that a man should dream that he was called to make statements every one of which would be contradicted, every one of which would be turned into a penalty which would be inflicted upon himself, is the difficulty with which we have to grapple. If we were dealing with a superstitious mind, we might, to some extent, account even for that dream; but you must take the Apostle Paul as you have found him in this history, day by day a man whose acquaintance ought to make us proud, the shaking of whose hand should form an epoch in our history; a man whose every look was a revelation, whose every tone was a gospel he says, long after the event, that he was light-struck, thrown down, raised up by the Jesus who smote him, charged directly with a certain ministry, and that that ministry involved daily pain, cold, hunger, nakedness, desertion, certain cruel death. This never entered the human imagination.
But Jesus says, not only “of those things which thou hast seen,” but “of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.” There is a growing revelation; there is an expanding firmament. Christianity has a future as well as a past. The vision will return, the vision will enlarge, the vision will illuminate itself with higher and intenser glories. Expect the vision; wait for the additional revelation. It will not be anything new in the sense of unknown and unrelated, but new in the sense of development, progress from the thing already in the soul. Sometimes we say of a sermon, “How large a sermon from so small a text!” No text is small; you make a mistake in the statement, but the mistake relates to the text. Who would say, looking upon Bashan shaded by a thousand oaks, “How great a forest from so small an acorn!”? No acorn is small; in every acorn there is enough to clothe all the mountains of the earth with umbrageous oaks forests out of which navies might be cut and palaces might be built. There is nothing new in the oak; everything was in the acorn. If the acorn could speak, it might say, “This is what you called a little thing; this is my proper self; I was wrapped up and condensed when you saw me, but this is what I meant all this strength, pomp, colour; all this was in me when you took me in your hand and rubbed my polished shell.” It is so when Jesus comes to us the same Jesus, the same grace, the same Spirit, but growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How beautifully the seventeenth verse is put in! a verse of some two lines standing between two long verses: “Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles.” “Delivering” that is a suggestive word. Shall I be bound? Shall I be a prisoner? Shall I be in the clutch of evil men? Yes, that is the meaning of it; thou shalt be delivered from them. Every minister has his stormy career if he be a faithful minister. Sometimes a minister will tell you as if he were preaching his own funeral sermon that he never had a difference with any human creature. What an awful life to have lived! What a terrible epitaph! Hear the light saying, “I never had a battle with darkness!” He could not tell so huge a lie. The life of light is a battle; it lives by fighting; it says to darkness, “Thou art my enemy stand back!” The true minister cannot have a peaceful and luxurious life. I do not know who wants him; I know many who would be glad to get rid of him. Who wants the minister in his proper capacity? Not the makers of ill-gotten gain; they cannot bear the sight of the fellow. He has a gold test, and that they cannot tolerate. Says he, “This sovereign you wrung out of hands that could ill spare it.” “O my God!” says the man who is being tested, “if all my tens of thousands of sovereigns have to be tested in that way! I cannot bear it!” “This is the exorbitant rent you forced out of the poor creatures who had to starve themselves to pay it.” “Cease!” “This was taken in the dark.” “Go!” Ay, who would be a minister? who dare to be a minister? There are thousands of preachers; there are few ministers. Who wants a minister of Christ? I don’t know. Not profane men, not worldly men, not self-idolaters, not men who have curtained themselves with secrecy and do not want to be disturbed; not men whose books have never been audited by pure sunlight. Who wants the minister in his distinctive and inspired capacity? Many want him as a companion, a man as well-read as themselves, exchanging the pleasant word with a religious accent; who wants him as a judge, a critic, a divider, a representative of the throne of God? Let any minister try that course, and he will soon see that it is impossible to be popular.
16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
Ver. 16. But rise and stand upon thy feet ] Thus,
” Deiecit ut relevet; premit ut solatia praestet;
Enecat, ut possit vivificare, Deus. 16. ] refers to what follows, . &c., gives the reason for , &c. (Meyer.)
.] See reff.
] Stier remarks, that Paul was the witness of the glory of Christ : whereas Peter, the first of the former twelve, describes himself ( 1Pe 5:1 ) as ‘a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.’ So true it was that this among the Apostles, became, by divine grace, more than they all ( 1Co 15:8-10 ). The expression may be compared with , which Luke calls the , Luk 1:2 .
] (1) . must be passive , not (as Bornemann, Winer (not in edn. 6, 39. 3, remark 1), Wahl, al.) causative (‘videre faciam’), but as E. V., I will appear unto thee . (2) the gen. is exactly paralleled (Meyer) by Soph. d. Tyr. 788, = (rather ) . So here = ( ) ., the things in (or on account of) which I will appear to thee . That such visions did take place, we know, from ch. Act 18:9 ; Act 22:18 ; Act 23:11 ; 2Co 12:1 ; Gal 1:12 .
Act 26:16 . : “Prostravit Christus Paulum ut eum humiliaret; nunc eum erigit ac jubet bono esse animo,” Calvin; for the expression cf. Eze 2:1-2 . ., cf. Act 3:14 , Act 22:14 , Act 9:15 , . , so like the Twelve, and cf. also , Luk 1:1 ; in Cor. Act 4:1 St. Paul speaks of himself as . , see critical note, “wherein thou hast seen me,” R.V., cf. 1Co 9:1 , quite in harmony with the stress which the Apostle there lays upon “seeing the Lord”. . = : “and of the things wherein I will appear to thee,” so A. and R.V. Cf. Act 18:9 ; Act 22:18 ; Act 22:21 ; Act 23:11 , 2Co 12:2 . ., future passive (Grimm-Thayer), cannot be rendered “I will make thee to see,” or “I will communicate to thee by vision,” as if = , Act 9:16 . For construction see Page, and Blass, in loco .
rise. Greek. anistemi. App-178.:1.
stand. Greek. histemi.
have appeared unto = was seen by. Greek. horao. App-133.
make = appoint. Greek. procheirizomai. See Act 22:14.
minister. Greek. huperetes. App-190.
witness. See Act 1:8; Act 22:15. Figure of speech Hendiadys. App-6.
appear. Greek. horao, as above.
16.] refers to what follows, . &c.,- gives the reason for , &c. (Meyer.)
.] See reff.
] Stier remarks, that Paul was the witness of the glory of Christ: whereas Peter, the first of the former twelve, describes himself (1Pe 5:1) as a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. So true it was that this among the Apostles, became, by divine grace, more than they all (1Co 15:8-10). The expression may be compared with , which Luke calls the , Luk 1:2.
] (1) . must be passive, not (as Bornemann, Winer (not in edn. 6, 39. 3, remark 1), Wahl, al.) causative (videre faciam),-but as E. V., I will appear unto thee. (2) the gen. is exactly paralleled (Meyer) by Soph. d. Tyr. 788, = (rather ) . So here = () ., the things in (or on account of) which I will appear to thee. That such visions did take place, we know, from ch. Act 18:9; Act 22:18; Act 23:11; 2Co 12:1; Gal 1:12.
Act 26:16. ) and of those visions which I will hereafter impart to thee [of those things, in the which I will appear unto thee].
74. GOSPEL PREACHERS AND GOD’S SALVATION
Act 26:16-23
The apostle Paul declared to Agrippa that the Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to him and made him a minister of the gospel so that he might be an instrument in the hands of God for the salvation of chosen sinners (Act 26:16-18). We recognize, of course, that salvation is not caused, accomplished, or dependent upon preachers. Salvation is God’s work. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jon 2:9). It is the gift of God (Rom 6:23). It is the work of his grace (Eph 2:8-9). But, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1Co 1:21). Gospel preachers are instruments in the hands of God by which he saves his people. Salvation is not accomplished by preachers; but neither is it accomplished without the instrumentality of gospel preachers (Rom 10:13-17; Jas 1:18; 1Pe 1:23-25). God, who ordained the salvation of an elect multitude, ordained the salvation of that elect multitude through the instrumentality of gospel preaching (2Th 2:13-14). Though the Ethiopian Eunuch was chosen of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ, he could not understand the Scriptures and obtain God’s salvation by faith in Christ until he came into contact with a God-sent preacher who “preached unto him Jesus” (Act 8:26-39).
Preachers must never be exalted to a priestly roll. We have no priest but Christ. There is no merit or efficacy in any preacher to illuminate, convert, forgive, or sanctify anyone. No preacher can give sinners life and faith in Christ. That is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Yet, God’s method of grace and his chosen instruments of good must not be despised. God’s ordained means of grace is the preaching of the gospel of Christ. No sinner will ever obtain divine illumination, conversion to God, the forgiveness of sins, sanctification, and faith in Christ apart from the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, those men who faithfully preach the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ are to be loved and highly esteemed for their work’s sake (1Th 5:12-13; Isa 52:7). Salvation comes to sinners by faith in Christ; and faith in Christ comes by the preaching of the gospel. In the verses under consideration, the Holy Spirit records seven things God does for sinners when he saves them by his almighty grace through the preaching of the gospel. When God saves a sinner…
First, HE OPENS THE EYES OF THE BLIND. All are spiritually blind by nature, totally ignorant of the things of God. But when God saves sinners, he sends a man to preach the gospel to them in the power of the Holy Spirit, “to open their eyes.” The preacher cannot do the work. Only the Holy Spirit can open spiritually blind eyes (Joh 3:3; 1Co 2:9-14; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:17-18). The preacher is merely the instrument of illumination. He holds forth the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ. When God opens a sinner’s eyes he sees himself as a sinner, justly condemned (Psa 51:4; Job 43:5-6; Isa 6:1-4; Rom 3:19; Rom 7:9), and utterly incapable of justifying himself (Job 9:20; Job 9:30-33). God shows men their need of a substitute. Then he shows them the glory of Christ as the sinner’s Substitute (Rom 3:24-26).
Second, IN SALVATION, GOD TURNS THE WICKED “FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT AND FROM THE POWER OF SATAN TO GOD”. Conversion is the proof of election, redemption, regeneration, and the effectual call. It is the work of God. True, believers turn to God with willing hearts, but only because they have been turned by God (Psa 80:3; Psa 80:7; Psa 80:17; Psa 85:4; Lam 5:21). Conversion is a heart work. It is more than a reformation of life. It is a turning of the heart to God. “Conversion”, wrote Joseph Alleine, “is a deep work, a heart work. It goes throughout the man, throughout the mind, throughout the members, throughout the entire life.” And conversion is a lifelong work. It is the commencement of a lifelong devotion to God. Believers are described by Peter as those who are continually “coming” to Christ until, at last, they come to him in heaven (1Pe 2:4).
Third, IN SALVATION, GOD GRANTS TO CHOSEN SINNERS “THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS”. This is what convicted sinners want and need above all else. It is the first thing desired of God. The first prayer of every saved sinner is the prayer of the publican, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The sweetest words ever heard on earth are the words of Christ, spoken to repenting sinners, “Thy sins be forgiven thee!” Guilt is terrible. Forgiveness is glorious! God’s forgiveness of the believer’s sins is A FAITHFUL FORGIVENESS promised in the covenant (1Jn 1:9; Jer 31:34), A JUST FORGIVENESS purchased, secured, and demanded by the blood of Christ (Eph 1:6), A FULL FORGIVENESS, including all sin, past, present, and future (Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22), and AN EVERLASTING, IRREVOCABLE FORGIVENESS (Rom 4:8; Jer 50:20). Once bestowed, it can never be denied or taken away. This forgiveness cannot be purchased with money or earned by the merits of good works. It is the free grace gift of God, received by the hand of faith. Trusting Christ, sinners obtain “the forgiveness of sins”.
Fourth, IN SALVATION, GOD BESTOWS UPON FORGIVEN SINNERS AN ETERNAL INHERITANCE OF GRACE AND GLORY IN CHRIST, an “inheritance among them which are sanctified.” This inheritance is something we enjoy now, for Christ is our portion now, and in him we now possess all the blessings of grace (Eph 1:3). But Paul’s reference is obviously to the believer’s eternal, heavenly inheritance. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17). It is an inheritance of grace. It belongs to every child of God equally and completely. There are no degrees of reward in heaven! How can anyone who believes in salvation by grace alone imagine that some part of heaven’s glorious inheritance is earned or lost by works, or the lack of them? Heavenly glory is simply the climax and completion of saving grace.
Fifth, WHEN GOD SAVES SINNERS, HE COMPLETELY SANCTIFIES THEM BY HIS GRACE. The Lord Jesus declared to Paul that, just as we are saved and forgiven by faith, we are “sanctified by faith that is in” him. Most people foolishly imagine that sanctification (holiness) is a matter of progressive effort and work. It is not! Sanctification is altogether the gift and work of grace, received by faith in Christ. We were separated unto God in holy election (Jud 1:1), declared to be holy by the blood of Christ in justification (Heb 10:10-14), and given a holy nature by God the Holy Spirit in regeneration (2Pe 1:4; 1Jn 3:9). We grow in grace, love, faith, etc. Every living thing grows. But we do not grow in holiness, righteousness, and sanctification. Our standing before God never varies. We are perfect and complete in Christ (Col 2:10).
Sixth, IN SALVATION, GOD GIVES SINNERS FAITH IN CHRIST. The Lord Jesus declares that all these blessings of grace are “by faith that is in” him. This faith is the gift of God, the operation of his grace (Eph 1:19; Eph 2:8; Col 2:12; Php 1:29). Faith is not the cause of grace, but the gift of grace and the evidence of grace (Heb 11:1). And this faith is created in sinners by the power of God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel (Rom 10:17).
Seventh, WHEN GOD SAVES A REBEL, HE MAKES HIM A WILLINGLY OBEDIENT SERVANT, as he did Saul of Tarsus (Act 26:19). Grace conquers the heart, subdues the will, and makes those who naturally hate God (Rom 8:7) willing servants of God. Believers bow to Christ and gladly take his yoke upon them (Mat 11:28-30). Where there is no surrender to the rule of Christ as Lord there is no faith in Christ as Savior (Luk 14:25-33).
rise: Act 9:6-9, Act 22:10
to make: Act 9:15, Act 9:16, Act 13:1-4, Act 22:14, Act 22:15
a minister: Act 1:17, Act 1:25, Act 6:4, Act 20:24, Act 21:19, Rom 1:5, Rom 15:16, 2Co 4:1, 2Co 5:18, Eph 3:7, Eph 3:8, Col 1:7, Col 1:23, Col 1:25, 1Th 3:2, 1Ti 1:12, 1Ti 4:6, 2Ti 4:5
in the: Act 18:9, Act 18:10, Act 22:17-21, Act 23:11, Act 27:23, Act 27:24, 2Co 12:1-7, Gal 1:12, Gal 2:2
Reciprocal: Pro 14:25 – General Isa 6:8 – Whom Eze 2:1 – stand Dan 10:11 – upright Luk 1:2 – and Rom 1:1 – called 1Co 9:1 – have 1Co 9:16 – for 1Co 15:8 – he was Rev 1:2 – and of all
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Act 26:16. Jesus did not appear to Paul to make him a Christian; men were appointed for that work. But an apostle must have seen the Lord after his resurrection, and that is why, he appeared to Paul. Having been a witness of the fact that Jesus was alive, he was also to minister or serve Him by telling it to others.
Act 26:16. But rise, and stand upon thy feet. These words introduce a portion of the interview passed over in the two other accounts of the appearance. Commentators have been apparently somewhat perplexed here, owing to the similarity of the words of the glorified Lord which follow here with the commands given to Ananias to deliver to Saul, as reported in the narrative of chap. Act 9:15-16. It is most improbable that Paul here condenses into one, various sayings of our Lord to him at different times, in visions and by Ananias (Dean Alford). Nor does it seem likely, when we consider the extraordinary solemnity of the scene which Paul is here describing to King Agrippa, and the overwhelming influence which it had upon his whole subsequent life, that the apostle is here simply summarising the words of Ananias spoken to him three days later, treating those words as sayings of God addressed to him. It is far more reasonable to take the account here given by Paul in its natural obvious sense, and to regard the words of the Lord which immediately follow here in this and the two following verses as positively uttered on this momentous occasion. They, in fact, explained to the amazed and awe-struck Pharisee the reason of the blinding ,glory and the awful voice which had arrested him and his company on his entrance into Damascus. Nor is it at all improbable that the substance of this communication was repeated again to him by Ananias, or was pressed upon him in a vision; for it told him, in fact, what it was the Lord wished to be the one great object of his lifethe guiding the Gentiles, those peoples who had so long sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, into light.
For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. The words were reassuring; the awe-struck man might arise without fear. The Divine One, whom, not knowing, he had opposed with so intense a purpose, cherished no feeling of wrath against him; on the contrary, He had chosen him out of all the sons of men for a great work; or, in Dr. Hacketts words, The object of the vision was to summon him to a new and exalted sphere of effort. Saul the Pharisee was to bear witness not only of the present sublime scene, in which the Crucified appeared surrounded with a glory too bright for mortal eyes to gaze into; but he was to be a witness also to tell out to the world, to Jew and Gentile, to high-born and low-born, the story of future revelations which would be made to him in coming days. Notably these future revelations referred in the first instance to those special appearances of the Lord to Paul in visions, trances, or ecstasies, such as are chronicled in chap. Act 22:17-21, when he fell into a trance as he was praying in the temple, and in the Second Epistle to the Corinthian Church, Act 12:1-5; but the reference to those things in the which I will appear to thee, of which things Paul was to be the witness, really was to those great summaries of Divine truth which Paul the apostle put out in after days, in the form of epistles to the Gentile churchesthose Divine handbooks to Christian doctrine and Christian life. It was really in these lonely hours, perhaps in the still eventide or quiet night, after the days hard toil spent in the workrooms of men like Aquila the tentmaker, that God indeed appeared to Paul and guided his thoughts. It was of these appearances in after years that Paul was to be the witnessnot only to Roman governors and Jewish kings, not only to the dwellers under the far-reaching power of the imperial Rome of that day; but he was to be the witness, though perhaps he failed then to realise it, to nations yet unborn, in lands still undiscovered.
The form of the Lords words to Saul, telling him to be a witness of what he was then seeing, and also to be witness of what he would afterwards come to the knowledge of, is not unlike another charge given by the same glorified and risen Saviour to a brother apostle of St. Paul: Write the things, said the Son of man, speaking as a King in all the Majesty of heaven, to John in his lonely watch at Patmos, write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (Rev 1:19).
It is remarkable that Paul, the last called, the one admitted into the fellowship of the holy Twelve after no little anxious thought, the one always looked on by a portion of the early Church with doubt and suspicion, should have been the apostle commissioned to be the witness of the glory of Christ. In the midst of all his sufferings and bitter persecutions, endured at the hands especially of his own countrymen, often cruelly misunderstood, forsaken, and deserted not once or twice in that restless, brave life of his, by his own friends and converts, this thought must have been ever present to the mind of the tried servant of Jesus Christ. It was his one great comfort, joy, and support, this blessed memory of the noontide meeting outside the Damascus gates, when he was witness of the glory of Christ.
St. Paul had given king Agrippa an account of his miraculous conversion in the former verses; in these he declares to him his extraordinary commission to preach the gospel; that Christ, who appeared to him from heaven, chose him to be a preacher as well as a professor of the gospel, assuring him that he would stand by him, and deliver him from the persecutions both of Jews and Gentiles, to whom he should send him, and would bless his endeavours to the opening of the eyes of their understanding, and to the turning of them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive, by faith in Christ, remission of sins, and a portion of the heavenly inheritance among such as are regenerated by his Spirit.
Here note, 1. The honour which God is pleased to put upon the ministry of the word, his own ordinance: the apostle, who was only the instrument, is said to open the eyes of the blind, and turn sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: all which is properly and principally the work of the Spirit of Christ; yet he is pleased to put this honour upon his instruments, the ministers, by whom he worketh all this, and for which reason they are called co-workers, or workers together with Christ.
Note, 2. The apostle’s mission, I send thee. Great is the dignity of gospel-ministers, they are God’s messengers; their commission is sealed by the whole Trinity, and intimates both their dignity and duty. To intimate their holiness, they are called men of God; for their vigilancy, watchmen; for their courage, they are called soldiers; for their painfulness, harvest labourers; for their care of the flock, shepherds: for their wisdom, overseers; for their industry, husbandmen; for their patience, fisherman; for their tenderness, nurses; for their affectionateness, fathers and mothers; for their faithfulness, stewards. A very high and honourable calling; the Son of God despised it not.
Note, 3. St. Paul’s commission in the several branches of it.
1. To open their eyes; that is, to enlighten their understandings, that they may know God and their duty to him: in order to which there is required, 1. Ability in the preachers; how can they open the eyes of others who are blind and ignorant themselves? Ought not they that undertake to be guides and leaders, very well to know the way themselves?
2. Perspicuity in the sermon: What hope can there be of opening men’s understandings, when the matter delivered is closed up from them? It was St. Paul’s aim to speak words easy to be understood, and it should be ours; it is the same thing to preach in an unknown tongue as in an unknown style, above the reach of our hearers.
Painted glass is more costly, but the plainer glass is the clearer and more useful. But we must take care, that though we come in plainness, yet not in rudeness of speech.
The second part of St. Paul’s commission was to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: in order to which he was turned from these himself. He has little reason to expect that God will honour his ministry for the conversion of others from sin and Satan, who is under the dominion of both himself. The minister’s life is the people’s looking-glass, by which they usually dress themselves.
Note, 4. The happy fruit of St. Paul’s mission and commission both. That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. Wheresoever true repentance is wrought by the ministry of the word, there is forgiveness attained, and a title to the inheritance of heaven attained with it.
Note, lastly, A threefold metaphorical description of the sinful state of nature before conversion, and the like of a state of grace after conversion.
The state of nature is a state of blindness, To open their eyes.
A state of darkness, To turn them from darkness to light.
A state of slavery, And from the power of Satan unto God.
The state of grace after conversion is set forth by sight, light, and liberty. All this is Christ’s work originally, but his minister’s work instrumentally: I have sent thee to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
Act 26:16-18. But rise and stand upon thy feet Though thou hast persecuted me and my followers in this outrageous manner, and hast been engaged in a desperate attempt to destroy them from the face of the earth, and, by so doing, hast forfeited thy life. I am determined graciously to spare it, and to use thee hereafter as the instrument of my grace. For I have appeared unto thee In this extraordinary manner; for this purpose, to make thee a minister Of my gospel; and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen Now, at this time; and of those in which I will appear unto thee Namely, hereafter; Delivering thee from the people The Jews; and the Gentiles, to whom Both Jews and Gentiles; I now send thee Paul gives them to know that the liberty he enjoyed, even in bonds, was promised to him, as well as his preaching to the Gentiles. I, denotes the authority of the sender; now, the time whence his mission was dated. For his apostleship, as well as his conversion, commenced at this moment. To open their eyes The eyes of them who are now in a miserable state of blindness, whether Jews or Gentiles. He opens them who sends Paul, and he does it by Paul who is sent. And to turn them from darkness From that state of ignorance and folly in which they are involved; that is, with respect to the Gentiles, to turn them from following false and blind guides, their oracles, divinations, and superstitious usages, received by tradition from their fathers, and the corrupt notions they had of their gods. And with respect to the Jews, to rescue them from their ignorance of the spirituality, extent, and obligation of the moral law, and of the shadowy, typical, and temporary nature of the Mosaic institution in general, as also from their ignorance of the spiritual and heavenly nature of the Messiahs kingdom, and the qualifications necessary for becoming subjects of it, and of the true sense of the prophetic writings with relation to these things; to light The light of divine knowledge and wisdom; and from the power of Satan Who now holds them in a state of sin and guilt, weakness and wretchedness; unto God To his love and service: for it was not sufficient for them to have their eyes opened, it was also necessary to have their hearts renewed; not enough to be turned from darkness to light, but they must be turned from sin to holiness; which, indeed, follows of course; for Satan rules by the power of darkness, and God by the convincing evidence of light. Idolaters were and are, in a special manner, under the power of Satan, paying their homage to creatures of their own fancy; to images, or imaginary beings; or to Gods creatures, not formed and given to man for any such purpose; that is, in effect, doing service to devils: but all sinners, also, are under the power of Satan, influenced by his temptations, yielding themselves captives to his will and pleasure. But converting grace rescues them from his tyranny, and brings them into subjection to God; translates them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Gods dear Son. Observe, reader, when gracious dispositions are as strong in the soul as corrupt and sinful dispositions had been, it is then turned from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins That they may be pardoned, and restored to Gods favour, which by sin they had forfeited. They are delivered from the dominion of sin, that they may be delivered from that death which is the wages of sin; not that they may merit that forgiveness, as a debt or reward, but that they may receive it as a free gift, together with the comfort arising from it; they are persuaded to lay down their arms, and return to their allegiance, that they may have the benefit of the act of indemnity passed by God in behalf of those who do so. An inheritance, or lot, among them which are sanctified That Isaiah , 1 st, That they may be sanctified as well as justified; may be redeemed from all iniquity, Tit 2:14; cleansed from all unrighteousness, 1Jn 1:9; from all unholy tempers, words, and works, purified from all pollution of the flesh and of the spirit, 2Co 7:1; and made glorious souls, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but constituted holy and without blemish, Eph 5:26-27; in other words, so renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost as to bear the image of the heavenly, as they had borne that of the earthly, and be made partakers of the divine nature, Tit 3:5; 2Pe 1:4. 2d, That they may receive an inheritance among such as are thus sanctified, even the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. For this inheritance, the forgiveness of our sins and the sanctification of our nature prepare us; removing that guilt and depravity which were the chief hinderances in the way of our receiving it. As all those that shall be saved hereafter must be sanctified as well as justified here, all that receive the heavenly inheritance must be thus entitled to it and made meet for it: and none can be saints in heaven that are not first saints on earth; so we need no more to ensure our happiness in a future world, than to possess these blessings in this world. And, as is here stated, these, together with the heavenly inheritance, for which they prepare us, are received by faith in Jesus: for faith in him, and in the promises of God, made to the penitent and believing through him; the faith whereby we not only receive divine revelation in general, but the record which God hath given of his Son in particular; by which we apply to, and rely on, Christ as the Lord our righteousness and sanctification, and resign ourselves to him as the Lord our proprietor and ruler; this is that faith whereby we receive forgiveness, holiness, and eternal life, the salvation of grace here, and the salvation of glory hereafter.
See notes on verse 12
16. …..For unto this I have appeared unto thee, to make thee a minister and a martyr of the things which you see, and of which I shall appear unto thee; i. e., Jesus continued to reveal His wonderful truth to Paul, inspiring him to write more of the same than any other man.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament