5 Let your gentleness - Yieldingness, sweetness of temper,
the result of joy in the Lord. Be known - By your whole behaviour. To all
men - Good and bad, gentle and froward. Those of the roughest tempers are
good natured to some, from natural sympathy and various motives; a Christian,
to all. The Lord - The judge, the rewarder, the avenger. Is at hand - Standeth
at the door.
6 Be anxiously careful for nothing - If men are not gentle towards you,
yet neither on this, nor any other account, be careful, but pray. Carefulness
and prayer cannot stand together. In every thing - Great and small. Let
your requests be made known - They who by a preposterous shame or distrustful
modesty, cover, stifle, or keep in their desires, as if they were either
too small or too great, must be racked with care; from which they are entirely
delivered, who pour them out with a free and filial confidence. To God
- It is not always proper to disclose them to men. By supplication - Which
is the enlarging upon and pressing our petition. With thanksgiving - The
surest mark of a soul free from care, and of prayer joined with true resignation.
This is always followed by peace. Peace and thanksgiving are both coupled
together, Col 3:15.
7 And the peace of God - That calm, heavenly repose, that tranquility
of spirit, which God only can give. Which surpasseth all understanding
- Which none can comprehend, save he that receiveth it. Shall keep - Shall
guard, as a garrison does a city. Your hearts - Your affections. Your minds
- Your understandings, and all the various workings of them; through the
Spirit and power of Christ Jesus, in the knowledge and love of God. Without
a guard set on these likewise, the purity and vigour of our affections
cannot long be preserved.
