31 And so the church through all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was made strong; and, living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was increased greatly.
And Saul gave approval to his death. Now at that time a violent attack was started against the church in Jerusalem; and all but the Apostles went away into all parts of Judaea and Samaria.
And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us?
But earlier rulers who were before me made the people responsible for their upkeep, and took from them bread and wine at the rate of forty shekels of silver; and even their servants were lords over the people: but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.
And he said to man, Truly the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to keep from evil is the way to knowledge.
Make your way clear to me, O Lord; I will go on my way in your faith: let my heart be glad in the fear of your name.
The fear of the Lord is seen in hating evil: pride, a high opinion of oneself, the evil way, and the false tongue, are unpleasing to me.
Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
And I will make prayer to the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you for ever, Even the Spirit of true knowledge. That Spirit the world is not able to take to its heart because it sees him not and has no knowledge of him: but you have knowledge of him, because he is ever with you and will be in you. I will not let you be without a friend: I am coming to you.
And hope does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
For him in whose heart is the fear of the Lord there is strong hope: and his children will have a safe place. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, by which one may be turned from the nets of death.
For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ:
Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is good for giving necessary teaching, and for grace to those who give ear.
Letting yourselves be ruled by one another in the fear of Christ.
With prayers and deep desires, making requests at all times in the Spirit, and keeping watch, with strong purpose, in prayer for all the saints, And for me, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make clear without fear the secret of the good news,
If then there is any comfort in Christ, any help given by love, any uniting of hearts in the Spirit, any loving mercies and pity,
Living uprightly in the approval of the Lord, giving fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who had love for us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, Give you comfort and strength in every good work and word.
Or to give attention to stories and long lists of generations, from which come questionings and doubts, in place of God's ordered way of life which is in faith;
But you, my loved ones, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and making prayers in the Holy Spirit,
In whom you, having been given the true word, the good news of your salvation, and through your faith in him, were given the sign of the Holy Spirit of hope, Which is the first-fruit of our heritage, till God gets back that which is his, to the praise of his glory.
And the Lord gave them peace on every side, as he had said to their fathers: all those who were against them gave way before them, for the Lord gave them all up into their hands.
So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace.
Is not the Lord your God with you? and has he not given you rest on every side? for the Lord has given the people of the land into my hands, and the land is overcome before the Lord and before his people.
And the Jews had light and joy and honour. And in every part of the kingdom and in every town, wherever the king's letter and his order came, the Jews were glad with great joy, and had a feast and a good day. And a great number of the people of the land became Jews: for the fear of the Jews had come on them.
The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching.
By mercy and good faith evil-doing is taken away: and by the fear of the Lord men are turned away from evil. When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his haters be at peace with him.
And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the spirit of wisdom and good sense, the spirit of wise guiding and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And he will not be guided in his judging by what he sees, or give decisions by the hearing of his ears:
And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be turned to the root of Jesse which will be lifted up as the flag of the peoples; and his resting-place will be glory.
And the word of God was increasing in power; and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem became very great, and a great number of priests were in agreement with the faith.
So the churches were made strong in the faith and were increased in number every day.
For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Now may the God of hope make you full of joy and peace through faith, so that all hope may be yours in the power of the Holy Spirit.
For we are workers with God: you are God's planting, God's building. In the measure of the grace given to me, I, as a wise master-builder, have put the base in position, and another goes on building on it. But let every man take care what he puts on it. For there is no other base for the building but that which has been put down, which is Jesus Christ. But on the base a man may put gold, silver, stones of great price, wood, dry grass, cut stems; Every man's work will be made clear in that day, because it will be tested by fire; and the fire itself will make clear the quality of every man's work. If any man's work comes through the test, he will have a reward. If the fire puts an end to any man's work, it will be his loss: but he will get salvation himself, though as by fire.
He who makes use of tongues may do good to himself; but he who gives the prophet's word does good to the church. Now though it is my desire for you all to have the power of tongues, it would give me more pleasure to be hearing the prophet's word from you; for this is a greater thing than using tongues, if the sense is not given at the same time, for the good of the church.
So if you are desiring the things which the Spirit gives, let your minds be turned first to the things which are for the good of the church.
What is it then, my brothers? when you come together everyone has a holy song, or a revelation, or a tongue, or is giving the sense of it. Let everything be done for the common good.
For though I might take pride in our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for your destruction), it will not be a cause of shame to me:
It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 9
Commentary on Acts 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
In this chapter we have,
Act 9:1-9
We found mention made of Saul twice or thrice in the story of Stephen, for the sacred penman longed to come to his story; and now we are come to it, not quite taking leave of Peter but from henceforward being mostly taken up with Paul the apostle of the Gentiles, as Peter was of the circumcision. His name in Hebrew was Saul-desired, though as remarkably little in stature as his namesake king Saul was tall and stately; one of the ancients calls him, Homo tricubitalis-but four feet and a half in height; his Roman name which he went by among the citizens of Rome was Paul-little. He was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a free city of the Romans, and himself a freeman of that city. His father and mother were both native Jews; therefore he calls himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews; he was of the tribe of Benjamin, which adhered to Judah. His education was in the schools of Tarsus first, which was a little Athens for learning; there he acquainted himself with the philosophy and poetry of the Greeks. Thence he was sent to the university at Jerusalem, to study divinity and the Jewish law. His tutor was Gamaliel, an eminent Pharisee. He had extraordinary natural parts, and improved mightily in learning. He had likewise a handicraft trade (being bred to tent-making), which was common with those among the Jews who were bred scholars (as Dr. Lightfoot saith), for the earning of their maintenance, and the avoiding of idleness. This is the young man on whom the grace of God wrought this mighty change here recorded, about a year after the ascension of Christ, or little more. We are here told,
Act 9:10-22
As for God, his work is perfect; if he begin, he will make an end: a good work was begun in Saul, when he was brought to Christ's feet, in that word, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And never did Christ leave any that were brought to that. Though Saul was sadly mortified when he lay three days blind, yet he was not abandoned. Christ here takes care of the work of his own hands. He that hath torn will heal-that hath smitten will bind up-that hath convinced will comfort.
Act 9:23-31
Luke here makes no mention of Paul's journey into Arabia, which he tells us himself was immediately after his conversion, Gal. 1:16, 17. As soon as God had revealed his Son in him, that he might preach him, he went not up to Jerusalem, to receive instructions from the apostles (as any other convert would have done, that was designed for the ministry), but he went to Arabia, where there was new ground to break up, and where he would have opportunity of teaching, but not learning; thence he returned to Damascus, and there, three years after his conversion, this happened, which is here recorded.
Act 9:32-35
Here we have,
Act 9:36-43
Here we have another miracle wrought by Peter, for the confirming of the gospel, and which exceeded the former-the raising of Tabitha to life when she had been for some time dead. Here is,