Philemon 1:4 I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, We learn from hence that all Christians (especially teachers) are greatly to rejoice and praise God when they see that professors grow forward in heavenly graces. It is a matter of great joy and comfort to see men grow in graces as they do in years, and to increase in heavenly things as they multiply their days. 1. It serveth exceedingly to advance the glory of God that men grow in godliness, which ought to be an effectual reason to move us to rejoice; for what is there that should more cheer us, than when God's name is magnified, and His truth extolled among the sons of men. 2. The forwardness of one is a notable means to draw forward another. For as one wicked man maketh another, and he that is seduced is an instrument to seduce another; so he that is truly converted will not rest in the quiet fruit and inward comfort of his own conversion, but labour to convert others, and so make them partakers of that comfort which they have found. 3. It is a great comfort to the pastors and teachers of the Church, when such as are taught do grow in grace and prosper by those means that are brought and offered unto them. The apostle calleth the Philippians his brethren, beloved and longed for, his joy and his crown; wherein he accounteth their growth, his honour; their increasing, his rejoicing; their faith, his hope; their flourishing, his felicity. It is a great comfort to the husbandman after his toiling and tilling, after his planting and ploughing, to see the fruits of his labours, and to behold the increase of the earth. So it fareth with the spiritual husbandman, whose labour is greater and oftener, enduring all the year long, whose patience is greater in waiting for the early and latter rain, whose gain and profit is less in tilling a dry and barren soil, that yieldeth little or no increase, but a crop of cares, a bundle of briars and bushes, and an harvest of thorns and thistles, that are reserved for the fire. 4. The graces of God, and the growing in these graces, are fruits of their election, and seals of their salvation, so that the angels in heaven rejoice at the conversion of a sinner. (W. Attersoll.) Parallel Verses KJV: I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,WEB: I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, |
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