Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Not slothful in business - That God, who forbade working on the seventh day, has, by the same authority, enjoined it on the other six days. He who neglects to labor during the week is as culpable as he is who works on the Sabbath. An idle, slothful person can never be a Christian.
Fervent in spirit - ͅ · Do nothing at any time but what is to the glory of God, and do every thing as unto him; and in every thing let your hearts be engaged. Be always in earnest, and let your heart ever accompany your hand.
Serving the Lord - Ever considering that his eye is upon you, and that you are accountable to him for all that you do, and that you should do every thing so as to please him. In order to this there must be simplicity in the Intention, and purity in the Affections.
Instead of ͅ ͅ , serving the Lord, several MSS., as DFG, and many editions, have ͅ ͅ , serving the time - embracing the opportunity. This reading Griesbach has received into the text, and most critics contend for its authenticity. Except the Codes Claromontanus, the Codex Augiensis, and the Codex Boernerianus, the first a MS. of the seventh or eighth century, the others of the ninth or tenth, marked in Griesbach by the letters DFG, all the other MSS. of this epistle have ͅ , the Lord; a reading in which all the versions concur. ͅ , the time, is not found in the two original editions; that of Complutum, in 1514, which is the first edition of the Greek Testament ever printed; and that of Erasmus, in 1516, which is the first edition published; the former having been suppressed for several years after it was finished at the press. As in the ancient MSS. the word ͅ is written contractedly, , some appear to have read it ͅ instead of ͅ ; but I confess I do not see sufficient reason after all that the critics have said, to depart from the common reading.
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