#albert barnes

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It was not a matter of accident, or chance, that I made Christ my great and constant theme, but it was my deliberate purpose.

Albert Barnes

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To attend to, engage, or regard

The word "know" here 'εἰδέναι eidenai' is used in the sense of "attend to, be engaged in, or regard." I resolved not to give my time and attention while among you to the laws and traditions of the Jews; to your orators, philosophers, and poets; to the beauty of your architecture or statuary; to a contemplation of your customs and laws, but to attend to this only—making known the cross of Christ...

That, this should be the resolution of every minister of the gospel. This is his business. It is not to be a politician; not to engage in the strifes and controversies of people; it is not to be a good farmer, or scholar merely; not to mingle with his people in festive circles and enjoyments; not to be a man of taste and philosophy, and distinguished mainly for refinement of manners; not to be a profound philosopher or metaphysician, but to make Christ crucified the grand object of his attention, and seek always and everywhere to make him known.

It matters not what are the amusements of society around him; that fields of science, of gain, or ambition, are open before him, the minister of Christ is to know Christ and him crucified alone. If he cultivates science, it is to be that he may the more successfully explain and vindicate the gospel. If he becomes in any manner familiar with the works of art and of taste, it is that he may more successfully show to those who cultivate them, the superior beauty and excellency of the cross. If he studies the plans and the employments of people, it is that he may more successfully meet them in those plans and more successfully speak to them of the great plan of redemption.

Albert Barnes

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“The allusion here may be to a steward who makes a proper distribution to each one under his care - like a carver distributing food to the guests at a feast. Making a proper distribution of the word, adapting his instructions to the circumstances and needs of his hearers, correctly teaching the Word, and giving to each that which will be fitted to nourish the soul.”

Albert Barnes

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'And fools'

That is, the simple, the unlearned, or those who are regarded as fools. It shall be a highway thrown up, so direct, and so unlike other paths, that there shall be no danger of mistaking it. The friends of God are often regarded as fools by the world. Many of them are of the humbler class of life and are destitute of human learning and of worldly wisdom. The sense here is that the way of salvation shall be so plain that no one, however ignorant and unlearned, need err in regard to it. In accordance with this, the Savior said that the gospel was preached to the poor; and he himself always represented the way to life as such that the most simple and unlettered might find it. ~ Albert Barnes

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The word “friendship” would perhaps express the meaning here. The sense is, that those who fear the Lord are admitted to the intimacy of friendship with Him; are permitted to come into His presence, and to partake of His counsels; are allowed free access to Him; or, as it is more commonly expressed, have “fellowship” with Him. Compare 1Jn 1:3. The language is such as would be applied to the intimacy of friends, or to those who take counsel together. The language belongs to a large class of expressions denoting the close connection between God and His people.”

Albert Barnes

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These underwater mountains were Jonah's dungeon walls; those long submarine reefs of rock, his prison bars, and 'were around' him 'forever:' the seaweeds were his chains: and, even thus, when things were at their uttermost, as Jonah lay dead in the depths of the ocean, "Thou hast brought up my life from corruption," to which his body would have fallen a prey, had not God sent the fish to deliver him.

The deliverance for which be thanks God is altogether past: "Thou brought me up." He calls 'the' Lord, 'my God,' because, being the God of all, He was especially his God, for whom He had done things of such marvelous love. God loves each soul which He has made with the same infinite love with which He loves all.

Whence Paul says of Jesus in Galatians 2:20,

"Who loved me and gave Himself for me."

He loves each, with the same undivided love, as if he had created none besides; and He allows each to say, "My God," as if the Infinite God belonged wholly to each.

So would He teach us the oneness of Union between the soul which God loves and which admits His love, and Himself.

~ Albert Barnes

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Commentaries Discussing the Command to Go and Be Reconciled

In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus gives what appears to be a simple command, though one that is almost never obeyed: before I may offer worship to God before other people, I must see that any offenses which I am aware that others hold against me are being reconciled and have been reconciled at least to some degree. This post quotes and discusses commentaries on this passage and its subject. There was near unanimity until the end of the 19th Century that the passage presents a command to or a duty to be discharged by believers who know that another believer holds an offense against them and means what it says. While some commentators have since abandoned this interpretation, others modern commentators have not. Those who follow the older interpretation—as my last two installments do—generally explain that reconciliation is both important and urgent because of 1) the terribly harmful effects bitterness has on those who hold onto it, and 2) on other believers who are exposed to it; 3) because it destroys community harmony, the unity of the Body of Christ and our witness to the world; and 4) because it renders our worship and giving abominable, hypocritical. There is also agreement that the passage places the initiative to seek reconciliation on the offender, and that reconciliation between believers is a process that takes time once initiated.

In this part of the series on Jesus’ command to “go and be reconciled” in Matthew 5:23-24, I will provide quotations from a few commentaries, both old and new and of varying authoritativeness, that discuss this passage. As an introduction, John Wesley wrote the briefest and most pointed commentary of any I looked at: [Source link: John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible at Wesley Center Online,…

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Albert Barnes | Psalm 13, 51

Against You, You only, have I sinned: It "was" a sin, as all other sins are, primarily and mainly against God; it derived its chief enormity from that fact… His crime against Uriah and his family was of the deepest and most aggravated character, but still the offense derived its chief heinousness from the fact that it was a violation of the law of God… It is not merely because that which has been done is a violation of human law; it is not that it brings us to poverty or disgrace; it is not that it exposes us to punishment on earth from a parent, a teacher, or civil ruler; it is not that it exposes us to punishment in the world to come: it is that it is of itself, and apart from all other relations and consequences, "an offense against God;" a violation of his pure and holy law; a wrong done against him, and in his sight.

And done this evil in Your sight: God saw what he had done; and David knew, that the eye of God was upon him in his wickedness. It was to him then a great aggravation of his sin that he had "dared" to commit it when he "knew" that God saw everything.

That You may be justified in Your words: David acknowledged his guilt. He did not seek to apologize for it, or to vindicate it. God was right, and he was wrong. The sin deserved all that God in his law "had" declared it to deserve; it deserved all that God by any sentence which he might pass upon him "would" declare it to deserve. The sin was so aggravated that "any" sentence which God might pronounce would not be beyond the measure of its ill-desert.

And blameless in Your judgment: Right, holy, pure, in the judgment which God may appoint.

But I have trusted in thy mercy: In thy favor; thy friendship; thy promises. His original confidence had been in God only, and not in himself. That confidence he still maintained; and now, as the result of that, he begins to exult in the confidence that he would be safe. The idea is, "I have trusted in the mercy of God; I still trust, and I will trust forever."

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: The idea is, that he had entire confidence that God would interpose, and that there would yet be cause to rejoice in that salvation as actually accomplished. He now calls on his heart to rejoice in the assurance that it would be his. So with us. There will not only be rejoicing in salvation when actually accomplished, but there may, and should be, in the firm conviction that it will be ours.

~ Albert Barnes