Luke 4:6-7 And the devil said to him, All this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered to me… 1. That the very desires of abundance and greatness are in themselves unlawful, though we desire them not upon such conditions as here the devil offers them. We are commanded (1 Timothy 6:8) to be content with mere necessaries, for food and raiment. 2. That the devil in these promises deceives us, and that three ways, (1) Sometimes not giving all the things promised, but the contrary. Adam was promised to be like God Himself, but how well he obtained it, witness God's bitter scoff, "Behold, man is become as one of Us" (Genesis 3.). (2) The devil deceives us in his promises, in getting far better things of us, than we have of him. For in these contracts with the devil we make Esau's pennyworth, sell heaven for a mess of pottage; Glaucus' exchange, gold for copper. We are as foolish as children that lose their parents and their own liberty, and suffer themselves to be stolen away for an apple. Yea, as the bird that accepts of the fowler's meat, but buys it full dearly with her own life. 3. That all these things he promises are vain and insufficient to give true content. For(1) they are inferior unto us as men, much more as Christians. A thing worse than thyself cannot make thee better. Gold and silver are inferior to thee. (2) They are fickle and fugitive, therefore well shown here in a moment, because they glide away, as the running water, and in representation, because they have no substance, but are mere shadows and vanishing shows. 4. Meditate of the excellent reward of the life to come. (D. Dyke.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. |
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