1 Corinthians 16:5-9 Now I will come to you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.… I. GOD'S WILL SHOULD BE THE RULE OF LIFE. Paul had made a plan to visit the Corinthians, to "tarry a while" with them, but he rests this plan (no doubt dear to his heart) on "if the Lord permit." 1. A belief is implied here, viz., that God is in the history of individual man. He is not merely in the material universe, in angelic hierarchies, in human communities, churches, families. He is not too absorbed or too great for this. Paul believed that God was interested in him personally, and that He arranged for him personally. There is something bracing and ennobling in this thought. 2. An acquiescence is implied here. I have no will of my own. Personally, I should like to winter with you, but I subordinate my will to the will of my God. I am in His hands, and am ready to act in everything according to His arrangements. II. SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS SHOULD BE THE AIM OF LIFE. (vers. 8, 9). 1. Wherever the gospel signally triumphs, great opposition may be anticipated. Paul was now at Ephesus, where he had laboured for a considerable time, and with such success that passionate opposition was excited (Acts 19:9-20). It has ever been so: wherever there has been a great revival of religion there has been unusual opposition. The latent enmity of the serpent is ever roused by the dissemination of spiritual light. Christ kindled a fire upon the earth. 2. Opposition to the gospel often affords specially favourable opportunities for the labour of the evangelist. Religious excitement is ever more favourable to the spread of religion than religious monotony. You stand a better chance of converting an earnest sceptic than a stagnant religionist. Excitement opens a "door." 3. The true evangelist will be stimulated rather than discouraged by opposition. It is only little souls who are dismayed by difficulties. (D. Thomas, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.WEB: But I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia. |
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