Philemon 1:7 For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by you, brother. 1. It makes men like God. A bountiful man is the image of God. 2. It is a fair broom that makes all clean (Luke 11:41). As the first fruits in the time of the law did sanctify the rest of the fruit, so alms in the time of the gospel sanctify all unto us; all that we possess are unclean without them. 3. It is an usury approved by God, more gainful than any other usury. "He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord," etc. 4. It is an harbinger that goes before to provide thee a place in heaven (Acts 10:4; 1 Timothy 6:18). Therefore let us refresh the bowels of the saints here, that we may enter into the place of eternal refreshing hereafter. We are too straitlaced; we make this mammon of unrighteousness our enemy, whereas we should make him our friend. Nazianzen's mother carried such a bountiful mind to the poor, that a sea of wealth could scarce have sufficed her. She was contrary to Solomon's horse leech, that cried, "Give, give," namely, to me; she cried, "Give, give, to the poor." He heard her often say that she and her children should want before the poor should want: we are all for ourselves, our wives and children; nothing for the poor. Amadeus, Duke of Sabandia, being asked whether he kept hounds or not? Yes, says he; come tomorrow, and you shall see them. They being come, he opens a window into his hall, where a great multitude of poor people were dining: these are my dogs, said he, and with them I hope to get eternal life. (W. Jones, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. |
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