And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 6:18 Parallel Commentaries

Love and the Comforter.
"By the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned."--2 Cor. vi. 6. The question is, "In what sense is the pouring out of Love an ever-continued, never-finished work? Love is here taken in its highest, purest sense. Love which gives its goods to the poor and its body to be burned is out of the question. St. Paul declares that one may do these things and still be nothing more than a sounding brass, utterly devoid of the least spark of the true and real Love. In 2 Cor. vi. 6 the apostle mentions the motives of …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Above and Below
"As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing."--2 Cor. vi. 10. P. G. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 In the bosom of the Father, Centre of His endless love, In the light and in the glory, Thus in Christ I dwell above. Filling up His bitter sufferings, Drinking of His cup of woe, And rejoicing as I do it, Thus with Christ I walk below. There above I rest, untroubled, All my service to adore; Cross and shame and death and sorrow Left behind for evermore. Therefore am I never weary Journeying onward through …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

The Warfare of Christian Service
'All that enter in to perform the service, to do the work in the tabernacle.' NUM. iv. 23. These words occur in the series of regulations as to the functions of the Levites in the Tabernacle worship. The words 'to perform the service' are, as the margin tells us, literally, to 'war the warfare.' Although it may be difficult to say why such very prosaic and homely work as carrying the materials of the Tabernacle and the sacrificial vessels was designated by such a term, the underlying suggestion is …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Twenty-Fourth Day. Holiness and Cleansing.
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'--2 Cor. vii. 1. That holiness is more than cleansing, and must be preceded by it, is taught us in more than one passage of the New Testament. 'Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word.' 'If a man cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Purity and Peace in the Present Lord
PHILIPPIANS iv. 1-9 Euodia and Syntyche--Conditions to unanimity--Great uses of small occasions--Connexion to the paragraphs--The fortress and the sentinel--A golden chain of truths--Joy in the Lord--Yieldingness--Prayer in everything--Activities of a heart at rest Ver. 1. +So, my brethren beloved and longed for+, missed indeed, at this long distance from you, +my joy and crown+ of victory (stephanos), +thus+, as having such certainties and such aims, with such a Saviour, and looking for such …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

Introductory Note to the Epistles of Ignatius
[a.d. 30-107.] The seductive myth which represents this Father as the little child whom the Lord placed in the midst of his apostles (St. Matt. xviii. 2) indicates at least the period when he may be supposed to have been born. That he and Polycarp were fellow-disciples under St. John, is a tradition by no means inconsistent with anything in the Epistles of either. His subsequent history is sufficiently indicated in the Epistles which follow. Had not the plan of this series been so exclusively that …
Ignatius—The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians

Epistle Xl. To Cyriacus, Patriarch of Constantinople.
To Cyriacus, Patriarch of Constantinople. Gregory to Cyriacus, &c. Observing diligently, most dear brother, how great is the virtue of peace from the Lord's voice, which says, My peace I give unto you (Joh. xiv. 27), it becomes us so to abide in the love thereof as in no wise to give place to discord. But, since we cannot otherwise live in its root except by retaining in mind and in deed the humility which the very author of peace has taught, we entreat you with befitting charity, that, treading …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

"And Truly Our Fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And These Things Write we unto You, that Your Joy May Be
1 John i. 3, 4.--"And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." It was sin that did first break off that fellowship that was between God and man, and cut off that blessed society in which the honour and happiness of man consisted. But that fundamental bond being loosed, it hath likewise untied all the links of society of men among themselves, and made such a general dispersion and dissipation of mankind, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The First Native Converts and Christian Schools
1800-1810 A carpenter the first Bengali convert--Krishna Pal's confession--Caste broken for the first time--Carey describes the baptism in the Hoogli--The first woman convert--The first widow convert--The first convert of writer caste--The first Christian Brahman--The first native chapel--A Bengali "experience" meeting--Carey founding a new community as well as church--Marriage difficulties solved--The first native Christian marriage feast in North India--Hindoo Christian death and burial--The first …
George Smith—The Life of William Carey