Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable--more bearable. for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city--Those Cities of the Plain, which were given to the flames for their loathsome impurities, shall be treated as less criminal, w…”

“Behold, I send you forth--The "I" here is emphatic, holding up Himself as the Fountain of the Gospel ministry, as He is also the Great Burden of it. as sheep--defenseless. in the midst of wolves--ready to make a prey of you (Joh 10:12).”

“But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils--the local courts, used here for civil magistrates in general. and they will scourge you in their synagogues--By this is meant persecution at the hands of the ecclesiastics.”

“And ye shall be brought before governors--provincial rulers. and kings--the highest tribunals. for my sake, for a testimony against them--rather, "to them," in order to bear testimony to the truth and its glorious effects. and the Gentiles--"to the Gentiles…”

“For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you--How remarkably this has been verified, the whole history of persecution thrillingly proclaims--from the Acts of the Apostles to the latest martyrology.”

“The deep and virulent hostility of the old nature and life to the new--as of Belial to Christ--was to issue in awful wrenches of the dearest ties; and the disciples, in the prospect of their cause and themselves being launched upon society, are here prepared f…”

“"The coming of the Son of man" has a fixed doctrinal sense, here referring immediately to the crisis of Israel's history as the visible kingdom of God, when Christ was to come and judge it; when "the wrath would come upon it to the uttermost"; and when, on the…”

“Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known--that is, There is no use, and no need, of concealing anything; right and wrong, truth and error, are about to come into open and deadly collisi…”

“What I tell you in darkness--in the privacy of a teaching for which men are not yet ripe. that speak ye in the light--for when ye go forth all will be ready. and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops--Give free and fearless utterance to …”

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?--In Luke (Lu 12:6) it is "five sparrows for two farthings"; so that, if the purchaser took two farthings' worth, he got one in addition--of such small value were they. and one of them shall not fall on the ground--e…”

“Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows--Was ever language of such simplicity felt to carry such weight as this does? But here lies much of the charm and power of our Lord's teaching.”

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men--despising the shame. him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven--I will not be ashamed of him, but will own him before the most august of all assemblies.”

“An entire sacrifice of the lower, with all its relationships and interests--or, a willingness to make it which is the same thing--is indispensable to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for the sake of the …”

“He that receiveth you--entertaineth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me--As the treatment which an ambassador receives is understood and regarded as expressing the light in which he that sends him is viewed, so, says our Lo…”

“(See Joh 3:5-8). and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man--from sympathy with his character and esteem for himself as such shall receive a righteous man's reward--for he must himself have the seed of righteousness who has any rea…”

“OUTBURST OF FEELING SUGGESTED TO THE MIND OF JESUS BY THE RESULT OF HIS LABORS IN GALILEE. The connection of this with what goes before it and the similarity of its tone make it evident, we think, that it was delivered on the same occasion, and that it is but …”

“As their wealth and prosperity engendered luxury and its concomitant evils--irreligion and moral degeneracy--their overthrow was repeatedly foretold in ancient prophecy, and once and again fulfilled by victorious enemies.”

“All things are delivered unto me of my Father--He does not say, They are revealed--as to one who knew them not, and was an entire stranger to them save as they were discovered to Him--but, They are "delivered over," or "committed," to Me of My Father; meaning …”

“What gentleness, what sweetness is there in the very style of the invitation--"Hither to Me"; and in the words, "All ye that toil and are burdened," the universal wretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sides--the active and the passive forms of it.”

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light--Matchless paradox, even among the paradoxically couched maxims in which our Lord delights! That rest which the soul experiences when once safe under Christ's wing makes all yokes easy, all burdens light.”

“But he said unto them, Have ye not read--or, as Mark (Mr 2:25) has it, "Have ye never read." what David did when he was an hungered, and they that were with him-- (1Sa 21:1-6)”

“Mark (Mr 2:26) says this occurred "in the days of Abiathar the high priest." But this means not during his high priesthood--for it was under that of his father Ahimelech--but simply, in his time. Ahimelech was soon succeeded by Abiathar, whose connection wit…”

“But our Lord added a specific application of this great principle to the law of the sabbath, preserved only in Mark: "And he said unto them, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mr 2:27). A glorious and far-reaching maxim, alike for the…”

“And when he was departed thence--but "on another sabbath" (Lu 6:6). he went into their synagogue--"and taught." He had now, no doubt, arrived in Galilee; but this, it would appear, did not occur at Capernaum, for after it was over, He "withdrew Himelf," it i…”

“And he stretched it forth--the power to obey going forth with the word of command. and it was restored whole, like as the other--The poor man, having faith in this wonderful Healer--which no doubt the whole scene would singularly help to strengthen--disregard…”