Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Peter 1:24
For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
24. For all flesh is as grass ] The words have a two-fold interest: (1) as a quotation from the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 40:6-8) with which the Apostle must have been familiar in connexion with the ministry of the Baptist, and (2) as presenting another coincidence with the thoughts and language of the Epistle of St James (Jas 1:10-11), itself, in all probability, an echo of that prophecy. The passage is quoted almost verbally from the LXX. translation, the words “of man” taking the place of the “thereof” of the Hebrew. In “the word ( rhma) of the Lord” we have a different term from the Logos of 1Pe 1:23. It has, perhaps, a slightly more concrete significance and may thus be thought of as pointing more specifically to the spoken message of the Gospel. It is doubtful, however, looking to the use of the word in Heb 1:3; Heb 6:5; Heb 11:3; Eph 6:17, whether any such distinction was intended, and it is more probable that St Peter thought of the two terms as equivalents, using the word rhma here, because he found it in the LXX. This “word of God,” abiding for ever, was the subject of the Gospel message, but is not necessarily identified with it. It was proclaimed to men by the heralds of glad tidings even as Christ had proclaimed it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For all flesh is as grass – That is, all human beings, all men. The connection here is this: The apostle, in the previous verse, had been contrasting that which is begotten by man with that which is begotten by God, in reference to its permanency. The forher was corruptible and decaying; the latter abiding. The latter was produced by God, who lives forever; the former by the agency of man, who is himself corruptible and dying. It was not unnatural, then, to dwell upon the feeble, frail, decaying nature of man, in contrast with God; and the apostle, therefore, says that all flesh, every human being, is like grass. There is no stability in anything that man does or produces. He himself resembles grass that soon fades and withers; but God and his word endure forever the same. The comparison of a human being with grass, or with flowers, is very beautiful, and is quite common in the Scriptures. The comparison turns on the fact, that the grass or the flower, however green or beautiful it may be, soon loses its freshness; is withered; is cut down, and dies. Thus, in Psa 103:15-16;
As for man, his days are as grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth;
For the wind passeth over it and it is gone,
And the place thereof shall know it no more.
So in Isa 40:6-8; a passage which is evidently referred to by Peter in this place:
The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth,
When the wind of Jehovah bloweth upon it:
Surely the people is grass,
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth,
But the word of our God shall stand forever.
See also Jam 1:10-11. This sentiment is beautifully imitated by the great dramatist in the speech of Wolsey:
This is the state of man; today he puts forth.
The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him.
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And – when he thinks, good easy man, full surely.
His greatness is a ripening – nips his root,
And then he falls.
Compare the notes at Isa 40:6-8.
And all the glory of man – All that man prides himself on – his wealth, rank, talents, beauty, learning, splendor of equipage or apparel.
As the flower of grass – The word rendered grass, ( chortos,) properly denotes herbage; that which furnishes food for animals – pasture, hay. Probably the prophet Isaiah, from whom this passage is taken, referred rather to the appearance of a meadow or a field, with mingled grass and flowers, constituting a beautiful landscape, than to mere grass. In such a field, the grass soon withers with heat, and with the approach of winter; and the flowers soon fade and fall.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away – This is repeated, as is common in the Hebrew writings, for the sake of emphasis, or strong confirmation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Pe 1:24-25
All flesh is as grass.
Change and continuance
What is wanting here? said a courtier to an illustrious prince, as they stood together, the spectators of a most splendid triumph in the city of Rome. To him who spake, there appeared to be nothing wanting. The gaiety and splendour of the spectacle were in his sight complete. The supreme power represented by the entire body of the senate was there. The spoils taken from the enemy, filling many carriages and piled upon movable platforms, were there. The ministers of justice, clad in official costume, and bearing the insignia of their office, were there. And there was the victorious general, attired in the triumphalia and crowned with laurels. What is wanting here? What, answered the prince, as he watched the procession pass along, and in passing pass away, What is wanting? This is wanting, continuance. The procession would pass along the appointed route, and then all would be dispersed, and the triumph would be a thing of the past. All thoughtful men feel seriously, if not sorrowfully, the changeful character of all the things which we see and handle on this earth. Where is continuance upon this planet? God has established the earth, and it abideth, but what beside abideth? Yea, even the earth is doomed to be burned up; and while it abides, great changes are continually occurring, even in the crust of the earth, and in the waters which fill its hollow places. And where continuance would be most valued, and where one should have expected it, even there it is not. The difference between poor men and rich men, famous men and men without renown, is just the difference between grass and the flower of grass; but as both grass and the flower of grass wither, so it is appointed unto all men once to die. There are things, however, which continue, good and precious things with which men have to do, and one of these things is mentioned in our text. Let us examine it. Words are lasting things. The breath which inspires them perishes, the lips which form them return to dust, the instruments which inscribe them are destructible, but words spoken and heard, written and read, have a boundless life and an immeasurable power. A good word may continue to enlighten, to invigorate forever and forever. All this is true of the words of man, but still more enduring in all their effects and influences are the words of the Lord. Many words has God spoken to us men. Among these words of God there is one communication which, on account of its singularity and importance, is called the Word of the Lord, and which, by reason of its pleasantness and graciousness, is called the gospel. Now, the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. It lives in Gods mind; it lives, in fact, as a thing done and a provision completed; and it lives in the life of those who have been born again.
1. The nature of God, as revealed to us in the Scriptures, is the nature from which a gospel might be expected.
2. The gospel, so far as we appreciate it, and so far as we understand the thirsts and wants of human nature, is an all-sufficient gospel for man.
3. A gospel less than the gospel of the grace of God must have left some thirst unslaked, or some necessity unmet, or some wound unhealed, or some tears unwiped away; and while those tears were falling, that wound smarting, that want craving, that thirst burning, there could not have been the experience and enjoyment of complete salvation.
4. A gospel more real and substantial, or more worthy of the worlds acceptation, could not have issued even from God.
5. And this gospel is abiding, because it is the incorruptible seed of life everlasting. The old spiritual nature is impregnated with the seed of a new man, a Divine seed and incorruptible, the seed of the truth of the gospel; and the man who has thus received the gospel enters upon a new and eternal life. The gospel now lives in a living mind, and in a living heart, and in a living character; it repeats itself in the believer; and as the character and mission of Jesus Christ may be learned from the written life of Christ, so the gospel may be learned from the spiritual life of him who believes it.
Let us now indicate the practical bearing of this doctrine.
1. The text magnifies the gospel. Let us be devoutly careful to preserve its gloriousness in our own eyes. And in order to do this we must reverence the gospel.
2. The text shows that the gospel is intended to be to us personally, and thereby furnishes us with a test of our religious state. The gospel is intended to be the germ of a Godlike life within us, and if it fail of this, it fails of its chief effect.
3. The text points out that in which is continuance; let us take care to handle perishable things as perishable, and to demean ourselves toward the gospel as everlasting.
4. The text suggests the strongest motives for the immediate and universal preaching of the gospel. Flesh is as grass. The man whose days are as grass is dying daily. And it is only here, while he is breathing out his brief life, that his nature can be impregnated with this incorruptible seed.
5. The text encourages us to sustain, and in all respects to provide for, the continuous preaching of the gospel. One after another the preachers of the gospel enter that valley, and are seen no more. But what do they leave behind? The sanctuaries in which they ministered? Yes; but something more. The flocks they tended? Pleasant memories? Yes; but much more. They leave that gospel, written not on tablets of stone, but upon the fleshy tablets of the heart; they leave that gospel more than written-they leave it in many hearts, a seed with a germ of Godlike and eternal life in it; they leave it as a new man, in many who have been born again by it as by incorruptible seed; they leave it in the rich experiences and holy activities of the new man; they leave it in a state imperishable, and they may leave it without anxiety. (S. Martin.)
Autumn: lifes contrast
The form of thought here used illustrates a common principle in the operation of the human mind-that principle of contrast by which one thing suggests its opposite. Life is made up of contrasts. The secret of this influence of contrast lies in mans twofold nature, allied on the one side to the frail and perishing, on the other to the stable and enduring; one hand grasping dust and ashes, the other seizing upon the very throne of God; the outward eye seeing only what fades and passes away, the inward eye beholding glories which nothing can destroy or dim. There is something beyond the reach of change and decay and mortality-Gods truth, as it has been revealed to man; Gods promise, which by His Son He has made-this cannot fail. It will outlast all the forms of outward life, and all the splendours of nature; and, though heaven and earth pass away, it shall not pass away. The connection of the text makes it more emphatic. The apostle had been speaking of Christs resurrection, and of the faith and hope which this fact excites; and he alludes to the wasting away of all material things, so as to fix attention more joyfully on the souls undying nature. He leaps from the vessel that is sinking with all earths treasure in the sea of time, to the firm shore of immortality. Let the grass then wither, and the glory of man fade away. God willing, we would not have the present scene to be our permanent dwelling. The transient and the abiding in the nature and experience of man this is, indeed, a contrast which it well becomes us to consider. The great mistake that human beings make is in regarding perishable things as though they were imperishable, and so fastening on them the feelings and expectations which belong only to the imperishable. Christianity does not forbid us to have any regard for what is perishable and passing away. Jesus Christ brought no ascetic religion into the world. He does not bid us dig a cave, and hide ourselves from all that is bright and gladsome around us, fleeting though it be. But what He and His apostles insist on is, that we shall graduate and proportion our interest in all things according to their worth. To put in its right light the contrast, I would bring out, suppose some inhabitant of that upper world-as it is thought departed spirits may-to lift the curtain, and look in upon these scenes in which we mingle. To one whose eye looks from his high station, how small and obscure this lower world, the dim, narrow entrance way to the more glorious mansions of the Fathers house! He knows that authentic tidings of the great region He dwells in, have reached the ears of that crowd of mortals who move along through this entry of the spiritual world. As the sickly generations of creatures advance, the angel spectator scans the occupations in which they engage. What a thrill of amazement shoots through his breast to observe such multitudes living as though these narrow earthly steps to the great temple beyond were themselves the whole universe, studiously averting their eyes from the gate that leads to the immense splendours of the inner sanctuary. One is wholly absorbed in giving free scope to sense and appetite and superficial fancy. Another seems taken up entirely with swelling his pile of gold. He bends steadily down over it, and, as he stoops, gives up the lustre of heaven for its glitter. But yet another sight that angelic witness as surely beholds, and oh, there is not a pleasanter sight beneath the sun than that of a rich man for this world and for the world to come; yea, of a man who rejoices more than an old alchemist over the supposed discovery of the philosophers stone, at the opportunity to transmute his temporary into everlasting treasure. Here surely the principle is illustrated aright in a contrast just and holy. This, then, without further illustration, is the lesson of our text. Be not deceived in your estimate. Distinguish the things that differ. Observe the contrasts that God has established. Is the New Testament true? Shall these great scenes of judgment and doom, according to the deeds of the flesh, be soon ushered in? Make not, then, the enormous miscalculation of leaving so vast an element out of your account. Even in this life, the contrast between things earthly and things heavenly sometimes demonstrates itself in striking results. The distinct consequences of diverse characters are especially marked, as men advance in life towards old age; and the rewards and retributions already bestowed seem to anticipate the judgment day. As I walked through the lanes of yonder growing forest, on our beautiful common, the dry leaves crushing under my feet, and the sinking sun taking his last look at the bare boughs of the trees, I met a man on whom the blow of grief had descended as sorely as upon any, and with oft-repeated stroke. A new sorrow had just fallen on his grey head and long-diseased, emaciated frame. He spoke of faith. He spoke of loyalty to God and duty. He spoke of heaven as though it were near. He said nothing of being hardly dealt with, nor hinted aught about not understanding why he should be selected for such trials, but seemed to think there was nothing but Gods mercy and kindness in the world. But he seemed to me, as I looked upon him, to have an inward stay that would hold him up when all earthly props had fallen to the ground. For once, the contrast between earth and heaven was revealed to my mind; and the dissolving emblems of mortality under my feet, and the cold, shifting mists over my head, were transformed from sad tokens into symbols of hope and joy. (C. A. Bartol.)
The death of a servant of God
Two doctrines naturally arise from this text-
I. That man and his glory are fading and withering. All flesh is grass.
1. It is weak, and low, and little as grass. Mankind is indeed numerous as the grass of the field, multiplies, replenishes, and covereth the earth; but like grass, it is of the earth, earthy, mean, and of small account. Alas, the kingdoms of men which make so great a noise, so great a figure, in this lower world, are but as so many fields of grass compared with the bright and glorious constellations of stars, made up of the holy and blessed inhabitants of the upper regions. Proud men think themselves like the strong and stately cedars, oaks, or pines, but they soon find themselves as the grass of the field, liable to be nipped with every frost, trampled on by every foot, continually insulted by common calamities.
2. It is withering, and fading, and dying as grass; having both its rise and maintenance out of the earth, it hastens to the earth, and retires to its root and foundation in the dust. In the morning, perhaps, it is green and growing up, its aspect pleasing, its prospect promising; but when we come to look upon it in our evening work we find it cut down and withered. If it be not cut down by disease or disaster, it will soon wither of itself; it has in it the principles of its own corruption. Is all flesh grass? All, without exception of the noble or the fair, the young or the strong, the well-born or well-built, the well-fed or well-bred? Is all grass, weak and withering?
(1) Then let us see ourselves to be grass, and humble and deny ourselves. Is the body grass? Then be not proud, be not presumptuous, be not confident of a long continuance here; forget not that the foot may crush thee. Grass falls; let me not be such a fool as to lay up my treasure in it. Is the body grass? Then let us not indulge it too much, nor bestow too much time and care and pains about it, as many do, to the neglect of the better and immortal part. After all, we cannot keep it from withering, when its day shall come to fall.
(2) Let us see others also to be as grass, and cease from man, because he is no more than thus to be accounted of. We are now to consider, not common men, but men of distinction, and to see them withering and falling.
3. Let us inquire, What is the glory of man in this world? There is indeed a glory of man which is counterfeit, and mistaken for glory. Solomon says, For men to search their own glory is not glory (Pro 25:27). The glory men commonly pursue and search for is no glory at all. Is beauty and comeliness of body the glory of man? So they pass with some who judge by the sight of the eye; but at the best they are only the goodliness of grass; they are a flower which death will certainly cut down; or the end of time will change the countenance; either wrinkled age, or pale death. We should therefore make sure the beauty of grace, the hidden man of the heart, which neither age nor death will sully. Is wealth the glory of man? Labans sons thought so when they said concerning Jacob. Of that which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory (Gen 31:1). But this also is a fading flower, Is pomp and grandeur the glory of a man? That also withers away. Great names and titles of honour are written in the dust. Give me leave to show you some instances of the glory of a man.
(1) Is a large capacity of mind the glory of a man?
(2) Is learning to be reckoned the glory of a man?
(3) Is tenderness and humility, modesty and sweetness of temper, the glory of a man?
(4) Is the faithful discharge of the ministry of the gospel the glory of a man?
(5) Is great usefulness the glory of a man, and a delight in doing good? Well, here is the glory of man; let us be ambitious of this glory, and not of vain glory. See true honour in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and seek it there. This is honour that comes from God, and is in His sight of great price.
4. Having seen this flower flourishing, we are now to see it withering. As to himself, this glory is not lost, is not stained, by death; it is not like worldly honour, laid in the dust, and buried in the grave; no, this flower is transplanted from the garden on earth to the paradise in heaven, where it shall never fade. The works of good men follow them, but they forsake us, and we are deprived of the benefit of them.
II. Though man and glory are fading and withering, yet God and His word are everliving and everlasting. The glory of the law was done away, but that of the gospel remains. The glory of ministers falls away, but not the glory of the Word they are ministers of. The prophets, indeed, do not live forever, but the words which God commanded them did, and will take hold, as words quick and powerful.
1. There is in the Word of the Lord an everlasting rule of faith and practice for us to be ruled by.
(1) It is our comfort that Christianity shall not die with our ministers, nor that light be buried in their graves.
(2) It is our duty not to let our Christianity die with our ministers, hut let the word of Christ contained in the Scriptures still dwell in us richly.
2. There is in the Word of the Lord an everlasting fountain of comfort and consolation for us to be refreshed and encouraged by, and to draw water from with joy, and an everlasting foundation on which to build our hopes. (Matthew Henry.)
Man compared to grass
We are like grass.
1. We are like grass in our relation to the earth.
2. We are like grass in the frailty of our nature.
3. We are like grass in the uncertainty of our lives. The blade dies in all seasons.
4. We are like grass in the unnoticeableness of our dissolution. Blade after blade withers and dies, and the landscape appears as ever. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The fleeting and the durable
I. The transitory nature of all the things which appertain to this our earthly state. All flesh is grass, etc.
1. How affectingly is this sentiment verified in the personal endowments of man, beauty and strength! Survey that animal structure, once so lovely, when it is wrinkled by the hand of time; when it is withered by the action of disease; when it is blasted by the stroke of death. Survey these melancholy changes which await the sons and daughters of Adam, and you will feel the propriety of the sentiment in the text.
2. The wisdom of man, no less than his beauty and strength, serves as an example of the sentiment in the text. In the present age we are accustomed to denounce the systems of former generations as fanciful or crude, and to smile when we hear them dignified by the names of philosophy and science; boasting at the same time that the perfection of philosophy and the arts have been reserved for our own age. Alas! for us, generations will arise that will look back on the nineteenth century, and in their turn laugh at the rudeness of our inventions, the infancy of our science, and the blunders of our philosophy. The fact is, that all knowledge merely human is destined to pass away (1Co 13:8).
3. We may also adduce as an example of the truth in the text the passing away of all those things which constitute the elegancies and decorations of civilised life; all that is designed to gratify the taste and imagination. Whatever the pencil of the painter has portrayed; whatever the chisel of the sculptor has wrought out; whatever the skill of the architect has raised; whatever the imagination has devised of rare and ornamental in furniture, dress, or manners-all must serve in its turn to show that the goodliness of man is as the flower of the field.
4. I must not omit to bring forward riches as furnishing a verification equally strong of the sentiment of the text.
5. These remarks apply with equal propriety to that idol of many hearts-fame. The historians pen, the poets muse, the tablet of marble and brass, all the means which have been employed to perpetuate a name, have only served as a comment on the text.
6. Power and dominion, desired by some and envied by others as the most abiding of human things, are only exemplifications on a larger scale of the truth affirmed in the text. Empires rise and fall; sceptres change hands, thrones are overturned, and one dynasty succeeds another.
7. One other illustration of the affecting sentiment of the text yet remains. The great globe itself, the habitation of fallen man, is destined to pass away!
II. The durability of that dispensation of truth with which Jehovah has blessed the world. By the Word of our God I understand Messiahs dispensation, the gospel of the Son of God, with all the fulness of its grace and truth.
1. It is proved that this Word of our God shall stand forever, in spite of all that can be effected to the contrary by persecution. Evangelical truth has outlived the memory of her once mighty foes; has overturned the monuments reared to commemorate her own destruction; and, clothed in celestial radiance and power, has gone on from conquering to conquer!
2. The course of events has shown that the Word of our God shall stand forever, notwithstanding the hostility of infidel men. The religion of Christ Jesus may be compared to an exceeding strong citadel, erected on the summit of an everlasting rock. They alone tremble for its security who are ignorant of its impregnable strength.
3. As a confirmation of the position in the text, that the Word of our God shall stand forever, we may with holy exultation advert to that spread of the Christian religion which has taken place in our day.
4. I may mention as a further proof that the Word of our God shall stand forever, that holy energy with which it is still accompanied. (J. Bromley.)
The withering work of the Spirit
(with Isa 40:6-8):-In every one of us it must be fulfilled that all that is of the flesh in us, seeing it is but as grass, must be withered, and the comeliness thereof must be destroyed. The Spirit of God, like the wind, must pass over the field of our souls, and cause our beauty to be as a fading flower. There must be brought home to us the sentence of death upon our former legal and carnal life, that the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, implanted by the Holy Ghost, may be in us, and abide in us forever. The subject is the withering work of the Spirit upon the souls of men.
I. Turning then to the work of the spirit in causing the goodliness of the flesh to fade, let us, first, observe that the work of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man in withering up that which is of the flesh, is very unexpected. You will observe that even the speaker himself, though doubtless one taught of God, when he was bidden to cry, said, What shall I cry? Even he did not know that in order to the comforting of Gods people, there must first be experienced a preliminary visitation. Many preachers of Gods gospel have forgotten that the law is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. It cannot be that God should cleanse thee until He has made thee see somewhat of thy defilement; for thou wouldst never value the precious blood if thou hadst not first of all been made to mourn that thou art altogether an unclean thing. The convincing work of the Spirit, wherever it comes, is unexpected, and even to the child of God in whom this process has still to go on, it is often startling. We begin again to build that which the Spirit of God had destroyed. Having begun in the Spirit, we act as if we would be made perfect in the flesh; and then when our mistaken up-building has to be levelled with the earth, we are almost as astonished as we were when first the scales fell from our eyes. The voice which saith, Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, achieves its purpose by first making them hear the cry, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
2. Furthermore, this withering is after the usual order of the Divine operation. If we consider well the way of God we shall not be astonished that He beginneth with His people by terrible things in righteousness. Observe the method of creation. What was there in the beginning? Originally nothing. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. There was no trace of anothers plan to interfere with the great architect. So it is in the new creation. When the Lord new creates us, He borrows nothing from the old man, but makes all things new. He does not repair and add a new wing to the old house of our depraved nature, but He builds a new temple for His own praise.
3. I would have you notice that we are taught in our text how universal this process is in its range over the hearts of all those upon whom the Spirit works. All flesh is grass; and all the goodliness thereof-the very choice and pick of it-is as the flower of the field, and what happens to the grass? Does any of it live? The grass withereth, all of it. The flower, will not that abide? So fair a thing, has not that an immortality? No, it utterly falls away. So wherever the Spirit of God breathes on the soul of man, there is a withering of everything that is of the flesh, and it is seen that to be carnally minded is death. If the work in us be not the Spirits working, but our own, it will droop and die when most we require its protection.
4. You see, then, the universality of this withering work within us, but notice the completeness of it. The grass, what does it do? Droop? nay, wither. The flower of the field: what of what? Does it hang its head a little? No, according to Isaiah it fades; and according to Peter it falleth away. There is no reviving it with showers, it has come to its end. Even thus are the awakened led to see that in their flesh there dwelleth no good thing.
5. Let us further notice that all this withering work in the soul is very painful. As you read these verses do they not strike you as having a very funereal tone? This is mournful work, but it must be done. All that is of natures spinning must be unravelled. It was a great merry for our city of London that the great fire cleared away all the old buildings which were the lair of the plague, a far healthier city was then built; and it is a great mercy for a man when God sweeps right away all his own righteousness and strength, when He makes him feel that he is nothing and can be nothing, and drives him to confess that Christ must be all in all, and that his only strength lies in the eternal might of the ever-blessed Spirit.
6. Observe that although this is painful it is inevitable. Why does the grass wither? Because it is a withering thing. Its root is ever in its grave, and it must die. How could it spring out of the earth and be immortal? The seeds of corruption are in all the fruits of manhoods tree; let them be as fair to look upon as Edens clusters, they must decay. Moreover, it would never do that there should be something of the flesh in our salvation and something of the Spirit; for if it were so there would be a division of the honour. It gives me great joy when I hear that you unconverted ones are very miserable, for the miseries which the Holy Spirit works are always the prelude to happiness.
7. It is the Spirits work to wither. Better to be broken in pieces by the Spirit of God than to be made whole by the flesh! What doth the Lord say? I kill. But what next? I make alive. He never makes any alive but those He kills. He never hems those whom He has not wounded.
II. Now, concerning the implantation. According to Peter, although the flesh withers, arid the flower thereof falls away, yet in the children of God there is an unwithering something of another kind. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, etc. The Word of the Lord endureth forever, etc. Now, the gospel is of use to us because it is not of human origin. If it were of the flesh, all it could do for us would not land us beyond the flesh; but the gospel of Jesus Christ is super human, Divine, and spiritual. In its conception it was of God; its great gift, even the Saviour, is a Divine gift; and all its teachings are full of deity. Now this is the incorruptible Word, that God was made flesh and dwelt among us; that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. This is the incorruptible Word, that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Do you receive it? Then the Holy Spirit implants it in your soul. Do you leap up to it, and say, I believe it? Then you possess the living seed within your soul. And what is the result of it? Why, then there comes, according to the text, a new life into us, as the result of the indwelling of the living Word, and our being born again by it. Now observe wherever this new life comes through the Word, it is incorruptible, it lives and abides forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man and his glory-the grass and its flower
These verses institute a comparison and bring out a contrast between the natural life and the spiritual. Every son of man is born into one life, and every son of God is born again into another. There is a mystery in every man, but a greater mystery in every Christian. Nature is deep, but grace is deeper. The two lives brought into contrast here are the natural life of man in the body which soon fades away, and the new life of the regenerated which will forever flourish. These two lives are not in all their aspects opposite, for the same person may at the same time possess both. He holds them, however, by different tenures: the first or natural life will soon depart, but the new or spiritual life will be his forever. The analogy employed is exact and full and beautiful-All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Man is like the grass, and his glory like its flower. Life is short, and the period of its perfect development is shorter still. The history of a man consists of a gradual growing to maturity, and a gradual declining to the grave. Such is his best estate, when no accident cuts him off in mid-time of his days. But if this is true of the flesh-the sensitive nature which man has in common with the brutes-what shall be said of all his distinguishing features as a moral and intelligent being? Although the mere flesh is evanescent, what of the glory wherewith his Maker has crowned his head? The text has two things to say of this glory-the first, that it greatly excels in worth and beauty the animal structure on which it grows; the second, that it is still more short lived. If all flesh be as grass, all its glory is only as the flower of grass. The flower is indeed the glory of the grass, but it comes up later and withers earlier. What shall we say, then, of all that is peculiar to man-of all that distinguishes him from the beasts of the field-of that human face divine, and that articulate speech, and that calculating mind, which mark him off as chief of Gods creatures here and ruler of His world? Can the glory of man be compared to the herbage as well as his sentient nature? No; for though it is more brilliant while it lasts, it is sooner over. Beauty of form is one of the distinguishing glories of humanity. It has pleased God our Father so to arrange the features of our frame, and so to constitute our minds, that we count them comely. We admire the flower of the herbage, and devoutly see in it the Creators wisdom. Shall we not look with deeper interest on a lighted human countenance, and see in that glory of man a glory to the Lord? This glory does not last long; it is a flower-fragrant, attractive; but it withers soon. The flower is later blown and earlier faded than the frail green stem that bears it. But the beauty of the new creature in Christ does not fade like a flower. It is an interesting speculation-although it can be nothing more-to imagine the beauty of man unfallen. The peculiar sweetness sometimes imparted to the countenance of an ordinary person by the sudden influx of a great peace in periods of spiritual revival suggests the probability that we lost by sin an external loveliness so great that we lack now the power of conceiving fully what it was. But, great though the loss be, Christians sorrow not over it as those who have no hope; for their gain is greater. Where sin abounded to mar, grace will much more abound to renew. Whatever is lost by sin is more than restored by redemption. The risen Christ is glorious, and risen Christians will be like Him. Humanity redeemed will be humanity perfect. I would fain realise the beauty of the resurrection body, as well as the spiritual purity of the saints in light. (W. Arnot.)
The Word of the Lord endureth forever.
The living and enduring Word
On what grounds does the apostle assign to the gospel exclusively this high character, that it endureth forever?
I. The righteousness which the Gospel reveals for justifying the ungodly is everlasting. Mankind are guilty before God; and what blessing is so necessary as justification? Of what avail are rank, power, wealth, learning, and even Church privileges, of which so many boast, for acceptance with God? What, then, is the glory of the self-justiciary? It is fading and transient as the flowers of the field. And what presumption in sinful mortal man to hold up any of these things, or all of them put together, if that were in his power, as his righteousness, in direct opposition to the declared will of his Creator and Lord. Is the God who made him to be dictated to by him? No. That Word, fixing the mode of acceptance, endureth forever, while the glory which man opposes to it shall wither, and leave its worshippers covered with confusion. The certainty and the perfect reasonableness of this result must impress us more deeply if we consider the character of the righteousness which the Word of the Lord reveals and establishes. It is absolutely perfect, for it includes obedience to both the precept and the penalty of the law of God; it is divinely excellent, for it was performed by the Son of God, who condescended to assume our frail nature that He might perform it; it is the most glorious production of Divine wisdom and love: it hath magnified the law and made it honourable; it hath thus propitiated God and abolished death.
II. The vital principle which the Word of God inspires is imperishable. The only life which we derive from Adam is feeble, terrestrial, mortal. Its activities, aims, and enjoyments correspond to its nature and origin. They all centre in things worldly and perishing. The gospel is the ministration of life. The Lord Jesus conveys by it the influences of His quickening Spirit into the soul that was alienated from God and absorbed in earful, and produces in it the new creature, even faith working by love. The truth which the Word testifies concerning Christ being thus known and believed becomes the principle of a new life, the activities of which appear in the outgoings of the soul towards Him in trust, hope, love, gratitude, submission. By the illuminations of His Word Christ lives in that soul, and exerts a mighty power over all its faculties-a power which inspires it with His own views, spirit, and aims. Actuated by the vital principles which His words create-for His words are spirit and life-the mind connects all things with Christ and with God, converts them into means of instruction, into motives to love and obedience, into materials for praise. It regards its most common mercies as the fruits of Divine bounty, the expressions of the Divine goodness and care. It submits to privations and afflictions, and endures them as the salutary discipline of a wise father; and the most ordinary occurrences it contemplates as the dispensations of Him who makes all things work together for good to them that love Him. The relations, then, and pleasures, and pains, and intercourse, and pursuits, and occurrences which are peculiar to the present transient state, and which are so insignificant in themselves, because the state to which they belong is so fluctuating and evanescent, rise into dignity and importance, from the influence which the Divine Word exerts on the mind in which it lives, and become the means at once of present fellowship with God and of training up an immortal spirit for a holy and blessed eternity. Now this vital principle, so excellent in itself, is imperishable. In the present state, indeed, its power is small, its activities are feeble and irregular, and, of course, its influence is very limited. But let us recollect that it is only very lately since it came into being, and that it exists in the midst of much which is most hostile to it, and which continually opposes its growth. It shall exist, and notwithstanding the bleakness of the soil in which it is planted, and the noxious exhalations which rise around it and the storms which assail it, shall wax stronger and stronger; for the seed is the Word of the Lord which liveth and abideth forever.
III. The honour to which the Gospel raises believers, and the beauties with which it adorns them, are unfading. It dignifies them with intimate relations to Christ, introduces them into Gods favour, exalts them to be His sons, gives them access with confidence to His gracious presence, a claim on His protection and care, and makes them kings and priests unto God. And these are not only enduring, but ever-increasing honours; at least their transcendent excellence and glory shine with increasing lustre, and the longer and the more fully they are enjoyed they are the more highly valued, and their power to ennoble and to bless is more abundantly experienced and more humbly and gratefully acknowledged. They are enduring, for the loving kindness of God, which is the sum of them all, is immutable, and the charter which conveys them is irrevocable, for it is confirmed by the blood of Christ and the oath of God.
IV. Every hope which is founded on this word shall be more than fulfilled. What blessed hopes does it authorise and encourage the believer to cherish!-the hope that God will never fail him nor forsake him, that the Divine Spirit shall be his guide and comforter, that his heavenly Advocate shall secure to him mercy and grace in every time of need, that the Lord will perfect that which concerneth him. Oh! are not these glorious hopes, not only worthy of intellectual and immortal beings, but hopes which ennoble and purify and bless them! Can the greatest and best portion of worldly good which human heart ever ventured to anticipate bear comparison with them for a single moment? And that hope rests on a sure foundation. It is built on the living and imperishable Word of Him who is eternal and almighty, whose name is Faithful and True, and sooner shall heaven and earth pass than one iota or tittle of His Word remain unfulfilled. (James Stark, D. D.)
The Word of God a living thing
I. The Word of God is the seed of life. It is a principle having life and energy, which sown in mans heart grows there, expands, and bears fruit to such an extent that the whole man is transformed into a new creature, and henceforth lives to God. It is not so often a broad outline of Christian truth that strikes its root into the conscience as some word or two; some thought; some blessed promise, such as 1Jn 1:7; some touching invitation, like Mat 11:28; some alarming note of warning, as Luk 13:3; some fearful description, as 1Ti 5:6. In the private history of almost every one amongst us who has dared to confess Christ there has been, previous to that step, a time of reading and of praying over the Word of God. Schoolboys in their private rooms, trembling, it may be, at their fellows laugh, clerks in their intervals of business, a wife in her husbands absence at his daily work, soldiers and sailors, have placed the Bible on their tables, read, prayed, applied the Word, made it their own, and so been born again of this incorruptible seed, etc.
II. The Word of God liveth and abideth forever; and if we need to receive it into our hearts as the seed of life, so have we need to cherish it there as the support of life-of that life which, beginning here, goes on throughout eternity. Distinctly and forever shall we think of and see before us the Lamb who has redeemed us to God by His blood. Distinctly and forever will His holy law stand out as the law by which we tried to live on earth and by which we cannot fail to live in heaven. (F. Morse, M. A.)
Human changes and the Divine unchangeableness
Human changes and the Divine unchangeableness-this is the subject suggested by our text. Its first clause is an utterance of the despondency which comes over us as we contemplate the frail lives of men. The second clause answers that despondency by affirming that the Word of the Lord is not changeful like the thought of man, but enduring as God Himself. The third clause declares that in the gospel we have the abiding Word of God; and the whole passage is intended to illustrate the foregoing declaration that faith in the gospel makes men as immortal as God; we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now the Bible is not a despondent book. Prophets and apostles give expression to our despondency only to correct and to console it.
I. The first consolation our text has for this depression is that it contrasts with our frailty the Word of the Eternal God. It matters little that the worker passes if his work endures. If we had but as firm a faith in the Word of God as we have in the results of human investigation, if we were as earnest in the Divine work as in our own, despondency would be at an end. Piety will never be checked, faith will never languish, because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. For piety is bent on serving God, and faith receives Gods revelation; and though the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
II. The next thought suggested by our text is that mans changefulness illustrates the eternal purpose of God. The Divine intention is brought out in His dealing with the fleeting generations of men; it becomes venerable in retrospect, while it is ever revealing itself in the freshness of a progressive history. An unvarying history would be a history of death; we gain a vaster idea of permanence by advance than we could ever gain by the continuance of unchanging forms. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever-depository of Gods creative energy. Another spring sees the grass revive; the trees look down on the renewed face of the earth. So, though men die, humanity endures; the same in its great necessities, the same in its sense of dependence and obligation, with quenchless aspirations ever rising; there is an abiding human heart. And humanity finds the same eternal God, the same object of piety, the inspirer and rewarder of faith, the fountain of an everlasting hope; finds the same salvation, the same Saviour-Jesus Christ, yesterday and today the same, and forever. There is development in humanity as there is evolution in nature; and this development witnesses to the abiding God, who needs ages to work out His will and reveal His eternal purpose of goodness and grace to waiting man.
III. It is not of the eternity of God or of Gods rule over the world that our text speaks; it is The Word of the Lord, which endureth forever, We need a revelation; an unrevealed were an unknown God. And yet how can we dream of abiding truth in a changing humanity? As mankind advances will not mens thoughts vary concerning even such fundamental things as moral obligation, the character of virtue, the objects of our devotion, the very being of God? The answer is, there will be development in the Christian faith; a fuller apprehension of its truths, a deeper sympathy with its spirit, a larger experience of its power, a broader application of it to the varying wants of men. But it will be from the old founts that the new inspirations will be drawn; men will turn to Christ and His gospel in every social complication, every conflict of faith, every spiritual need. The worlds morals must be Christian morals; the worlds religion the Christian faith. We are able to apply the test of history to this prediction. What book is there, eighteen hundred years old, which has the interest for all sorts and conditions of men the gospel has? We look inward, and we find the reason of its perpetuity to lie in its appeal to what is deepest in the soul of man.
IV. The enduring Word of God is the pledge of our endurance. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. The gospel has been the salt of the earth, preserving it from decay. Under it the world has renewed its youth, and its last days shall be its best. The love and righteousness, which are first revealed to our faith as ever abiding in God, and then are formed in Us-graces of character as well as objects of faith-are the only things that can endure. The man in whom they are not is dead while he liveth; the man in whom they are shall live, although he die. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The enduring Word
I. We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God?
II. We have here as everliving gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God, as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify, as ever it was in its first days of wonder working.
III. We have an unchanging gospel, which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay, but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.
IV. Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoice in, a Word of the Lord upon which we may lean all our weight. Forever includes life, death, judgment, and eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Word of the Lord everlasting
I am glad to have deliverance like this, so distinct, so comprehensive, and at the same time so authoritative. Men sometimes ask us what it is that we mean when we speak so positively about the Word of the Lord. In one phrase, we answer, we mean the glad tidings of great joy which are unto all people, that unto them was born on a given day in a city of David a Saviour, who was Christ the Lord. This emphatically is the Word of the Lord. The facts which relate to the sufferings of our Redeemer and the facts which relate to His subsequent acts of everlasting glory are a message from God unto man. And the predictions, the narrations, the explanations, the invitations, and the promises altogether make up what the apostle is here designating; put altogether, they constitute the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The adversaries of the Christian faith tell us that our old gospel will presently be disproved. Strange, if it is to come to nothing, that it has survived for nineteen centuries already!
I. It is secure, whatever may be the efforts of possible persecution. I do not say that you will not have apparent triumphs on the part of the persecutors. False brethren will fall away, but Gods truth, somehow or other, will still survive, and He to whom that truth pertains and whose Word we are speaking will make it good in spite of opposition, and make it good in the oppressions of His faithful servants, strengthening them with strength in their souls, turning curse into blessing, and making the wrath of man to praise Him, whilst the remainder of that wrath He will restrain.
II. The old gospel is in no danger whatever from the intellectual opposition of our modern infidels. Here and there we have the sound of triumph on the part of our adversaries. Reading their literature, as some of us do, we find those triumphs much more frequent perhaps than some of you may suppose; but what are the triumphs? They are not triumphs over the old gospel as it came down from heaven. You have had things incorporated with Christianity which God never put there-they are disproved; you have had opinions foisted upon the gospel from the traditions of men-they are being detached; you have had interpretations of Holy Scripture which are undoubtedly untrue-you have had them put to silence. But need I say that such victories are not against us? They are on our side! To get rid of error is to get rid of so much dead weight; and although the discomfiture of a Christian man, when the traditions which he has maintained are taken from beneath him, may not be that which he likes, yet such discomfiture is so much clear gain to the Christian cause, and that clear gain it will go on to acquire.
III. The old gospel is in no danger from the discoveries of our scientific men. I know of no statement so popular amongst the foes of the Christian faith as this, that the teachings of our sacred books are at variance with the teachings of the natural sciences; at variance, for example, with the teachings of astronomy, of archaeology, and especially of geology. Not one of those sciences whispers a coming contradiction to your Bibles; not one of them foretokens a coming time when you will have either to give up that book or to deny indisputable facts.
IV. The old gospel is in no danger from the advancement of civilisation. How is civilisation advancing! What a power is that of our commerce, our literature, our science, our art, our philanthropy, our moral and intellectual philosophy! There is much about it to be admired; it softens asperities, conciliates antagonism, refines the manners, elevates the character, combines and consolidates into one the entire family of man. Wondrous is the good which it has been doing, and wondrous is the good of which it is itself the representative and the embodiment. Tell us that civilisation will be the destroyer of Christianity! Why, abstract from your modern civilisation that which Christianity has imparted to it, and you have just that which very presently, by common consent, would be buried and out of sight. Why, it is the very child which your Christianity has brought forth; it is the very creation of which Christianity in her pure exuberance is instrumentally the creator. You might just as well think of this great superstructure in which we are assembled existing without a foundation as to think of modern civilisation existing without Christianity.
V. The old gospel is in no danger from the ulterior necessities of humanity. There may be species of human necessity that have never yet come to light in our acquaintance with mankind; and there may be species that never will come to light, except it be in some further and advanced stage of the history of our race. The capacities, the susceptibilities, and the activities of the human soul are perfectly wonderful. Give to that human soul the opportunity, the means, and the appliances which may be requisite, and where is the man that will tell me what deeper depths of the emotional he may evince, what mightier forces of the intellectual he may disclose, what intenser sympathy with the diabolical he may display, and what more glowing apprehensions of the immortal he may manifest? Abide by your old gospel with an unfaltering faith. Let that time come, and be it present to your eye now, when there shall be powers of investigation to which there is no parallel now; there will be the message to the man who possesses that power of investigation-Go and investigate the great mystery of godliness. Be your power what it may, it will find its occupation there. Be it so, that there shall be a capability for apprehension to which there is no parallel now: the commandment will be-Go and take the unspeakable gift of God, and try and find the occupation for your apprehension there. Be it so that there is guilt perpetrated-and who can tell after what we see ourselves what forms of guilt may be perpetrated?-be it that guilt is perpetrated at which even the devil stands aghast: there is the blood that cleanseth from all sin; let the sinner go and be cleansed and pardoned by that. Be it so that there will be unparalleled sympathy with and aspiration for the immortal; let the man who is the subject of such aspirations go and try to understand the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Oh! there is no danger for the old gospel! You may have philosophy sublimated, until that with which we are familiar shall be as nothing side by side with your philosophy; transcendently superior will be the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and so far from being inadequate to mans requisitions then, it will supply, with an amplitude which is imperial, all that shall be required. So far from being effete and obsolete, it will exist with living and with royal power; so far from being, as we are told, an exploded superstition, an exhausted fountain, an ancient, decrepit, infirm, unavailable messenger of good, there it will be, in all the vigour of its youth, proclaiming salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and declaring to mankind in its highest elevation there is a higher elevation still. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding. This Word of the Lord wilt be all adequate to the necessities and the requirements of humanity. (W. Brock.)
The Word of God everliving
How wonderfully has the Lord provided for the continuance of the vegetable world; He causes the plant to scatter broadcast a multitude of seeds, and bids the winds convey them far and wide. The fowls of the air are commissioned to bear berries and fruits to their proper soils, and even to bury them in the earth; while scores of four-footed creatures, engaged in storing up food for themselves, become planters of trees and propagators of plants. Seeds bear a charmed life about them; they will germinate after being buried for centuries; they have been known to flourish when turned up from the borings of wells from the depth of hundreds of feet, and when ponds and lakes have been dried the undrowned vegetable life has surprised the beholders by blossoming with unknown flowers. Can we imagine that God has been thus careful of the life of the mere grass of the field, which is the very emblem of decay, and yet is negligent of His Word, which liveth and abideth forever? It is not to be dreamed of. Truth, the incorruptible seed, is ever scattering itself; every wind is laden with it, every breath spreads it; it lies dormant in a thousand memories; it preserves its life in the abodes of death. The Lord has but to give the word, and a band of eloquent men shall publish the gospel, apostles and evangelists will rise in abundance, like the warriors who sprang from the fabled dragons teeth; converts will spring up like flowerets at the approach of spring, nations shall be born in a day, and truth, and God the Lord of truth, shall reign forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
This is the Word which by the gospel is preached.-
The same gospel for us
1. The same Word of the Lord-the same glorious gospel-is now preached to you. And it is this day as young and fresh, and strong and imperishable, as ever it was. It abideth forever. And the flesh is still as frail, and all the glory of the flesh still as fleeting, as of old. There is no spot on this round earth where we can escape the admonition and the rebuke to our levity and pride. It startles the wayfarer in the bright savannas of the south, and amid the sands of the desert and the icy desolation of the pole. It whispers from the green mounds of western forests, and is repeated by the billows of ocean as they roll above the multitudes that have gone down to slumber in the silent depths. There is no hope for man, save only what is provided by that Word of the Lord which in the gospel is preached unto you.
2. But remember that even this mighty Word has power to bless and save only as it is believed and obeyed. Alas! how is this simple truth wilfully forgotten by multitudes who may yet be said to be exemplary in their attendance on public ordinances!
3. Let me ask those of you who profess faith in the gospel whether your obedience of the truth is such as purifies your souls from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit; whether, in particular, it has tended in any measure to a brotherly love unfeigned. (J. Lillie, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. For all flesh is as grass] Earthly seeds, earthly productions, and earthly generations, shall fail and perish like as the grass and flowers of the field; for the grass withereth, and the flower falleth off, though, in the ensuing spring and summer, they may put forth new verdure and bloom.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All flesh; all men as born of the flesh, and in their natural state, in opposition to regenerate men, 1Pe 1:23.
All the glory of man; whatever is most excellent in man naturally, and which they are most apt to glory in.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: see Jam 1:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Scripture proof that theword of God lives for ever, in contrast to man’s natural frailty. Ifye were born again of flesh, corruptible seed, ye must also perishagain as the grass; but now that from which you have derived liferemains eternally, and so also will render you eternal.
fleshman in his mereearthly nature.
asomitted in some ofthe oldest manuscripts.
of manThe oldestmanuscripts read, “of it” (that is, of the flesh). “Theglory” is the wisdom, strength, riches, learning, honor, beauty,art, virtue, and righteousness of the NATURALman (expressed by “flesh”), which all are transitory (Joh3:6), not OF MAN (asEnglish Version reads) absolutely, for the glory of man, inhis true ideal realized in the believer, is eternal.
witherethGreek,aorist: literally, “withered,” that is, is withered as athing of the past. So also the Greek for “falleth”is “fell away,” that is, is fallen away: it nosooner is than it is gone.
thereofomitted in thebest manuscripts and versions. “The grass” is the flesh:“the flower” its glory.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ver. 24 For all flesh is as grass,…. All men, as born of corruptible seed, are frail, mortal, and perishing; they spring up like grass, and look beautiful for a while, but are very weak and tender, and in a little time they are cut down by death, and wither away; and while they live, are, in a good measure, nothing but grass in another form; the substance of their life is greatly by it; what is the flesh they eat, but grass turned into it? and this mortality is not only the case of wicked men, as the Jews l interpret the word, but of good men; even of the prophets, and preachers of the Gospel; and yet the word of God spoken by them continues for ever: the passage referred to is in Isa 40:6
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass; all outward things which are in esteem with men, and render them glorious to one another, as riches, honour, wisdom, strength, external righteousness, holiness, and goodness; all which are fading and transitory, like the flower of the field; but the Gospel continues, and reveals durable riches, and honour with Christ; and true wisdom and strength with him, and spiritual knowledge, in comparison of which, all things are dross and dung; and an everlasting righteousness; and true holiness in him: some have thought respect may be had to the legal dispensation, and to all the glory and stateliness and goodliness of the worship and ordinances of it, which were to endure but for a time, and are now removed; and the Gospel dispensation has taken place of them, which will continue to the end of the world:
the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; and so fading are all the above things.
l Targum, Jarchi, & Kimchi, in Isa. xl. 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Vanity of the Natural Man. | A. D. 66. |
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
The apostle having given an account of the excellency of the renewed spiritual man as born again, not of corruptible but incorruptible seed, he now sets before us the vanity of the natural man, taking him with all his ornaments and advantages about him: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; and nothing can make him a solid substantial being, but the being born again of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which will transform him into a most excellent creature, whose glory will not fade like a flower, but shine like an angel; and this word is daily set before you in the preaching of the gospel. Learn, 1. Man, in his utmost flourish and glory, is still a withering, fading, dying creature. Take him singly, all flesh is grass. In his entrance into the world, in his life and in his fall, he is similar to grass, Job 14:2; Isa 40:6; Isa 40:7. Take him in all his glory, even this is as the flower of grass; his wit, beauty, strength, vigour, wealth, honour–these are but as the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. 2. The only way to render this perishing creature solid and incorruptible is for him to entertain and receive the word of God; for this remains everlasting truth, and, if received, will preserve him to everlasting life, and abide with him for ever. 3. The prophets and apostles preached the same doctrine. This word which Isaiah and others delivered in the Old Testament is the same which the apostles preached in the New.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
1Pet 1:24; 1Pet 1:25 Quotation from Isa 40:6-8 (partly like the LXX, partly like the Hebrew).
For (). As in verse 16 ( and ), “for that.” So in 2:6. See a free use of this imagery about the life of man as grass and a flower in Jas 1:11. The best MSS. here read (thereof) after (glory) rather than (of man).
Withereth (). First aorist (gnomic, timeless) passive indicative of (see Jas 1:11).
Falleth (). Second aorist (gnomic, timeless) active indicative of (see Jas 1:11). In verse 25 note (unto you) like in 1:4 ( dative).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Of man. Following the reading ajnqrwpou, in the Septuagint, Isa 40:6, which Peter quotes here. But the best texts read aujthv, of it, or, as Rev., thereof.
Withereth [] . Literally, the writer puts it as in a narrative of some quick and startling event, by the use of the aorist tense : withered was the grass. Similarly, the flower fell [] . Lit., fell off, the force of ejk.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For all flesh is as grass. ‘ All depraved human flesh, like grass, is temporary, fading, decaying. Job 14:2; Psa 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8.
2) “And all the glory of man as the flower of grass
All the glory of man is declared to be as the (Gk. anthos) flower petal and grass – so soon to pass.
3) “The grass withereth.” When the grass stem withers or dries, the end of the flower beauty is at hand.
4) “And the flower thereof falleth away. ‘ The flower petal of it drops down to the earth. So is this life of flesh. How brief, uncertain, rapidly passing is this life. Its brevity should give men pause. Jas 1:10.
BREVITY OF LIFE
Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
–Shakespeare
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24 For all flesh He aptly quotes the passage from Isaiah to prove both clauses; that is, to make it evident how fading and miserable is the first birth of man, and how great is the grace of the new birth. For as the Prophet there speaks of the restoration of the Church, to prepare the way for it, he reduces men to nothing lest they should flatter themselves. I know that the words are wrongly turned by some to another sense; for some explain them of the Assyrians, as though the Prophet said, that there was no reason for the Jews to fear so much from flesh, which is like a fading flower. Others think that the vain confidence which the Jews reposed in human aids, is reproved. But the Prophet himself disproves both these views, by adding, that the people were as grass; for he expressly condemns the Jews for vanity, to whom he promised restoration in the name of the Lord. This, then, is what I have already said, that until their own emptiness has been shewn to men, they are not prepared to receive the grace of God. In short, such is the meaning of the Prophet: as exile was to the Jews like death, he promised them a new consolation, even that God would send prophets with a command of this kind. The Lord, he says, will yet say, “Comfort ye my people;” and that in the desert and the waste, the prophetic voice would yet be heard, in order that a way might be prepared for the Lord. (Isa 40:6.)
And as the obstinate pride which filled them, must have been necessarily purged from their minds, in order that an access might be open for God, the Prophet added what Peter relates here respecting the vanishing glory of the flesh. What is man? he says — grass; what is the glory of man? the flower of the grass. For as it was difficult to believe that man, in whom so much excellency appears, is like grass, the Prophet made a kind of concession, as though he had said, “Be it, indeed, that flesh has some glory; but lest that should dazzle your eyes, know that the flower soon withers.” He afterwards shews how suddenly everything that seems beautiful in men vanishes, even through the blowing of the Spirit of God; and by this he intimates, that man seems to be something until he comes to God, but that his whole brightness is as nothing in his presence; that, in a word, his glory is in this world, and has no place in the heavenly kingdom.
The grass withereth, or, has withered. Many think that this refers only to the outward man; but they are mistaken; for we must consider the comparison between God’s word and man. For if he meant only the body and what belongs to the present life, he ought to have said, in the second place, that the soul was far more excellent. But what he sets in opposition to the grass and its flower, is the word of God. It then follows, that in man nothing but vanity is found. Therefore, when Isaiah spoke of flesh and its glory, he meant the whole man, such as he is in himself; for what he ascribed as peculiar to God’s word, he denied to man. In short, the Prophet speaks of the same thing as Christ does in Joh 3:3, that man is wholly alienated from the kingdom of God, that he is nothing but an earthly, fading, and empty creature, until he is born again.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE BIBLE AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
1Pe 1:24-25
WE are well into the 20th century. One of the questions which is disturbing certain Christian minds today has to do with the Bible and the faith of this century.
There are those among biblical critics who boldly assert that the children of the 20th century will rid themselves of the religious superstition (?) of an inspired book.
There are certain Christians who seem to tremble with fear lest this prophecy prove true. Some of us are strangers to any such alarm.
If this Book can be overthrown by critics, or outgrown by civilization, we would give it up without a tear; considering its rejection no serious loss to the sons of men, for that would be proof positive that it was not from God.
If, on the contrary, it be from God, men may come and men may go, but as our text declares, The Word of the Lord endureth for ever.
It is not my thought then to attempt buttressing the Bible. It has no need. It is not my purpose even to speak one word in its defense. It has always been its own best advocate. But to keep men from going afloat, having their anchor lines cut by the knives of critics, or snapped by the winds of infidelity; that is a primal duty of every preacher, a solemn obligation of every Christian. To discharge that duty and establish the faltering faith of any present, I bring to you the great Apostles words:
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
To me there is abundant evidence that our Bible is Gods message to men. Some of you may recall the first sermon it was my privilege to preach from this pulpit; and you may remember the arguments presented then in defense of my faith in the Word. They were arranged under these heads: The Bible is incomparable in its origin; in its historical standing; in its moral beauty; in its ethical codes; and, in its saving power.
I am not disposed this morning to rehearse any of that discourse. The peculiar language of this text does not demand it, but calls rather for an additional word on the permanence of this Book as a proof of its inspiration.
The assertion of the Scripture is that, though men are mortal and must fade, Gods Word is immortal and will stand; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.
To my mind the record of endurance which this Book has made is a mighty proof that it is Gods message to men.
Dr. John Cummings said concerning the survival of the Scriptures: The Empire of Caesar is gone; the regions of Rome are mouldering in the dust; the avalanches that Napoleon hurled upon Europe have melted away; the pride of the Pharaohs is fallen; the pyramids they raised to be their tombs are sinking every day into the desert sands; Tyre is a rock for bleaching fishermens nets; Sidon has scarcely left a rock behind; but the Word of God still survives. All things threatening to extinguish it have only aided it; and it proves every day how transient is the noblest monument that men could build, how enduring is the least word that God has spoken. Tradition has dug for it a grave. Intolerance has lighted for it many a fagot. Many a Judas has betrayed it with a kiss. Many a Peter has denied it with an oath. Many a Demas has forsaken it, but the Word of God still endures.
There is little occasion for alarm lest the future century hold destructive critics in any great esteem.
It will hardly accept stupid ignorance as its instructor. The time is going by in which the scoff of unbelievers is understood as an argument. No thoughtful man can even now be influenced by the sneers and questions of those carrion crows of literature, who try to bring the Bible into contempt by tearing certain sentences from their connections and holding them to ridicule. There are societies in Chicago and New York and other parts of the world which exist for that contemptible thing. They may influence the ignorant, but the thoughtful know that such a method of Bible study does as great violence to its moral beauty and its practical worth, as the men who engage in it do violence to their own sense of right, their own immortal interests.
But little better than these is the school of infidels who, having first given themselves over to a reprobate life, seek to distract attention from their own shame by attacking the sacred Scriptures.
Of this class, Astruc, Voltaire, Hume, Payne, and Ingersoll were once leadersmen, the most of whom made no study whatever of the Word. Payne and Ingersoll boasted that they gave the Bible but a single reading. It is no wonder then that this school should have trusted to smart sayings rather than to any logic in their forms of argument.
But as Arthur Pierson once said: There is little danger that the Eternal Word shall go down before this fusilade of ridicule. Voltaire may have many disciples who follow his method and seek to cover the Word with caricatures just as a modern smart boy disfigures with charcoal the face and form of some antique Apollo; but as the statue remains in its ideal perfection when the mischievous markings are washed away, so the pure celestial beauty of the Word survives all attempts to invest it with blasphemous absurdity.
The man who attempts to pick flaws out of this moral sun of the universe and hold them to the attention of his fellows, will be treated by this century just as the professed scientist, who rejects the light of day as evil, because the sun of the physical universe has spots on its facethat is, with scorn.
The men who can sneer at the Book which has furnished moral sinew and bone to the bravest and best of all centuries, would grimace at God, if they came before His face in Heaven, and they do openly insult Him upon His own earth. I would as reasonably have accepted my ethics from Jack Johnson; my instruction in science from the late celebrated John Jasper of Virginia, as my religion from an Ingersoll or Paynemen who have assailed the merits of the Scriptures, but who confess that they never studied them.
So far as our observation goes, there are but two classes that follow such teachers, and those two classes are often merged in the same individual, the ignorant and the iniquitous. A man may know a good deal of some things and yet be profoundly stupid touching the sacred Word. Years ago at Columbus, Indiana, I was introduced to a young man of good mind and a locally famous biblical critic, who had excited some terror in the hearts of his Christian associates by his sharp arguments against the Word.
At the instance of his Christian parents, I called upon him. He plunged easily into an argument and gave me whole phrases from Ingersoll. Without answering, I said, You have read the Bible? Oh, yes.
I take it you are fairly familiar with it? Quite, he answered.
All right, said I, relate to me the story of Joseph. When he acknowledged that he had forgotten about Joseph, I said, Well Abraham will do, and when he could not recall anything about Abraham, I attempted to make it easy by saying, Ruth or Esther then. Well, he said, those are in the Old Testament, arent they? Yes, I replied.
Well, I am not so familiar with the Old Testament as with the New.
Very well, said I, tell me some of the parables of the New Testament.You have forgotten them?
Well report to me some of the miracles, in mere outline.
You cannot think of any now? Well, what are the Epistles of Paul?You never learned those by heart, and yet you say you are familiar with the Word? I am afraid you are only familiar with Ingersolls flings at the Word!
With confused face he confessed that he had given no attention whatever to the Scriptures. He came to meeting that night, and he showed that he had manliness about him by coming to the front seat for prayer, and by saying that he had been making a fool of himself. He stopped imagining that he was a Scripture critic confessing himself only an ignoramus!
It is no sign because one is sharp in business, successful in a profession, capable of argument and defense, that he may set himself up as a critic of the Scriptures. Information is the first essential to criticism. If you doubt the Word, I ask how much have you studied it? How many years have you put in, trying to master it? How many months even? Is it necessary for me to ask how many minutes? When did you see it last? I do declare some of the critics of the Scripture remind me of a certain Miss Elder.
Spratts and Hunker met one day, and Spratts said to Hunker, Miss Elder is much older than I thought. Impossible, answered his chum. Yes, she is, said Spratts. I asked her the other day if she had read sops Fables and she said, Yes; I read them when they first came out.
The future, I repeat, will laugh to scorn such ignorance, and when it has done that, four-fifths of the present-day Bible critics will be out of a job.
Dr. Arthur T. Pierson has been in his grave for many years, but his words are still apropos. In his Many Infallible Proofs, he says: Modern skepticism, with the lofty air of profound learning and philosophic doubt, approaches the Divine Word. Under pretense of a careful, conscientious, impartial investigation, as though reluctant not to believe that the Bible is all it claims to be, it applies its strictly scientific tests, and, like a physician who feels a feeble pulse, sounds a decayed lung, or tests a diseased heart, turns away with a sigh of disappointment and an ominous shake of the head. And yet the more we see of scientific and philosophic skepticism, the more we are satisfied that, like Lord Nelson, it covers the only sound eye, and declares it cant see with the blind one. Underneath all this assumption of judicial coolness and fairness we detect voluntary suppression of the truth, partial pleading, desperate corruptions of the doctrines and perversions of the facts of Scripture, and the same hot hate of the religion of the Bible, the same passion to overthrow it, the same resolute hostility to everything supernatural, as in the bolder and more defiant forms of attack. You may find this plausible skepticism in the sanctum of the editor, the silver tongue of the orator, the chair of the university professor, and even the pulpit of the nominal preacher. The Bible is, by the confession even of skeptics, the best of books, and, on the whole, most marked by all that gives permanent value; but they would have us believe that it is scarcely abreast with our advanced age, and that its claim to infallibility is absurd.
The so-called scientific assertions will fare little better in the 20th century. As Dr. Pierson further says, A falsehood is no more true because loudly spoken and with gesticulation that attempts to pound conviction into the hearer. And if anything has been demonstrated by the past, it is that science is unscientific. She is shifting upward, I grant you, into larger light; but she is a millennium removed from the perfect day. Her assumptions may be loudly spoken, but I am not sure that they will, on that account, make any deeper impression upon intelligent men and women.
I was reading awhile ago of an Irishman, who was writing an epistle at the public desk of a county post office. A friend, glancing over his shoulder, saw that every letter was a capital of enormous size, and so he asked, Pat, why do you make your letters so big? The Irishmans instant reply was, Sure, and your honor! this woman Im writin to, is dafe! The bold hand of so-called scientists, the big letters of higher critics, will carry no more conviction to the enlightened eyes of faithful Christians, than if they were less pretentious.
It is not our ears that are to be moved, else eloquence and high-sounding phrases might convince us; but it is our spiritual vision, our minds and our hearts. To convince these against this Book in its claims to be Gods Word, something more is required than is being presented at present. Prof. Sayce, himself a long time at the forefront of higher criticism, reformed and wrote, I can see no possible good to come from a criticism which sets out with preconceived ideas and assumptions, a criticism which treats imperfect evidence as if it were perfect, and builds its conclusions upon theories which have yet to be proved.
Years ago I was talking with one of Americas greatest archaeologists, a man who, in the judgment of many, is one of the most competent Bible students of this country, and he said to me, The little craft of the higher critics is coming more and more into turbulent waters. At no distant day its fragile frame, built of bits of ancient and doubtful tradition, and bolted up by Chaldean words and Hebrew phrases, will go to pieces, once for all, on the rocks of archaeology.
All flesh is as grass, and so with the glory of manhis wisdom is arrogance; his pride is presumption. All flesh is as grass * *. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.
The future will recognize the Holy Ghost as the only competent guide in Scripture study. It was not of the higher critic that Christ spake, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth, but it was of the Spirit.
If this Book is inspired by the Spirit of God, it is clear enough that its language can never be fully understood and rightly interpreted by an appeal to lexicon, languages, or other human learning.
No one understands Whitcomb Rileys poems as James Whitcomb himself understood them. A deacon in this church came into my study one day with a new volume of poems from the pen of Dr. F. S. Smith, and one present remarked, When he was in this church, at the Baptist anniversaries, he read one of his own poems.
He could best interpret it. The author is always the best interpreter, so far at least as thought and meaning are concerned. It may seem very credulous to some, very verdant to others of my learned brethren, but I have a profound conviction that the safest interpretation of the Word, the interpretation that shall seem most scientific to the coming centuries, does not emanate from those students who approach the Bible with scalpel, but rather from those men who are Spirit-filled, and who speak forth what He has first spoken to them. Beloved! prayer is essential to preaching, and the help of the Holy Spirit is the one we need as guide in the best Bible study.
From the beach you bring a conch-shell, and whenever you will, you may put that shell to your ear and press it until other sounds are shut out, and in it you will hear the voice of its author, the sound of the sea. The Bible also has its voice, the proof of its origin. Listen to it with attentive ear, shut out the sounds of worldly wisdom, selfish pride, and scientific conceit, and from it you will hear, what Pierson calls, the music of the celestials, but what I prefer to name, the still, small voice of the Spirit of God.
The future will have place for preachers of the whole Gospel. Gods Word is the Gospel, and the Gospel is Gods Word. Not the New Testament only; not the Old Testament merely, but the New and the Old, one BookGods Book, mans only Bible! Hence Peters saying, This is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you (1Pe 1:25).
There are those who make the mechanical division of Old and New Testaments a point of cleavage in moral and religious instruction. They openly say, We dont preach from the Old Testament, and some have made advance upon this and are not preaching the New Testament, but the Gospels only, and the latest fad of these limiters of the Word is this, We do not preach what Paul says, nor yet what Peter says, nor yet John; the words of Jesus are our only Gospel. Apparently it has not occurred to these progressives (?) that if Peter and Paul and John are not inspired men whose words are inerrant, we cannot possibly tell what the words of Jesus were, since we must trust these same for a report of them.
For me, the Gospel is commensurate with the Word. Peter held the same conception, hence our text, This is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. The Gospel in the Old Testament? Yes, plenty of it! The Gospel of repentance in Moses and the Prophets! The Gospel of faith there also! The Gospel of atonement; substitution in Leviticus and in Isaiah! The Gospel of Blood everywhere! What a Gospel!
If I understand my commission, it is this: Preach the Word, and as I understand preaching the Word, it is to Preach Christ as mans only Saviour.
That is what every preacher must do who stands by the Scripture. As all Roman roads lead to the Eternal City, so all Scriptures center in Gods Son, even Jesus the Saviour of men. He is the hope of the world. When we mark the so-called sermons of Liberalists, Universalists, Higher Critics, and such, we wonder if they have ever seen Jesus; if they have ever come into living touch with Gods saving truth. It seems almost impossible that a man who has searched the scroll of Revelation until he has found, at its, center, Christ, could ever consent to preach another Gospel than that of Gods Word. To us, it is so much above the man-made philosophies that to turn back to them and offer them to sin-sick souls, in lieu of this Gospel, is the most terrible of all sacrilege.
Some summers ago, a speaker in one of our B. Y. P. U. Conventions told how Dannecker, the great sculptor, had a vision of the Christ, and sought to realize it in marble. After many years of toil, the statue was finished, and seeking a child from the street, the sculptor asked, What is that? The little one answered, A good man, Sir! And Dannecker burst into tears, dissatisfied. Back into his studio he went, and when his ideal was again materialized, he called a child from the street and said, What is that? The child looked at it in wonder; the light of revelation spread over the little face; then every feature softened and, bursting into tears, she said, Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God, and Dannecker was content. When, afterward, Napoleon I summoned him to Paris to make a Venus for his gallery, the sculptor sent this reply, It would be sacrilege, sir; I have had a vision of the Christ.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(24) For all flesh is as grass.The citation is from Isa. 40:6-8, and varies between the Hebrew and the LXX. in the kind of way which shows that the writer was familiar with both. But the passage is by no means quoted only to support the assertion, in itself ordinary enough, that the Word of the Lord abideth for ever. It is always impossible to grasp the meaning of an Old Testament quotation in the mouth of a Hebrew without taking into account the context of the original. Nothing is commoner than to omit purposely the very words which contain the whole point of the quotation. Now these sentences in Isaiah stand in the forefront of the heralds proclamation of the return of God to Sion, always interpreted of the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. This proclamation of the Messianic kingdom comprises words which St. Peter has purposely omitted, and they contain the point of the quotation. The omitted words are, the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the peoplei.e., Israelis grass. Immediately before our quotation went the words, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; statements which so shocked the LXX. translator that he entirely omitted 1Pe. 1:7, and changed the previous verse so as to make some difference between Jew and Gentile (as Godet points out on Luk. 3:6), into the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. i.e., to Israel, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. The comment of Bishop Lowth on the original passage will well bring out what St. Peter means here: What is the import of [the proclamation]? that the people, the flesh, is of a vain temporary nature; that all its glory fadeth, and is soon gone; but that the Word of God endureth for ever. What is this but a plain opposition of the flesh to the Spirit; of the carnal Israel to the spiritual; of the temporary Mosaic economy to the eternal Christian dispensation? Here, then, St. Peter is quoting one of the greatest of Messianic prophecies; and his Hebrew readers would at once understand the Hebrew method of the quotation, and see that he was calling attention to the absolute equality of Jew and Gentile there proclaimed. Generation of the corruptible seed, physical descent from Abraham, was the glory of the flesh (observe that according to the best text St. Peter does not follow the LXX., and insert of man, but follows the Hebrew, and says all the glory thereof, i.e., of the flesh). On this the Spirit of the Lord had breathed (Psa. 104:30); and the merely fleshly glory had withered like grass. But the word of our God, which, mark well, St. Peter purposely changes into the Word of the Lord, i.e., of Jesus Christ, incidentally showing his Hebrew readers that he believed Jesus Christ to be our Godthis abideth for ever. The engendering by this is imperishable, i.e., involves a privilege which is not, like that of the Jewish blood, transitory: it will never become a matter of indifference whether we have been engendered with this, as is the case now (Gal. 6:15) with regard to the corruptible seed; no further revelation will ever level up the unregenerate to be the equals of the regenerate. And in this regeneration all flesh share alike. The teaching of the Baptist, who fulfilled this prophecy, is here again apparent. (See Mat. 3:9.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. For Confirming the statement that the word of God lives and abides, by Isaiah, Isa 40:5-7, probably quoted from memory and accommodated. It beautifully places the frailty and transitoriness of man and his works in contrast with the enduring character of God’s word.
Flesh Man in his earthly, human life.
Glory His best and grandest possessions and productions, in which he prides himself, and which win admiration and honour from others, whether strength, wealth, fame, place, or power. But whatever they promise, like the grass they wither in an hour, and, like the leaves of its faded flower, they quickly fall.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever.’
Peter now backs up the imperishable nature of the word of God from Scripture (Isa 40:6; Isa 40:8). Men are made of flesh. And flesh is like herbage, it withers and dies, and its glory dies with it. All its glory is like the flowers that grow from herbage. They flourish for a while, and they make such a display, and then they wither and the flower droops and falls. But the word of the Lord abides and flourishes for ever. This ‘word of the Lord’ is speaking primarily of the word of the Lord which is God’s effective voice. It has in mind that God speaks in men’s hearts resulting in a transformation which will last for ever. But it includes His written word, when enlightened by the Spirit, for that is one of the instruments that He uses.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Pe 1:24. For all flesh is as grass, &c. Flesh is often, by a common figure, put for man: but perhaps the apostle here used the word to intimate that he meant the body of man, frail and short-lived like the tender herb; by way of opposition to the soul, which he considered as incorruptible. All the glory of man, means every thing wherein men pride themselves, or which renders them admired or illustrious;beauty, strength, learning, eloquence, titles, riches, and honours: all these are only like a fair flower, which looks beautiful for a little while, but soon fades and withers away. See Jam 1:10-11 and Isa 40:6-8 the place from whence St. Peter quoted these words.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Pe 1:24-25 . Quotation from Isa 40:6 ; Isa 40:8 , slightly altered from the LXX. in order to confirm the eternal endurance of the word by a passage from the Old Testament. [107]
, as in 1Pe 1:16 ; the passage here quoted not only confirms the idea , but it gives the reason why the new birth has taken place through the living and abiding word of God (so, too, Hofm.). The reason is this, that it may be a birth into life that passes not away.
i.e. ; caro fragilitatem naturae indicat (Aretius); not “all creature existence,” embracing both stones and plants, etc. (Schott), for of a plant it cannot be said that it is .
] is to be found neither in the Hebrew text nor in the LXX.
] instead of , the LXX. has ; in Hebrew, . Incorrectly Vorstius: Ap. nomine carnis et gloriae ejus intelligit praecipue legem Mosis et doctrinas hominum; Calvin again rightly: omne id quod in rebus humanis magnificum dicitur.
. . . gives the point of comparison, that wherein the and its resemble the and its ; but it does not emphatically assert that “the relation of the flesh to its glory in point of nothingness is quite the same as that of the grass in its bloom” (Schott).
] , if it be the true reading, is an addition made by Peter, for it is to be found neither in the LXX. nor in the Hebrew text. By the preterites and the transitoriness is more strongly marked; cf. Jas 1:11 ; Jas 5:2 . 1Pe 1:25 . Instead of , the LXX. have , . can hardly have been written on purpose by Peter “because he had in his mind Christ’s word” (Luthardt). James refers to the same passage here cited by Peter, without, however, quoting it verbatim .
In the following words the apostle makes the application: ] is not used “substantively here,” as the predicate of the sentence equal to: that is; i.e. eternally abiding word of God is the word of God preached among you (Schott); but it refers back simply to the preceding , and is equivalent to: this word, of which it is said that it remaineth for ever, is the word which has been preached among you.
] Periphrasis for the gospel. In the O. T. it denotes the word of promise, here the gospel. Peter identifies them with each other, as indeed in their inmost nature they are one, containing the one eternal purpose of God for the redemption of the world, distinguished only according to different degrees of development.
] i.e. ; in the expression here used, however, the reference to the hearers comes more distinctly into prominence; cf. 1Th 2:9 , and Lnemann in loc .
In the last words Peter has spoken of the gospel preached to the churches to which he writes, as the word of God, by which his readers are begotten again of the incorruptible seed of divine life, so that, as such, in obedience to the truth thus communicated to them, they must sanctify themselves to unfeigned love of the brethren.
[107] The context in no way indicates that the apostle had particularly desired to make emphatic “that natural nationalities , with all their glory, form but a tie for these earthly periods of time” (Schott).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
Ver. 24. All flesh is grass ] To live is but to lie dying. Can a picture continue that is drawn upon the ice? Faenea quadam faelicitate temporaliter florent, saith Austin, after David, Psa 37:2 . The wicked flourish as grass, but they shall be cut down in their flourish.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 .] Because (Scripture proof that the word of God lives and abides. “Locum Jes. xl. 6 f. citat ad probationem utriusque membri, hoc est ut constet, quam fluxa et misera sit prima hominis nativitas, et quanta regenerationis gratia.” Calv.) all flesh (= man in his life of and only: “homo ex vetere generatione,” as Bengel) is as ( is neither in Heb. nor in LXX) grass, and all glory of it (“quicquid ex carne veluti flos ex gramine suo efflorescit,” Wies.) as flower of grass. The grass was dried up (the aor.; the fact being related as in a tale; so in Jas 1:11 . In more idiomatic English, we should say “ hath dried up ”), and the flower ( thereof ) fell ( is fallen , see above) away :
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Pe 1:24 f. = Isa 40:6-8 , adduced as endorsement of the comparison instituted between natural generation and divine regeneration, with gloss explaining the saying of Jehovah ( cf. Heb 1:1 f.). The only divergences from the LXX (which omits as Jerome notes, perhaps through homoedeuton quia spiritus dei flavit in eo: vere foenum est populus; asuit foenum cecidit flos) are that is inserted before . (so Targum), and that is put for (so Heb., etc.) and for (in accordance with the proper reading of Jehovah in the omitted verse).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
grass. Compare Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11.
man. The texts read “it”, referring to “flesh”.
withereth = withered. Compare Jam 1:11, where the verbs are in the past tense, as here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] Because (Scripture proof that the word of God lives and abides. Locum Jes. xl. 6 f. citat ad probationem utriusque membri, hoc est ut constet, quam fluxa et misera sit prima hominis nativitas, et quanta regenerationis gratia. Calv.) all flesh (= man in his life of and only: homo ex vetere generatione, as Bengel) is as ( is neither in Heb. nor in LXX) grass, and all glory of it (quicquid ex carne veluti flos ex gramine suo efflorescit, Wies.) as flower of grass. The grass was dried up (the aor.; the fact being related as in a tale; so in Jam 1:11. In more idiomatic English, we should say hath dried up), and the flower (thereof) fell (is fallen, see above) away:
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Pe 1:24. , all flesh) Isa 40:6-8. Flesh, that is, man by old descent.- , as grass) The Septuagint does not contain , as,[12] nor , its, in the next clause.-, glory) The wisdom, strength, riches, and righteousness of man.-, is dried up) from the roots.- , the grass) that is, the flesh.-, the flower) that is, its glory.-, is wont to fall away) in the highest degree.
[12] Hence the omission of the word in this place is both approved of in the margin of the 2 Ed. as the better reading, and is noticed in the Germ. Vers. In like manner presently, the reading is preferred to the reading , which was held in more esteem by the larger Ed., in the margin of Ed. 2, and in the Germ. Vers.-E. B.
Lachm. omits , with AC (but Tisch. claims C in favour of ) and MSS. of Vulg. both Syr. Versions, and Origen. Tisch. inserts , with B (judging from silence of collators), C (according to Tisch.), MSS. of Vulg. and Memph. and Orig. 1,226a. Also is read by ABC Vulg. both Syr. Memph. Orig. is read by Rec. Text, with inferior authority. Also is added after by C Vulg. Memph. But AB, the best MS. of Vulg. (Amiat.), both Syr. Versions, and Origen, omit it.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
For: or, For that
all flesh: 2Ki 19:26, Psa 37:2, Psa 90:5, Psa 92:7, Psa 102:4, Psa 103:15, Psa 129:6, Isa 40:6-8, Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11, Jam 4:14, 1Jo 2:17
Reciprocal: Gen 31:1 – glory 2Sa 21:15 – and David waxed faint Job 4:19 – crushed Job 7:6 – swifter Job 8:12 – General Job 14:2 – like Psa 49:12 – in honour Psa 87:5 – of Zion Psa 102:11 – I am withered Pro 31:30 – Favour Ecc 3:18 – concerning Isa 37:27 – as the grass of Isa 51:12 – man which Isa 64:6 – we all Mat 4:8 – and showeth Mat 6:30 – clothe Luk 4:6 – and the Luk 12:28 – which Joh 6:27 – the meat Act 25:23 – with 1Co 7:29 – that both 1Co 7:31 – for 2Co 11:18 – many Rev 8:7 – the third
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ABIDING WORD
All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1Pe 1:24-25
In order to enter into the spirit of the Apostles utterances, we need to mark carefully each term of the comparison, or rather the contrast, which he establishes here. One term expresses, in elegant and forcible language, the thought of decay, the other of vitality. He speaks first of things which fade and pass away, then of that which flourishes and abides for ever.
The Word of God abides:
I. Through the different periods of human history.In all ages, look in where you will, you will find that one part of the furniture of this world has been the Word of God. Jewish prophets referred to what went before, and explained it; they point forward to what is to come after. Returned captives from Babylon collect the sacred books. The evangelists and apostles add to and complete it. Amidst all kind of changes and destruction the Word of God has come down to our own time; and it is part of the lustre of the last hundred years that the Bible has been accessible to six hundred millions of the human race.
II. Through the manifold assaults of human opposition.Virulent and vehement has that opposition been under various forms, and yet the truth revealed from heaven has held on its way. At one time the roll on which a part of the Word was inscribed by a persecuted prophet was cut in pieces with a penknife by an impious king, and the pieces thrown into the fire, burning on the hearth before him. At another the Apostle who proclaimed that Word stood in chains before a cruel tyrant, master of the legions that governed the world. And those two instances are types of innumerable others when the power and the violence were against the Word, and on the side of its advocates were weakness and suffering. At other times men of high-sounding pretensions assailed the Word of God with arguments drawn from the depths and the heights of human reasoning and human research, and refused even to examine the credentials of the Book which claims to be inspired of God; and was it not Voltaire who scoffingly said that he allowed fifty years for the existence of belief in the Word? A man of lower condition here in England, and full of malice against Christianity, said, I have gone through the Bible as a man would go through a wood with an axe on his shoulder to fell trees; let them lie; other priests, if they can, may replant them; they may, perhaps, stick them in the ground, but they will never grow. Thus kings, emperors, and philosophers, and common people have, in various ways, assailed the Word of God; but no weapon formed against it can prosper. It holds on its way.
III. Through the various stages of human progress.This is very important to observe; for we not seldom hear the taunting words of reproach, The Bible did very well for those who lived in our fathers days, and in the old time before them; but we want something more advanced in these days of progress. Those who speak thus forget that while there is much progress in outward things, the real deep sorrows and wants of the heart of man are the same they always were; and therefore the same consolation and mercy which were needed in old times are needed now. Does it alter the sorrow of bereavement, for instance, because the tidings which formerly took months to come from India are now conveyed by the electric flash? Are not the words which comforted the sorrowing sisters at Bethany just as appropriate now when mourners reach the churchyard gate in any part of England, I am the Resurrection, etc.? And when a man is convinced of sin and in fear of Gods wrath and damnation, the swiftest appliances of modern travel have no power to help him, because they cannot take him away from himself; and he needs now, as men needed of old, to believe in the word, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. As one in the foremost ranks of modern philosophers has said, Science can triumph over the waves of the sea, but she has no secret for calming the disquietudes within. The Word is as much needed and as precious now as it ever was. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
Bishop Ryan.
Illustration
In some old Bibles of your grandfather, between the leaves which enclose some cherished passage that had often cheered the old mans heart, there is, perhaps, a little relic of the pastTis but a little faded flowerthe colour gone, but a good deal of the form still there. You must touch it very tenderly or it will crumble into dust and be all gone. It abides after a fashion, as human things abide; but it does not live and abide as Divine things live and abide. But the promise, over against which the little faded flower is lying, not only abides but liveslives! It lives in ten thousand hearts as well as in yours, as rich in colour, as fresh in fragrance, as delightful to the soul as ever it was.
ST.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Pe 1:24. This verse indicates the temporal nature of man as regards his flesh. It is material and subject to decay, even as the glory of vegetation is destined to pass away. The apostle is not underestimating the importance of man, for even his fleshly body is made in the likeness of God. The point is to impress upon the disciples the truth that their spiritual relation to Him is not subject to decay as the fleshly nature is. Having become a part of the Lord’s spiritual race, they should honor that relationship by a righteous life.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Pe 1:24. For all flesh is as grass. Peter breaks off into the rapid, vivid terms in which the prophet of Isaiah 40 speaks of his commission. The air is full of inspiration, of Divine calls and prophetic voices (M. Arnold). The prophet hears a voice say to him, Cry; he asks what he shall cry, and the voice gives him as his cry this antithesis between the decayit may be the premature decay (for the breath of Jehovah bloweth when it listeth”)to which even the brightest and best of earthly things are liable, and the necessary permanence of Jehovah and His revelation (Cheyne). The particular revelation or word there affirmed to stand infallibly for ever is Gods promise regarding Israel. Here that is identified with the word now preached through the Gospel. The phrase all flesh (which in the Old Testament is characteristic of certain books only, occurring, e.g., repeatedly in the Pentateuch and the second half (never in the first) of Isaiah, four times in Jeremiah, three times in Ezekiel, once in Zechariah) embraces man and all that is of man as he is by nature.
and all its glory as flower of grass. The reading followed by the E. V., the glory of man, must yield to the better reading, its glory. If the flesh, therefore, is compared to grass (a familiar biblical figure of transient human life, cf. Psa 90:5-6; Psa 103:15-16; Job 8:12; Job 14:2; Isa 37:27; Isa 1:12; Jas. 7:10, 11), and one to which the rapidity of growth and decay in Eastern climates gives additional force, the glory of the flesh, by which is meant its goodliest outcome, the most splendid manifestations of mans life, is compared to the still more tender bloom that brightens on the flower only to fall oft There are no fields of amaranth on this side of the grave; there are no voices, O Rhodop, that are not soon mute, however tuneful; there is no name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo is not faint at last (Landor).
withered was the grass, and the flower (the word thereof is not sustained by the best authorities) fell off. A lifelike picture of the actual occurrence, the tenses used being those of direct narration (aptly given by Wycliffe
dried up. . . . fell down), which may be rendered, as in the E. V., by our English present, as expressing what takes place habitually, but which rather represent the tiling as witnessed by the eye of the reporter.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Having the Gospel immediately in view, Peter substitutes the word of the Lord here for the word of our God, which is the phrase in Isa 40:8, in both the Hebrew text and the Greek. Other departures from the Old Testament passage, as we have it, also appear, some of which are of minor interest, others of a remarkable kind. Not only is the qualifying as introduced before the grass, the stronger term glory given for goodliness, the phrase flower of grass substituted for flower of the field, and fadeth displaced by fell off, but the important section of the Hebrew text which ascribes the decadence of grass and flower to the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon them (1Pe 1:7) is entirely omitted. In these particulars, Peter follows the text of the ancient Greek translation. On the other hand, he departs from the Greek text, and returns to the Hebrew, in adopting all its glory instead of all the glory of man. It appears, therefore, that Peter makes a very free quotation, or rather, that he does not bring in this passage as a formal quotation sustaining his statement by an appeal to Scripture, but simply expresses in Old Testament words which come easily to his lips a reason for the incorruptibility which he attributes to the new life, namely, that it is due to the action of a power which endures like God Himself. This is supported by the fact that the passage is introduced not by the ordinary conjunction for, but by a different term, used also in 1Pe 1:16, meaning rather because.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you, or rather, and the word of the gospel which was preached unto you was this. The sentence is not parallel, as it is taken by many, to Rom 10:5-13, where the nearness or accessibility of the Word is in view. What is affirmed is not that this Word, of which things so glorious are said, is yet so near them as to be at their hand in the Gospel, but that the good tidings which were brought to these Asiatic Christians by Paul and his comrades were nothing else than that Word of the Lord of which the prophet spake, and nothing less enduring than the Voice of the desert had proclaimed that Word to be. So Peter identifies the revelation in the form of the ancient word of promise with the revelation in the form of the recent word of preaching; which he says, also, was not merely to them, or for their benefit, but unto them, addressed to them personally and borne in among them. He gives implicit witness at the same time to the fact that what he himself had now to teach them was nothing but the same grace which Paul and others had proclaimed. Hence the past tense, was preached, as referring to their first acquaintance with the Gospel, when others than he who wrote to them had been the means of conveying to them the Lords enduring Word, and thus creating in them a life capable of a stedfast and undecaying love. The term used for the Word in 1Pe 1:23 (Logos) gives place now to a different term (rhema), which is supposed to express only the word as uttered (while the other denotes the word whether uttered or unuttered), and to give a more concrete view of it. How far the distinction can be carried out, however, is doubtful. And it is more than doubtful whether in the present instance the change is due to aught else than the fact that the Greek translation which Peter seems to follow uses the latter word in the passage cited.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle closes the chapter, by setting before them the excellency of their spiritual regenerate state, compared with all other excellences and endowments whatsoever: All flesh, that is, flesh with all its glory, is a fading, dying, perishing thing; it flags like the grass, and fades like the flower: sweetness, which affects the smell; beauty, that affects the eye; softness and smoothness, which affect the touch; all these our apostle passes over, and speaks of the flower, not as flourishing, but as withering; not as springing up, but as falling away. The grass withereth the flower falleth away.
Learn hence, That man, when most flourishing, with all the ornaments of wit and wealth, beauty and honour, is fading, and near to withering.–Thus David describes them, As for man, his days are as grass; as the flower of the field so he flourishes; the wind passeth over it and it is gone. Psa 103:15-16 Though the flower be neither cut nor cropt, yet a breath of wind blasts it, and blows away the beauty of it: All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
The Temporary Material World Versus the Abiding Word One would never know it by observing the way people live grasping after all they can find in this material world, but all this is temporary. Peter uses a quote which comes from Isa 40:6-8 . Clearly, Christians are surrounded by things that are temporary. All flesh will die as surely as grass goes from green to brown in the fall and winter months. All of man’s greatness and his achievements will fall away like the flowers do. In contrast, the Lord’s word is permanent. That word is the good news God’s people preach. Part of what makes it good is its lasting value versus the temporary good of things and accomplishments in this life ( 1Pe 1:24-25 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Pe 1:24-25. For all flesh Every human creature, is transient and withering as grass The word , here rendered grass, denotes not only what we generally call grass, but all kinds of herbs; and among the rest, those which have stalks and flowers. And all the glory of man His learning, wisdom, wealth, power, dignity, authority, dominion; as the flower of grass Which is yet more frail than the grass itself. The grass withereth of itself, if not cut down by the scythe of the mower; and the body of man gradually wastes away and perishes, even if it be not cut off by some unexpected stroke; and the flower thereof falleth away Drops its blooming honours, and falls dying to the ground; and thus precarious and uncertain are all the dependances which we can place on perishing creatures. But the word of the Lord His revealed truth, by which you are regenerated or begotten again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance; endureth for ever Always remains true and infallible, a foundation on which we may safely build our present confidence and future hopes. The reader will recollect that this is a quotation from Isa 40:6-8; where the preaching of the gospel is foretold and recommended, from the consideration that every thing which is merely human, and among the rest the noblest races of mankind, with all their glory and grandeur, their honour, riches, beauty, strength, and eloquence; as also the arts which men have invented, and the works they have executed, all decay as the flowers of the field. But the incorruptible seed, the gospel, called by the prophet the word of the Lord, shall be preached while the world standeth; and the divine nature, which it is the instrument of conveying to believers, will remain in them to all eternity. James likewise hath illustrated the brevity and uncertainty of human life, with its glory, by the same figures, Jas 1:11.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 24
All flesh; all that comes from flesh, that is, from corruptible seed, as mentioned in the 1 Peter 1:23.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:24 {14} For all {l} flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
(14) A reason why we need this heavenly birth, that is, because men, though their glory may not be great, are by nature void of all true and sound goodness.
(l) The word, “flesh”, shows the weakness of our nature, which is chiefly to be considered in the flesh itself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This quotation from Isa 40:6-8 contrasts the transitory character of nature and the eternality of God’s Word (cf. Jas 1:10-11). Every natural thing eventually dies and disappears, the opposite of God’s living and abiding Word (cf. Mat 24:35; Mar 13:31; Luk 21:33). The seed lives and abides, and so do those to whom it gives new life.
"My friend, we need the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God above everything else. I do not mean to minimize the place of music, the place of methods, and the place of organization, but there is absolutely no substitute for the Word of God today." [Note: J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, 5:687.]
The duty of Christians to one another then is to love one another unremittingly. This is true even of Christians who are suffering for their commitment to follow God faithfully. We can and should do so because we are genuine brethren and because we will abide forever.