Mat 5:45, Act 14:17 | JFB | STEP | 45. That ye may be the children-- sons. of your Father which is in heaven-- The meaning is, "that ye may show yourselves to be such by resembling Him" (compare ; ). for he maketh his sun-- "your Father's sun." Well might Bengel exclaim, "Magnificent appellation!" to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust-- rather, (without the article) "on evil and good, and on just and unjust." When we find God's own procedure held up for imitation in the law, and much more in the prophets ( ; ; and compare , ), we may see that the principle of this surprising verse was nothing new: but the form of it certainly is that of One who spake as never man spake.

‏ Matthew 5:45

45. That ye may be the children--sons.

of your Father which is in heaven--The meaning is, "that ye may show yourselves to be such by resembling Him" (compare Mt 5:9; Ep 5:1).

for he maketh his sun--"your Father's sun." Well might Bengel exclaim, "Magnificent appellation!"

to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust--rather, (without the article) "on evil and good, and on just and unjust." When we find God's own procedure held up for imitation in the law, and much more in the prophets (Le 19:2; 20:26; and compare 1Pe 1:15, 16), we may see that the principle of this surprising verse was nothing new: but the form of it certainly is that of One who spake as never man spake.

‏ Acts 14:17

14-18. when ... Barnabas and Paul heard--Barnabas is put first here, apparently as having been styled the "Jupiter" of the company.

they rent their clothes and ran in--rather (according to the true reading), "ran forth."

among the people, crying out ... Sirs, why do ye these things?--This was something more than that abhorrence of idolatry which took possession of the Jews as a nation from the time of the Babylonish captivity: it was that delicate sensibility to everything which affects the honor of God which Christianity, giving us in God a reconciled Father, alone can produce; making the Christian instinctively feel himself to be wounded in all dishonor done to God, and filling him with mingled horror and grief when such gross insults as this are offered to him.