Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
If any man serve me - Christ is a master in a twofold sense:
1.To instruct men.
2.To employ and appoint them their work. He who wishes to serve Christ must become:
1.His disciple or scholar, that he may be taught:
2.His servant, that he may be employed by and obey his master. To such a person a twofold promise is given:
1.He shall be with Christ, in eternal fellowship with him; and
2.He shall be honored by the Lord: he shall have an abundant recompense in glory; but how great, eye hath not seen, ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.
How similar to this is the saying of Creeshna (an incarnation of the supreme God, according to the Hindoo theology) to his disciple Arjoon! "If one whose ways were ever so evil serve me alone, he soon becometh of a virtuous spirit, is as respectable as the just man, and obtaineth eternal happiness. Consider this world as a finite and joyless place, and serve me. Be of my mind, my servant, my adorer, and bow down before me. Unite thy soul unto me, make me thy asylum, and thou shalt go unto me." And again: "I am extremely dear to the wise man, and he is dear to me-I esteem the wise man even as myself, because his devout spirit dependeth upon me alone as his ultimate resource." Bhagvat Geeta, pp. 71 and 82.
The rabbins have an extravagant saying, viz. "God is more concerned for the honor of the just man than for his own."
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