Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
- v.1The statutes — The laws which concern the worship and service of God. The judgments - The laws concerning your duties to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God.
psalm Psalm 15
- v.1Who — Who shall so dwell in thy church here, as to dwell with thee forever in heaven?
- v.2Uprightly — Loving, and serving God, and loving his neighbour not in word only, but in truth; and this constantly. Worketh - Makes it his business to do justly, to give to every one his due, first to God, and then to men. Speaketh - His words and professions to God and men, agree with the thoughts and purposes of his heart.
- v.3He — He that doth not speak evil of his neighbour. neighbour - That is, any man. Nor taketh - Into his mouth, doth not raise it, neither spread or propagate it; or believe it without sufficient reason.
- v.4Vile — An ungodly man. honoureth - He highly esteems and loves them, though they be mean as to their worldly condition, and though they may differ from him in some opinions or practices of lesser moment. Sweareth - A promissory oath. Hurt - To his own damage. As if a man solemnly swear, that he will sell him such an estate at a price below the full worth; or that, he will give a poor man such a sum of money, which afterwards he finds inconvenient to him. Changeth not - His purpose, but continues firm and resolved to perform his promise.
- v.5To usury — In such a manner as is contrary to God's law: of which see otherwise, Exod. xxii, 25 Levit xxv, 36, 37, &c. Reward - Or, a bribe for him who hath a bad cause. Moved - He shall abide with God here, and when he dies be forever with the Lord. David professes his trust in God, his adherence to him and love of his people, ver. 1-3. His satisfaction in God, ver. 4-7. He speaks in the person of Christ, of Gods presence with him, of his resurrection and the glory that should follow, ver. 8-11. Michtam of David. Title of the psalm. Michtam - This seems to be a title belonging to the musick or the song, which, with the rest, is now lost and unknown. As David was both a member, and an eminent type, of Christ, he speaks of himself sometimes in the one and sometimes in the other capacity: and therefore having spoken of himself as a member of Christ, in the former part of the psalm, he proceeds to consider himself as a type of Christ, and being inspired by the holy Ghost: towards the close he speaks such things, as though they might be accommodated to himself in a very imperfect sense, yet could not properly, belong to any but to Christ, to whom therefore they are justly appropriated in the New Testament.
second James 1:17-27
- v.17No evil, but every good gift — Whatever tends to holiness. And every perfect gift - Whatever tends to glory. Descendeth from the Father of lights - The appellation of Father is here used with peculiar propriety. It follows, "he begat us." He is the Father of all light, material or spiritual, in the kingdom of grace and of glory. With whom is no variableness - No change in his understanding. Or shadow of turning - in his will. He infallibly discerns all good and evil; and invariably loves one, and hates the other. There is, in both the Greek words, a metaphor taken from the stars, particularly proper where the Father of lights is mentioned. Both are applicable to any celestial body, which has a daily vicissitude of day and night, and sometimes longer days, sometimes longer nights. In God is nothing of this kind. He is mere light. If there Is any such vicissitude, it is in ourselves, not in him.
- v.18Of his own will — Most loving, most free, most pure, just opposite to our evil desire, ver. 15. Begat he us - Who believe. By the word of truth - The true word, emphatically so termed; the gospel. That we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures - Christians are the chief and most excellent of his visible creatures; and sanctify the rest. Yet he says, A kind of - For Christ alone is absolutely the first-fruits.
- v.19Let every man be swift to hear — This is treated of from ver. 21 to the end of the next chapter. Slow to speak - Which is treated of in the third chapter. Slow to wrath - Neither murmuring at God, nor angry at his neighbour. This is treated of in the third, and throughout the fourth and fifth chapters.
- v.20The righteousness of God here includes all duties prescribed by him, and pleasing to him.
- v.21Therefore laying aside — As a dirty garment. All the filthiness and superfluity of wickedness - For however specious or necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, all wickedness is both vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous. Every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside, or all your hearing is vain. With meekness - Constant evenness and serenity of mind. Receive - Into your ears, your heart, your life. The word - Of the gospel. Ingrafted - In believers, by regeneration, ver. 18 and by habit, Heb. v, 14. Which is able to save your souls - The hope of salvation nourishes meekness.
- v.23Beholding his face in a glass — How exactly does the scripture glass show a man the face of his soul!
- v.24He beheld himself, and went away — To other business. And forgot - But such forgetting does not excuse.
- v.25But he that looketh diligently — Not with a transient glance, but bending down, fixing his eyes, and searching all to the bottom. Into the perfect law - Of love as established by faith. St. James here guards us against misunderstanding what St. Paul says concerning the "yoke and bondage of the law." He who keeps the law of love is free, John viii, 31, &c. He that does not, is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God, ver. 10. And continueth therein - Not like him who forgot it, and went away. This man - There is a peculiar force in the repetition of the word. Shall be happy - Not barely in hearing, but doing the will of God.
- v.26If any one be ever so religious — Exact in the outward offices of religion. And bridleth not his tongue - From backbiting, talebearing, evilspeaking, he only deceiveth his own heart, if he fancies he has any true religion at all.
- v.27The only true religion in the sight of God, is this, to visit — With counsel, comfort, and relief. The fatherless and widows - Those who need it most. In their affliction - In their most helpless and hopeless state. And to keep himself unspotted from the world - From the maxims, tempers, and customs of it. But this cannot be done, till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbour as ourselves.
gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
- v.1Coming from Jerusalem — Probably on purpose to find occasion against him. Matt. xv, 1.
- v.4Washing of cups and pots and brazen vessels and couches — The Greek word (baptisms) means indifferently either washing or sprinkling. The cups, pots, and vessels were washed; the couches sprinkled.
- v.5The tradition of the elders — The rule delivered down from your forefathers.
- v.6Isaiah xxix, 13.