Earnest

How Nave’s arranged it

• A pledge or tokenPsalms 86:172 Corinthians 1:222 Corinthians 5:5Ephesians 1:14
• See Token

The passages, in Bible order (4)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 4 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Psalms 86:17

   Show me a sign of Your goodness, that my enemies may see and be ashamed; for You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

   ›Commentary on Psalms 86:172 voices

   “I WOULD have you note, beloved Friends, at the outset, how this man of God, in the hour of conflict, looks to his Divine Protector. He does not run about to consult with friends, nor does he set himself down to digest his bitter sorrow in solitude, but he gets away to the Lord, his God, who has covenanted to help him. That same God who in his brightest days was his great joy, is, in his darkest night, his surest consolation. Therefore he cries, "Lord, show me a token for good. Show it! Let it come from You.

   “Shew to me a token for good. Let me be assured of thy mercy by being delivered out of trouble. That they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed. What bodes good to me shall make them quail and blush. Disappointed and defeated, the foes of the good man would feel ashamed of what they had designed. "Because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me." God doth nothing by halves, those whom he helps he also consoles, and so makes them not merely safe but joyful.

   Everything gathered on Psalms 86:17→

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2. 2 Corinthians 1:22

   placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

   ›Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:222 voices

   “Who also hath sealed us - Stamping his image on our hearts, thus marking and sealing us as his own property. And given us the earnest of his Spirit - There is a difference between an earnest and a pledge. A pledge is to be restored when the debt is paid; but an earnest is not taken away, but completed.

   “The Holy Spirit is given to the believer now as a first instalment to assure him his full inheritance as a son of God shall be his hereafter (Eph 1:13, 14). "Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Ro 8:23). The Spirit is the pledge of the fulfilment of "all the promises" (2Co 1:20).

   Everything gathered on 2 Corinthians 1:22→

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3. 2 Corinthians 5:5

   And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

   ›Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:52 voices

   “This is why he shows us how much better it is for us not to be sorry, if we should be surprised by death, and tells us that we even hold of God "the earnest of His Spirit" (pledged as it were thereby to have "the clothing upon," which is the object of our hope), and that "so long as we are in the flesh, we are absent from the Lord; " moreover, that we ought on this account to prefer "rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord," and so to be ready to meet even death with joy.

   “A great deal is to be done to prepare our souls for heaven, and that preparation of the heart is from the Lord. (2.) The earnest of the Spirit gave them this assurance: for an earnest is part of payment, and secures the full payment. The present graces and comforts of the Spirit are earnests of everlasting grace and comfort.

   Everything gathered on 2 Corinthians 5:5→

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4. Ephesians 1:14

   who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

   ›Commentary on Ephesians 1:142 voices

   “A guarantee (arrabōn, "earnest") is not the same as a token or pledge. For a guarantee is given as an affidavit and bond for a future purchase. But a pledge … is an expression of a present reciprocal transaction. Thus when the money is returned the pledge is restored by the creditor to the one who has repaid the debt.… So from the guarantee the majestic scope of the future inheritance may be grasped.

   But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God; which also the apostle terms "an earnest," that is, a part of the honour which has been promised us by God, where he says in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "In which ye also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believing in which we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance."

   Everything gathered on Ephesians 1:14→

   Verse page →Original language →