[1 Pet. 2:11] Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
[12] Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify G-d in the day of visitation.
Strangers means, properly, one dwelling near, neighboring; then a by-dweller, a sojourner, one without the rights of citizenship, as distinguished from a citizen; and it means here that Believers are not properly citizens of this world, but that their citizenship is in heaven, and that they are here mere sojourners.
Pilgrims is one who travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to some holy object; then a traveler, a wanderer. The meaning here is, that Believers have no permanent home on earth; their citizenship is not here; they are mere sojourners, and they are passing on to their eternal home in the heavens. They should, therefore, act as become such persons as sojourners and travelers do.
Even while engaged here in the necessary callings of life--their studies, their farming, and their merchandize--their thoughts and affections should be on other things. One in a strange land thinks much of his country and home; a pilgrim, much of the land to which he goes; and even while his time and attention may be necessarily occupied by the arrangements needful for the journey, his thoughts and affections will be far away.
We should not burden ourselves with much of this world's goods. Many professed Believers get so many worldly things around them, that it is impossible for them to make a journey to heaven. They burden themselves as no traveler would, and they make no progress. A traveler takes along as few things as possible; and a staff is often all that a pilgrim has. We make the most rapid progress in our journey to our final home when we are least encumbered with the things of this world.
To be a Believer means to fight against the lusts of the flesh, and the battle continues as long as we live in this flesh. It is easy for us to see how the pursuit of fleshly lusts can destroy our body physically. Just ask the alcoholic dying of liver disease, or ask the sexually immoral person with AIDS or one of the 350,000 people on this earth who contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Disease and death of the inner man is a penalty that no one given over to the flesh escapes.
The meaning is that indulgence in these things makes war against the nobler faculties of the soul against the conscience, the understanding, the memory, the judgment, the exercise of a pure imagination. There is not a faculty of the mind, however brilliant in itself, which will not be ultimately ruined by indulgence in the carnal propensities of our nature.
A good walk does not make us pious, but we must first be pious and believe before we attempt to lead a good course. Faith first receives from God, and then love gives to our neighbor.
The heathen by whom you are surrounded, and who will certainly observe your conduct. This kind of godly living makes our conduct honorable among those who don't know G-d yet. Though we can expect that they will speak against you as evildoers, they can still be brought to glorify G-d by seeing our godly conduct.
Gentiles shall behold in Greek means, "they shall be eye-witnesses of"; "shall behold on close inspection"; as opposed to their "ignorance" of the true character of Believers, by judging on mere hearsay."
Glorify is forming a high estimate of the G-d whom Believers worship, from the exemplary conduct of Believers themselves. We must do well, not with a view to our own glory, but to the glory of G-d.
The day of visitation in G-d's grace; when G-d shall visit them in mercy.
So what did we learn while passing through this land?
1. Purify your souls:
(a) As strangers on earth who must not allow yourselves to be kept back by earthly lusts,
(b) Because these lusts war against the soul's salvation.
2. Walk piously among unbelievers:
(a) So that they may cease to calumniate Believers,
(b) May themselves be converted to Messiah.
(c) Remember we are only passing through.
Is not the pure and holy walk of Believers an occasion of His bending His footsteps down to earth to bless dying sinners, and to scatter spiritual blessings with a liberal hand?
Gentiles Grafted In
[1 Pet. 2:7] Unto you therefore which believe he is precious:
[9] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
[10] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of G-d: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Gentiles are brought into a condition where we can appreciate His worth. To see the value of food, we must be hungry; of clothing, we must be exposed to the winter's blast; of home, we must be wanderers without a dwelling-place; of medicine, we must be sick; of competence, we must be poor. So, to see the value of the Savior, we must see that we are poor, helpless, dying sinners; that the soul is of inestimable worth; that we have no merit of our own; and that unless some one interpose, we must perish. Every one who becomes a true Believer is brought to this condition; and in this state, he can appreciate the worth of the Savior.
We have had benefactors who have done us good, but none who have done us such good as He has. We have had parents, teachers, kind friends, who have provided for us, taught us, relieved us; but all that they have done for us is slight, compared with what He has done. The fruit of their kindness, for the most part, pertains to the present world; and they have not laid down their lives for us. What He has done pertains to our welfare to all eternity; it is the fruit of the sacrifice of His own life. How precious should the name and memory of one be who has laid down His own life to save us!
We have no hope of salvation but in Him. Take that away and blot out the name and the work of the Redeemer we will see no way, in which we could be saved; we have no prospect of being saved. As our hope of heaven, therefore, is valuable to us; as it supports us in trial; as it comforts us in the hour of death, so is the Savior precious: and the estimate which we form of Him is in proportion to the value of such a hope.
In His character, abstractedly considered, there was more to attract, to interest, to love, than in that of any other one who ever lived in our world. There was more purity, more compassion more that was great in trying circumstances, more that was generous and self-denying, more that resembled G-d, than in any other one who ever appeared on earth. In the moral firmament, the character of Messiah sustains a pre-eminence above all others who have lived, as great as the glory of the sun is superior to the feeble lights, though so numerous, which glimmer at midnight. With such views of him, it is not to be wondered at, that, however he may be estimated by the world, "to them who believe he is precious!"
The same is made the head of the corner. That is, though it is rejected by the mass of men, yet G-d has in fact made it the corner stone on which the whole spiritual temple rests
Peter's message is nonetheless wonderful: "You didn't used to belong, but now you belong to G-d and among G-d's people." The Gentiles being grafted in and the purpose for these high privileges are not so we can grow proud, but so that we can proclaim the praises of Him who has done such great things for us. We did not replace the Israelites but joined heirs with them, the Father meant us to be one and work along side each other.
It was G-d's pure mercy, not our merits, which made the blessed change in our state, a thought which ought to kindle our lively gratitude, to be shown with our life, as well as our lips.
[9] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
[10] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of G-d: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Gentiles are brought into a condition where we can appreciate His worth. To see the value of food, we must be hungry; of clothing, we must be exposed to the winter's blast; of home, we must be wanderers without a dwelling-place; of medicine, we must be sick; of competence, we must be poor. So, to see the value of the Savior, we must see that we are poor, helpless, dying sinners; that the soul is of inestimable worth; that we have no merit of our own; and that unless some one interpose, we must perish. Every one who becomes a true Believer is brought to this condition; and in this state, he can appreciate the worth of the Savior.
We have had benefactors who have done us good, but none who have done us such good as He has. We have had parents, teachers, kind friends, who have provided for us, taught us, relieved us; but all that they have done for us is slight, compared with what He has done. The fruit of their kindness, for the most part, pertains to the present world; and they have not laid down their lives for us. What He has done pertains to our welfare to all eternity; it is the fruit of the sacrifice of His own life. How precious should the name and memory of one be who has laid down His own life to save us!
We have no hope of salvation but in Him. Take that away and blot out the name and the work of the Redeemer we will see no way, in which we could be saved; we have no prospect of being saved. As our hope of heaven, therefore, is valuable to us; as it supports us in trial; as it comforts us in the hour of death, so is the Savior precious: and the estimate which we form of Him is in proportion to the value of such a hope.
In His character, abstractedly considered, there was more to attract, to interest, to love, than in that of any other one who ever lived in our world. There was more purity, more compassion more that was great in trying circumstances, more that was generous and self-denying, more that resembled G-d, than in any other one who ever appeared on earth. In the moral firmament, the character of Messiah sustains a pre-eminence above all others who have lived, as great as the glory of the sun is superior to the feeble lights, though so numerous, which glimmer at midnight. With such views of him, it is not to be wondered at, that, however he may be estimated by the world, "to them who believe he is precious!"
The same is made the head of the corner. That is, though it is rejected by the mass of men, yet G-d has in fact made it the corner stone on which the whole spiritual temple rests
Peter's message is nonetheless wonderful: "You didn't used to belong, but now you belong to G-d and among G-d's people." The Gentiles being grafted in and the purpose for these high privileges are not so we can grow proud, but so that we can proclaim the praises of Him who has done such great things for us. We did not replace the Israelites but joined heirs with them, the Father meant us to be one and work along side each other.
It was G-d's pure mercy, not our merits, which made the blessed change in our state, a thought which ought to kindle our lively gratitude, to be shown with our life, as well as our lips.
Brotherly Love
[1 Pet. 2:1] Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
[2] As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
[3] If so be ye have tasted that the L-rd is gracious.
Wherefore resumes the exhortation begun in 1:22. Seeing that you are born again of an incorruptible seed, is not again entangled in evil, which "has no substantial being, but is acting in contrariety to the being formed in us.
Laying aside once for all: so the Greek aorist expresses as a garment put off. The exhortation applies to Christians alone, for in none else is the new nature existing which, as "the inward man" (Eph 3:16) can cast off the old as an outward thing, so that the Christian, through the continual renewal of his inward man, can also exhibit himself externally as a new man. But to unbelievers the demand is addressed, that inwardly, in regard to the mind, they must become changed, re-pent.
Malice is utterly inconsistent with the ‘love of the brethren,’ unto which ye have ‘purified your souls’. The vices here are those which offend against the Brotherly Love inculcated above. Each succeeding one springs out of that which immediately proceeds, so as to form a genealogy of the sins against love. Out of malice springs guile; out of guile, hypocrises (pretending to be what we are not, and not showing what we really are; the opposite of ‘love unfeigned’, and ‘without dissimulation’); out of hypocrisies, envies of those to whom we think ourselves obliged to play the hypocrite; out of envies, evil-speaking, malicious, envious detraction of others. Guile is the permanent disposition; hypocrisies the acts flowing from it. The guileless knows no envy 2:2, ‘sincere’, Greek, ‘guileless’. ‘Malice delights in another's hurt; envy pines at another's good; guile imparts duplicity to the heart; hypocrisy (flattery) imparts duplicity to the tongue; evil-speaking wound the character of another’.
Evil speaking, this ancient Greek word has more the idea of spicy, hurtful gossip than the idea of profane speech.
Newborn babes altogether without "guile" (2:1), as long as we are here, we are "babes," in a especially tender relation to G-d (Isa 40:11). The childlike spirit is indispensable if we would enter heaven. Milk is here not elementary truths in contradistinction to more advanced Christian truths, as in 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb 5:12, 13; but in contrast to ‘guile, hypocrisies’. The simplicity of Christian doctrine in general is to the childlike spirit. The same ‘word of grace’ which is the instrument in regeneration, is the instrument also of building up. The mother of the child is also its natural nurse. The babe, instead of chemically analyzing, instinctively desires and feeds on the milk; so our part is not self-sufficient rationalizing and questioning, but simply receiving the truth in the love of it (Matt. 11:25).
Desire, Greek, ‘have a yearning desire for,’ or ‘longing after,’ a natural impulse to the regenerate, for as no one needs to teach new-born babes what food to take, knowing instinctively that a table is provided for them in their mother's breast, so the believer of himself thirsts after the Word of G-d (Ps 119:1-176). A healthy new baby has an instinctive yearning for its mother's milk before they can handle stronger nourishment. As newborn babes, we desire the pure milk of the Word.
Sincere, Greek, guileless, ‘laying aside guile." Don’t mix chalk with the milk, with the well-known pure milk, there is no other pure, unadulterated doctrine; it alone can make us guileless.
Of the word in light of what G-d's Word is to us, we should receive the Word, and receive it with a particular heart.
Grow the oldest manuscripts and versions read grow unto salvation. The end to which growth leads is perfected salvation. Growth is the measure of the fullness of that, not only rescue from destruction, but positive blessedness, which is implied in salvation. We are not meant to remain ‘babies’ forever.
Religion reproduces the traits of character of children in those whom it influences and they ought to regard themselves as newborn babes, and seek that kind of spiritual nutriment which is adapted to their condition as such.
However, to grow by the word, we must receive it with a certain attitude of heart: laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. This is a humble, honest, heart, willing to do what the Word of G-d says.
Thereby, Greek, in it; fed on it; in its strength (Act 11:14). The word is to be desired with appetite as the cause of life, to be swallowed in the hearing, to be chewed as cud is by rumination with the understanding, and to be digested by faith and grow to adulthood.
If we have received from G-d, if we have tasted (personally experienced) that the L-rd is gracious, then we have all the more reason and responsibility to receive the word in the enthusiastic way that babies receive their milk.
Peter alludes to Ps 34:8. The first "tastes" of G-d's goodness are afterwards followed by fuller and happier experiences. A taste whets the appetite.
Gracious as G-d is revealed to us in Messiah, ‘the L-rd’ (2:4), we who are born again ought so to be good and kind to the brethren (1:22). ‘Whosoever has not tasted the Word to him it is not sweet it has not reached the heart; but to them who have experienced it, who with the heart believe, 'Messiah has been sent for me and is become my own: my miseries are His and His life mine,' it tastes sweet.
[2] As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
[3] If so be ye have tasted that the L-rd is gracious.
Wherefore resumes the exhortation begun in 1:22. Seeing that you are born again of an incorruptible seed, is not again entangled in evil, which "has no substantial being, but is acting in contrariety to the being formed in us.
Laying aside once for all: so the Greek aorist expresses as a garment put off. The exhortation applies to Christians alone, for in none else is the new nature existing which, as "the inward man" (Eph 3:16) can cast off the old as an outward thing, so that the Christian, through the continual renewal of his inward man, can also exhibit himself externally as a new man. But to unbelievers the demand is addressed, that inwardly, in regard to the mind, they must become changed, re-pent.
Malice is utterly inconsistent with the ‘love of the brethren,’ unto which ye have ‘purified your souls’. The vices here are those which offend against the Brotherly Love inculcated above. Each succeeding one springs out of that which immediately proceeds, so as to form a genealogy of the sins against love. Out of malice springs guile; out of guile, hypocrises (pretending to be what we are not, and not showing what we really are; the opposite of ‘love unfeigned’, and ‘without dissimulation’); out of hypocrisies, envies of those to whom we think ourselves obliged to play the hypocrite; out of envies, evil-speaking, malicious, envious detraction of others. Guile is the permanent disposition; hypocrisies the acts flowing from it. The guileless knows no envy 2:2, ‘sincere’, Greek, ‘guileless’. ‘Malice delights in another's hurt; envy pines at another's good; guile imparts duplicity to the heart; hypocrisy (flattery) imparts duplicity to the tongue; evil-speaking wound the character of another’.
Evil speaking, this ancient Greek word has more the idea of spicy, hurtful gossip than the idea of profane speech.
Newborn babes altogether without "guile" (2:1), as long as we are here, we are "babes," in a especially tender relation to G-d (Isa 40:11). The childlike spirit is indispensable if we would enter heaven. Milk is here not elementary truths in contradistinction to more advanced Christian truths, as in 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb 5:12, 13; but in contrast to ‘guile, hypocrisies’. The simplicity of Christian doctrine in general is to the childlike spirit. The same ‘word of grace’ which is the instrument in regeneration, is the instrument also of building up. The mother of the child is also its natural nurse. The babe, instead of chemically analyzing, instinctively desires and feeds on the milk; so our part is not self-sufficient rationalizing and questioning, but simply receiving the truth in the love of it (Matt. 11:25).
Desire, Greek, ‘have a yearning desire for,’ or ‘longing after,’ a natural impulse to the regenerate, for as no one needs to teach new-born babes what food to take, knowing instinctively that a table is provided for them in their mother's breast, so the believer of himself thirsts after the Word of G-d (Ps 119:1-176). A healthy new baby has an instinctive yearning for its mother's milk before they can handle stronger nourishment. As newborn babes, we desire the pure milk of the Word.
Sincere, Greek, guileless, ‘laying aside guile." Don’t mix chalk with the milk, with the well-known pure milk, there is no other pure, unadulterated doctrine; it alone can make us guileless.
Of the word in light of what G-d's Word is to us, we should receive the Word, and receive it with a particular heart.
Grow the oldest manuscripts and versions read grow unto salvation. The end to which growth leads is perfected salvation. Growth is the measure of the fullness of that, not only rescue from destruction, but positive blessedness, which is implied in salvation. We are not meant to remain ‘babies’ forever.
Religion reproduces the traits of character of children in those whom it influences and they ought to regard themselves as newborn babes, and seek that kind of spiritual nutriment which is adapted to their condition as such.
However, to grow by the word, we must receive it with a certain attitude of heart: laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. This is a humble, honest, heart, willing to do what the Word of G-d says.
Thereby, Greek, in it; fed on it; in its strength (Act 11:14). The word is to be desired with appetite as the cause of life, to be swallowed in the hearing, to be chewed as cud is by rumination with the understanding, and to be digested by faith and grow to adulthood.
If we have received from G-d, if we have tasted (personally experienced) that the L-rd is gracious, then we have all the more reason and responsibility to receive the word in the enthusiastic way that babies receive their milk.
Peter alludes to Ps 34:8. The first "tastes" of G-d's goodness are afterwards followed by fuller and happier experiences. A taste whets the appetite.
Gracious as G-d is revealed to us in Messiah, ‘the L-rd’ (2:4), we who are born again ought so to be good and kind to the brethren (1:22). ‘Whosoever has not tasted the Word to him it is not sweet it has not reached the heart; but to them who have experienced it, who with the heart believe, 'Messiah has been sent for me and is become my own: my miseries are His and His life mine,' it tastes sweet.
Honoring your children above Me
[2 Sam. 227] And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?
Eli was chosen by G-d to be His priest, to serve as a mediator between G-d and His people; but in this calling Eli and his house failed. Consequently, words of judgment came upon them. Election, according to the O.T. is not for privilege but for responsibility. Failure to fulfill one’s responsibility makes one doubly accountable to G-d (Amos 3:2).
A man of G-d probably refers to a prophet. Samuel appears to be the natural successor; subsequently other members of Eli’s house have also been functioning in different locations – Ahijah (14:3) and Abithar (22:20). Eventually Abiathar was exiled, and thus Eli’s line came to an end. Zadok then became the head of the priestly order.
[28] And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?
House of your father is a reference to Levi, to the Aaronite line in particular. A promise by G-d cannot stand unless there is corresponding obedience because G-d deals with humans who possess free will.
[29] Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
Eli exercises his responsibility as father in warning his children against their evil practices in the Temple. How he is charged for not restraining his sons.
Eli reproved his sons too gently, and did not threaten them as he should, and therefore G-d sent a prophet to him to reprove him sharply, and to threaten him, because, by his indulgence of them, he had strengthened their hands in their wickedness. If good men be wanting in their duty, and by their carelessness and remissness contribute any thing to the sin of sinners, they must expect both to hear of it and to smart for it.
His children did wickedly, and he connived at it, and thereby involved himself in the guilt; the indictment therefore runs against them all.
[30] Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
The promise carried its own condition along with it: “They shall walk before me forever, that is, "they shall have the honor, provided they faithfully do the service." Walking before G-d is the great condition of the covenant, Genesis 17:1.
[31] Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.
Eli’s posterity will be cut off. Israelites seem to have believed in some kind of an ongoing existence remembrance through their posterity, through male progeny. That is why they saw the need for the levirate marriage system, which covered the case of a man dying without issue. To have one’s posterity cut off was considered to be a great curse and a terrible misfortune. By the withdrawal of the high priesthood from Eleazar, the elder of Aaron's two sons (after Nadab and Abihu were destroyed, (Numbers 3:4), that dignity had been conferred on the family of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged, and now that his descendants had forfeited the honor, it was to be taken from them and restored to the elder branch.
To die in old age was a sign of G-d’s blessings in Israel, but to die prematurely was considered to be a curse. So much importance has always, in the East, been attached to old age, that it would be felt to be a great calamity, and sensibly, to lower the respectability of any family which could boast of few or no old men. The prediction of this prophet was fully confirmed by the afflictions, degradation, poverty, and many untimely deaths because he honored his sons above G-d.
The message is sent to Eli himself, because G-d would bring him to repentance and save him; not to his sons, whom he had determined to destroy. And it might have been a means of awakening him to do his duty at last, and so to have prevented the judgment, but we do not find it had any great effect upon him.
The distinguishing favors we have received from G-d, are great aggravations of sin, and will be remembered against us in the day of account, if we profane our crown and betray our trusts, Deuteronomy 32:6, 2 Sam. 12:7, 8.
[3:13] For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
[1 Cor. 5:9] I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
[10] Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
[11] But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
[12] For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
[13] But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
He tells them that if any man called a brother, any one professing Christianity, and being a member of a Christian church, were a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, that they should not keep company with him, nor so much as eat with such a one. They were to avoid all familiarity with him; they were to have no commerce with him; they were to have no commerce with him: but, that they might shame him, and bring him to repentance, must disclaim and shun him. Christians are to avoid the familiar conversation of fellow-Christians that are notoriously wicked, and under just censure for their flagitious practices. Such disgrace the Christian name. They may call themselves brethren in Christ, but they are not Christian brethren. They are only fit companions for the brethren in iniquity; and to such company they should be left, till they mend their ways and doings.
How he limits this advice. He does not forbid the Christians the like commerce with scandalously wicked heathens. He does not forbid their eating nor conversing with the fornicators of this world. They know no better. They profess no better. The idols they serve, and the worship they render to many of them, countenance such wickedness. "You must needs go out of the world if you will have no conversation with such men. Your Gentile neighbors are generally vicious and profane; and it is impossible, as long as you are in the world, and have any worldly business to do, but you must fall into their company. This cannot be wholly avoided." Note, Christians may and ought to testify more respect to loose worldlings than to loose Christians. This seems a paradox. Why should we shun the company of a profane or loose Christian, rather than that of a profane or loose heathen?
G-d can and will preserve them from contagion. Besides, they carry an antidote against the infection of their bad example, and are naturally upon their guard. They are apt to have a horror at their wicked practices. But the dread of sin wears off by familiar converse with wicked Christians. Our own safety and preservation are a reason of this difference. But, besides, heathens were such as Christians had nothing to do to judge and censure, and avoid upon a censure passed; for they are without, and must be left to G-d's judgment. But, as to members of the church, they are within, are professedly bound by the Laws and rules of Christianity, and not only liable to the judgment of G-d, but to the censures of those who are set over them, and the fellow-members of the same body, when they transgress those rules. Every Christian is bound to judge them unfit for communion and familiar converse. They are to be punished, by having this mark of disgrace put upon them, that they may be shamed, and, if possible, reclaimed thereby: and the more because the sins of such much more dishonor G-d than the sins of the openly wicked and profane can do. The church therefore is obliged to clear herself from all confederacy with them, or connivance at them, and to bear testimony against their wicked practices. Though the church has nothing to do with those without, it must endeavor to keep clear of the guilt and reproach of those within. Cast him out of your fellowship, and avoid his conversation.
Eli was not cast out of the body because of the sins of his children, he was the believer not his children, his curse was caused because he honored his children in his house above G-d, by his indulgence of them.
Eli was chosen by G-d to be His priest, to serve as a mediator between G-d and His people; but in this calling Eli and his house failed. Consequently, words of judgment came upon them. Election, according to the O.T. is not for privilege but for responsibility. Failure to fulfill one’s responsibility makes one doubly accountable to G-d (Amos 3:2).
A man of G-d probably refers to a prophet. Samuel appears to be the natural successor; subsequently other members of Eli’s house have also been functioning in different locations – Ahijah (14:3) and Abithar (22:20). Eventually Abiathar was exiled, and thus Eli’s line came to an end. Zadok then became the head of the priestly order.
[28] And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?
House of your father is a reference to Levi, to the Aaronite line in particular. A promise by G-d cannot stand unless there is corresponding obedience because G-d deals with humans who possess free will.
[29] Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
Eli exercises his responsibility as father in warning his children against their evil practices in the Temple. How he is charged for not restraining his sons.
Eli reproved his sons too gently, and did not threaten them as he should, and therefore G-d sent a prophet to him to reprove him sharply, and to threaten him, because, by his indulgence of them, he had strengthened their hands in their wickedness. If good men be wanting in their duty, and by their carelessness and remissness contribute any thing to the sin of sinners, they must expect both to hear of it and to smart for it.
His children did wickedly, and he connived at it, and thereby involved himself in the guilt; the indictment therefore runs against them all.
[30] Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
The promise carried its own condition along with it: “They shall walk before me forever, that is, "they shall have the honor, provided they faithfully do the service." Walking before G-d is the great condition of the covenant, Genesis 17:1.
[31] Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.
Eli’s posterity will be cut off. Israelites seem to have believed in some kind of an ongoing existence remembrance through their posterity, through male progeny. That is why they saw the need for the levirate marriage system, which covered the case of a man dying without issue. To have one’s posterity cut off was considered to be a great curse and a terrible misfortune. By the withdrawal of the high priesthood from Eleazar, the elder of Aaron's two sons (after Nadab and Abihu were destroyed, (Numbers 3:4), that dignity had been conferred on the family of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged, and now that his descendants had forfeited the honor, it was to be taken from them and restored to the elder branch.
To die in old age was a sign of G-d’s blessings in Israel, but to die prematurely was considered to be a curse. So much importance has always, in the East, been attached to old age, that it would be felt to be a great calamity, and sensibly, to lower the respectability of any family which could boast of few or no old men. The prediction of this prophet was fully confirmed by the afflictions, degradation, poverty, and many untimely deaths because he honored his sons above G-d.
The message is sent to Eli himself, because G-d would bring him to repentance and save him; not to his sons, whom he had determined to destroy. And it might have been a means of awakening him to do his duty at last, and so to have prevented the judgment, but we do not find it had any great effect upon him.
The distinguishing favors we have received from G-d, are great aggravations of sin, and will be remembered against us in the day of account, if we profane our crown and betray our trusts, Deuteronomy 32:6, 2 Sam. 12:7, 8.
[3:13] For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
[1 Cor. 5:9] I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
[10] Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
[11] But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
[12] For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
[13] But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
He tells them that if any man called a brother, any one professing Christianity, and being a member of a Christian church, were a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, that they should not keep company with him, nor so much as eat with such a one. They were to avoid all familiarity with him; they were to have no commerce with him; they were to have no commerce with him: but, that they might shame him, and bring him to repentance, must disclaim and shun him. Christians are to avoid the familiar conversation of fellow-Christians that are notoriously wicked, and under just censure for their flagitious practices. Such disgrace the Christian name. They may call themselves brethren in Christ, but they are not Christian brethren. They are only fit companions for the brethren in iniquity; and to such company they should be left, till they mend their ways and doings.
How he limits this advice. He does not forbid the Christians the like commerce with scandalously wicked heathens. He does not forbid their eating nor conversing with the fornicators of this world. They know no better. They profess no better. The idols they serve, and the worship they render to many of them, countenance such wickedness. "You must needs go out of the world if you will have no conversation with such men. Your Gentile neighbors are generally vicious and profane; and it is impossible, as long as you are in the world, and have any worldly business to do, but you must fall into their company. This cannot be wholly avoided." Note, Christians may and ought to testify more respect to loose worldlings than to loose Christians. This seems a paradox. Why should we shun the company of a profane or loose Christian, rather than that of a profane or loose heathen?
G-d can and will preserve them from contagion. Besides, they carry an antidote against the infection of their bad example, and are naturally upon their guard. They are apt to have a horror at their wicked practices. But the dread of sin wears off by familiar converse with wicked Christians. Our own safety and preservation are a reason of this difference. But, besides, heathens were such as Christians had nothing to do to judge and censure, and avoid upon a censure passed; for they are without, and must be left to G-d's judgment. But, as to members of the church, they are within, are professedly bound by the Laws and rules of Christianity, and not only liable to the judgment of G-d, but to the censures of those who are set over them, and the fellow-members of the same body, when they transgress those rules. Every Christian is bound to judge them unfit for communion and familiar converse. They are to be punished, by having this mark of disgrace put upon them, that they may be shamed, and, if possible, reclaimed thereby: and the more because the sins of such much more dishonor G-d than the sins of the openly wicked and profane can do. The church therefore is obliged to clear herself from all confederacy with them, or connivance at them, and to bear testimony against their wicked practices. Though the church has nothing to do with those without, it must endeavor to keep clear of the guilt and reproach of those within. Cast him out of your fellowship, and avoid his conversation.
Eli was not cast out of the body because of the sins of his children, he was the believer not his children, his curse was caused because he honored his children in his house above G-d, by his indulgence of them.
Sottish Children
[Jer. 4:18] Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
[19] My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
[22] For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
It was not a false step or two that did you this mischief, but your way and course of living were bad. Sin is the procuring cause of all our troubles. Those that go on in sin while they are endeavoring to ward off mischief with one hand are at the same time pulling them upon their own heads with the other.
The fruit of your wickedness has been the cause of bringing such a bitter enemy against you, which has reached unto your very heart.
Here begins the complaint of the prophet. At my very heart - Hebrew, "at the walls of my heart"; the muscles round the heart. There is a climax, the "bowels," the pericardium, the "heart.”
Makes a noise, moaned itself is disturbed within me through the tumult of my spirits, and I cannot hold my peace. The grievance and the grief sometimes may be such that the most prudent patient man cannot forbear complaining. It is not for himself or any affliction in his family that he grieves thus; but it is purely upon the public account, it is his people's case that he lays to heart.
I have heard in the spirit of prophecy; it is as certain, as if I now heard the trumpet sounding. Alarm of war is the battle shout. He does not say, you hast heard, O my ear! but, O my soul! Because the event was yet future, and it is by the spirit of prophecy that he see it and receives the impression of it. His soul heard it from the words of G-d, and therefore he was as well assured of it, and as much affected with it, as if he had heard it with his bodily ears. It becomes us to tremble at the thought of the misery that sinners are running themselves into to awaken them to a holy fear, and so to a care to prevent so great a judgment by a true and timely repentance. Those that would affect other with the word of G-d should evidence that they are themselves affected with it.
My people are foolish. G-d calls them His people, though they are foolish. They have cast Him off, but He has not cast them off, Romans 11:1. "They are My people, whom I have been in covenant with, and still have mercy in store for. They are foolish, for they have not known Me." Those are foolish indeed that have not known G-d, especially that call themselves His people, and have the advantages of coming into acquaintance with Him, and yet have not known Him. They are sottish children, stupid and senseless, and have no understanding. They cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil; they cannot discern the mind of G-d either in His word or in His providence; they do not understand what their true interest is, nor on which side it lies. They are wise to do evil, to plot mischief against the quiet in the land, wise to contrive the gratification of their lusts, and then to conceal and palliate them. But to do good they have no knowledge, no contrivance, no application of mind; they know not how to make a good use either of the ordinances or of the providences of G-d, nor how to bring about any design for the good of their country. Contrary to this should be our character. Romans 16:19, I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
Sottish is strongs number H5530 which means fool – foolish.
Children is number H1121 means:
1) son, grandson, child, member of a group
a) son, male child
b) grandson
c) children (pl. - male and female)
d) youth, young men (pl.)
e) young (of animals)
f) sons (as characterisation, i.e. sons of injustice [for un- righteous men] or sons of God [for angels]
g) people (of a nation) (pl.)
h) of lifeless things, i.e. sparks, stars, arrows (fig.)
i) a member of a guild, order, class
G-d's replies they cannot be otherwise than miserable, since they persevere in sin. The repetition of clauses gives greater force to the sentiment.
[19] My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
[22] For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
It was not a false step or two that did you this mischief, but your way and course of living were bad. Sin is the procuring cause of all our troubles. Those that go on in sin while they are endeavoring to ward off mischief with one hand are at the same time pulling them upon their own heads with the other.
The fruit of your wickedness has been the cause of bringing such a bitter enemy against you, which has reached unto your very heart.
Here begins the complaint of the prophet. At my very heart - Hebrew, "at the walls of my heart"; the muscles round the heart. There is a climax, the "bowels," the pericardium, the "heart.”
Makes a noise, moaned itself is disturbed within me through the tumult of my spirits, and I cannot hold my peace. The grievance and the grief sometimes may be such that the most prudent patient man cannot forbear complaining. It is not for himself or any affliction in his family that he grieves thus; but it is purely upon the public account, it is his people's case that he lays to heart.
I have heard in the spirit of prophecy; it is as certain, as if I now heard the trumpet sounding. Alarm of war is the battle shout. He does not say, you hast heard, O my ear! but, O my soul! Because the event was yet future, and it is by the spirit of prophecy that he see it and receives the impression of it. His soul heard it from the words of G-d, and therefore he was as well assured of it, and as much affected with it, as if he had heard it with his bodily ears. It becomes us to tremble at the thought of the misery that sinners are running themselves into to awaken them to a holy fear, and so to a care to prevent so great a judgment by a true and timely repentance. Those that would affect other with the word of G-d should evidence that they are themselves affected with it.
My people are foolish. G-d calls them His people, though they are foolish. They have cast Him off, but He has not cast them off, Romans 11:1. "They are My people, whom I have been in covenant with, and still have mercy in store for. They are foolish, for they have not known Me." Those are foolish indeed that have not known G-d, especially that call themselves His people, and have the advantages of coming into acquaintance with Him, and yet have not known Him. They are sottish children, stupid and senseless, and have no understanding. They cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil; they cannot discern the mind of G-d either in His word or in His providence; they do not understand what their true interest is, nor on which side it lies. They are wise to do evil, to plot mischief against the quiet in the land, wise to contrive the gratification of their lusts, and then to conceal and palliate them. But to do good they have no knowledge, no contrivance, no application of mind; they know not how to make a good use either of the ordinances or of the providences of G-d, nor how to bring about any design for the good of their country. Contrary to this should be our character. Romans 16:19, I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
Sottish is strongs number H5530 which means fool – foolish.
Children is number H1121 means:
1) son, grandson, child, member of a group
a) son, male child
b) grandson
c) children (pl. - male and female)
d) youth, young men (pl.)
e) young (of animals)
f) sons (as characterisation, i.e. sons of injustice [for un- righteous men] or sons of God [for angels]
g) people (of a nation) (pl.)
h) of lifeless things, i.e. sparks, stars, arrows (fig.)
i) a member of a guild, order, class
G-d's replies they cannot be otherwise than miserable, since they persevere in sin. The repetition of clauses gives greater force to the sentiment.
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