Loading...
Loading...
188 illustrations
The abuses of the tongue are manifold, and malignity ranks foremost among them.
Before conversion, the Galatians possessed neither natural knowledge of God—imperfect and weak as it is—nor revealed knowledge through Christ.
Exell's Victorian commentary illuminates why envy surpasses even explosive anger in spiritual danger.
This is no arbitrary decree, but a solemn declaration to which all holy spirits give their willing assent—an ordinance whose justice even the excluded themselves shall admit.
Yet here, God withdraws His all-vitalizing and all-blessing presence.
The *tablinum*—the grand reception chamber with marble or alabaster benches—held the Sanhedrin's formal proceeding against Jesus.
This outburst reveals the nature of evil's opposition to Christ.
Matthew Henry observed her strategy: she calls them "simple" and "wanting understanding," inviting them to her school under pretense of refinement.
Yet Scripture is unambiguous: the heart (*leb* in Hebrew, the seat of will and intention) cannot be good while its practice remains evil.
Almighty God can and often does overrule evil actions toward His own glory and to cause bad means to conduce to a good end.
The devil seizes every advantage, working relentlessly through these vulnerabilities.
Exell's Victorian exposition illuminates two critical spiritual failures.
When Christ lived without sin, He exposed sin's nature.
The text, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
A great many cannot afford to have Christ.
Exell identifies three distinct enemies arrayed against the believer's sanctification.
Exell's Victorian illustration captures this paradox through a striking nautical image: a boat that has sailed the salt ocean, battered by storms and half-filled with briny water, now navigates fresh river currents.
Three characteristics defined him: cruelty, determination, and worldliness.
Little sins are peculiarly offensive to God precisely because they are little—we risk offending Him for what we ourselves care very little about and expect insignificant return from.
The accumulation of light things becomes overwhelmingly ponderous.
Thomas Carlyle observed with prescience: "There is a great necessity indeed of getting a little more silent than we are.
Exell (1887) identifies flattery's essential character: it assumes all forms and colors, a universal countenance indifferent to truth.
Yet Christians must judge timidity differently than the world does.
Exell notes the critical distinction: it is not the place itself, but the way to it.