4 Aforetime - In the Old Testament. That we through patience
and consolation of the scriptures may have hope - That through the consolation
which God gives us by these, we may have patience and a joyful hope.
5 According to the power of Christ Jesus.
6 That ye - Both Jews and gentiles, believing with one mind, and confessing
with one mouth.
7 Receive ye one another - Weak and strong, with mutual love.
8 Now I say - The apostle here shows how Christ received us. Christ
Jesus - Jesus is the name, Christ the surname. The latter was first known
to the Jews; the former, to the gentiles. Therefore he is styled Jesus
Christ, when the words stand in the common, natural order. When the order
is inverted, as here, the office of Christ is more solemnly considered.
Was a servant - Of his Father. Of the circumcision - For the salvation
of the circumcised, the Jews. For the truth of God - To manifest the truth
and fidelity of God.
9 As it is written - In the eighteenth psalm, here the gentiles and
Jews are spoken of as joining in the worship of the God of Israel. Psa
18:49
10 Deu 32:43.
11 Psa 117:1.
12 There shall be the root of Jesse - That kings and the Messiah should
spring from his house, was promised to Jesse before it was to David. In
him shall the gentiles hope - Who before had been "without hope," Eph 2:12.
Isa 11:10
13 Now the God of hope - A glorious title of God, but till now unknown
to the heathens; for their goddess Hope, like their other idols, was nothing;
whose temple at Rome was burned by lightning. It was, indeed, built again
not long after, but was again burned to the ground.
