+I. In its moral results.+--"Faith and love" (ver. 15).
+II. Is evident to others.+--"I heard of your faith" (ver. 15).
+III. Is the occasion of constant thanksgiving.+--"Cease not to give
thanks for you" (ver. 16).
+IV. Calls forth a spirit of prayer.+--"Making mention of you in my
prayers" (ver. 16).
Vers. 17, 18. _Spiritual Enlightenment._--1. The wisdom which
Christians are to seek is not that carnal wisdom which is enmity to
God, nor natural wisdom or knowledge of the hidden mysteries of
nature, nor the wisdom of Divine mysteries, which is only a gift and
floweth from a common influence of the Spirit, but that whereof the
Spirit of God by His special operation and influence is author and
worker, and is more than a gift, even the grace of wisdom, which is
not acquired by our own industry, but cometh from above. 2. It is not
sufficient for attaining this grace of wisdom that the truths be
plainly revealed by the Spirit in Scripture. There must be the
removal of natural darkness from our understandings, that we may be
enabled to take up that which is revealed, as in beholding colours by
the outward sense there must be not only an outward light to make the
object conspicuous, but also the faculty of seeing in the eye. A
blind man cannot see at noonday, nor the sharpest-sighted at
midnight. 3. Though those excellent things which are not yet
possessed, but only hoped for, are known in part, yet so excellent
are they in themselves, and remote from our knowledge, and so much
are we taken up with trifles and childish toys, that even believers
who have their thoughts most exercised about them are in a great part
ignorant of them. 4. As the things hoped for and really to be enjoyed
in the other life are of the nature of an inheritance not purchased
by us but freely bestowed upon us, so they are properly Christ's
inheritance, who has proper right to it as the natural Son of God and
by virtue of His own purchase; but the right we have is communicated
to us through Him, in whom we have received the adoption of children
and are made heirs and co-heirs with Christ. 5. It is a glorious
inheritance, there being nothing there but what is glorious. The
sight shall be glorious, for we shall see God as we are seen, the
place glorious, the company glorious, our souls and bodies shall be
glorious, and our exercise glorious, giving glory to God for ever and
ever.--_Fergusson._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-23.
_The Church Complete in Christ._
+I. The Church is the creation of Divine power+ (ver. 19).--The
Church does not consist in massive architecture or ornate
decorations, nor in ecclesiastical organisations and councils. It is
not the offspring of the most elaborately constructed creed. It is
not confined within the limits of the most expansive ecclesiastical
epithet. It is a Divine, spiritual creation. It consists of souls
redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, clinging to Him for pardon,
peace, and righteousness, and created in Him, by "the working of the
mighty power" of the Divine Spirit, for good works, and therefore
continually striving to disseminate the good they have themselves
received. The apostolic idea of the Church was coloured by the
leading characteristic of the man. To St. Peter it was the Church as
influenced by law--the confessing Church; to St. Paul it was the
Church influenced by the freedom of faith--the witnessing Church; to
St. John it was the Church as filled with the ideality of
faith--working and keeping joyful holiday, the adorned Bride (Rev.
xix. 7, 8). The Church is a constant revelation of "the exceeding
greatness of His power" who first originated it and sustains its
ever-widening growth.
+II. The Divine power that creates the Church installs Christ as the
supreme authority.+--1. _This power raised Christ from the deepest
humiliation to the highest dignity_ (vers. 20, 21). It raised Him
from the cross to the throne, from the domain of the dead to the life
and everlasting glory of the heavenly world. "God ascended with
jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Certainly, if
when He brought His only begotten Son into the world He said, 'Let
all the angels worship Him' (Heb. i. 6); much more, now that He
ascends on high and hath led captivity captive, hath He given Him a
name above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow.
And if the holy angels did so carol at His birth in the very entrance
into that estate of humiliation and infirmity, with what triumph they
receive Him now returning from the perfect achievement of man's
redemption! And if, when His type had vanquished Goliath and carried
the head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with
dances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelic spirits triumph
in meeting the great Conqueror of hell and death! How did they sing,
'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in'!" (Ps. xxiv. 7-10).
2. _This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority_ (ver.
22). On the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in
all outward marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew
mother as He lay in His lowly cradle, and the Augustus Cæsar, whose
edict brought Mary to Bethlehem, as he reposed in his imperial
palace. And throughout the lifetime of the two there was but little
to lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known and
honoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce
heard of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The
throne of the Cæsars, the throne of mere human authority and power,
has perished. But the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying,
self-sacrificing love, will never perish; its sway over the
consciences and hearts of men, as the world grows older, becomes ever
wider and stronger (_Hanna_). The rule of Christ will last till all
enemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and
joyous experience.
Transcriber's Note: Please search the Internet for videos
that explore the properties of elemental mercury
("quicksilver") rather than performing the experiments
yourself.
+III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the Divine fulness
of Christ+ (ver. 23).--The Church to-day seems broken into fragments,
torn by divisions and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a
glorious unity. Take a mass of quicksilver, let it fall on the floor,
and it will split into a vast number of distinct globules; gather
them up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce into one
body as before. Thus, God's people below are sometimes divided into
various parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the
same mystic body. But when taken up from the world and put together
in heaven they will constitute one glorious, undivided Church for
ever and ever. The completeness of the Church is not the aggregation
of all the virtues of the saints blended in beauteous and harmonious
unity, but the glory of the Divine fulness that pervades every part.
+Lessons.+--1. _The Church as a Divine creation is a revelation of
Christ._ 2. _The Church is composed of those who are created anew in
Christ Jesus._ 3. _Christ is everything to His Church._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._