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Selected Verse: Luke 15:18 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Lu 15:18 |
King James |
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
I will arise and go to my FATHER--The change has come at last, and what a change!--couched in terms of such exquisite simplicity and power as if expressly framed for all heart-broken penitents.
Father, &c.--Mark the term. Though "no more worthy to be called his son," the prodigal sinner is taught to claim the defiled, but still existing relationship, asking not to be made a servant, but remaining a son to be made "as a servant," willing to take the lowest place and do the meanest work. Ah! and is it come to this? Once it was, "Any place rather than home." Now, "Oh, that home! Could I but dare to hope that the door of it would not be closed against me, how gladly would I take any place and do any worK, happy only to be there at all." Well, that is conversion--nothing absolutely new, yet all new; old familiar things seen in a new light and for the first time as realities of overwhelming magnitude and power. How this is brought about the parable says not. (We have that abundantly elsewhere, Phi 2:13, &c.). Its one object is to paint the welcome home of the greatest sinners, when (no matter for the present how) they "arise and go to their Father." |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I will arise - This is a common expression among the Hebrews to denote "entering on a piece of business." It does not imply that he was "sitting," but that he meant immediately to return. This should be the feeling of every sinner who is conscious of his guilt and danger.
To My father - To his father, although he had offended him, and treated him unkindly, and had provoked him, and dishonored him by his course of conduct. So the sinner. He has nowhere else to go but to "God." He has offended him, but he may trust in his kindness. If "God" does not save him he cannot be saved. There is no other being that has an arm strong enough to deliver from sin; and though it is painful for a man to go to one whom he has offended - though he cannot go but with shame and confusion of face - yet, unless the sinner is willing to go to "God" and confess his faults, he can never be saved.
I have sinned - I have been wicked, dissipated, ungrateful, and rebellious.
Against heaven - The word "heaven" here, as it is often elsewhere, is put for God. I have sinned against "God." See Mat 21:25. It is also to be observed that one evidence of the genuineness of repentance is the feeling that our sins have been committed chiefly against "God." Commonly we think most of our offences as committed against "man;" but when the sinner sees the true character of his sins, he sees that they have been aimed chiefly against "God," and that the sins against "man" are of little consequence compared with those against God. So David, even after committing the crimes of adultery and murder after having inflicted the deepest injury on "man" - yet felt that the sin as committed against "God" shut every other consideration out of view: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," etc., Psa 2:4.
Before thee - This means the same as "against" thee. The offences had been committed mainly against God, but they were to be regarded, also, as sins against his "father," in wasting property which he had given him, in neglecting his counsels, and in plunging himself into ruin. He felt that he had "disgraced" such a father. A sinner will be sensible of his sins against his relatives and friends as well as against God. A true penitent will be as ready to "acknowledge" his offences against his fellow-men as those against his Maker. |
The Scofield Bible Commentary, by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, [1917] |
sinned
Sin
(See Scofield) - (Rom 3:23). |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
I will arise and go to my father - How accurately are the first steps of true repentance here pointed out! Against Heaven - Against God. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Against heaven - Εις τον ουρανον; that is, against God. The Jews often make use of this periphrasis in order to avoid mentioning the name of God, which they have ever treated with the utmost reverence. But some contend that it should be translated, even unto heaven; a Hebraism for, I have sinned exceedingly - beyond all description. |
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;