The Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:4-8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Falsehood.

I. SIN CULMINATES IN UNIVERSAL FALSEHOOD. The intellectual aspect of sin is untruth. Every sin is a lie. The triumph of sin is the overthrow of all truth and trust.

II. FALSE RELATIONS WITH GOD LEAN TO FALSE RELATIONS WITH MEN. Religion and morality mutually influence each other. The worship of a god known to be false develops a life of falseness. The hypocritical service of God is likely to be accompanied by dishonest dealings with men.

III. HABITS OF FALSEHOOD ARE FATAL TO HUMAN WELFARE. Society reposes on trust. Commerce is impossible without good faith. Universal distrust must involve social disintegration. The state, the family, all mutual organization, must then fall to pieces. Falsehood only succeeds by abusing trust; but by so doing it tends to destroy trust; and when it has accomplished this end it will be ineffectual. Universal lying would be useless to everybody.

IV. FALSEHOOD IS REGARDED BY GOD AS A PECULIARLY WICKED SIN. For this especially the people must be punished (Jeremiah 9:9). Deceit amongst men is a sin against God, who is the Truth eternal It is a spiritual sin, a sin most near to the diabolical (John 8:34). It is a sin which is peculiarly injurious to the spiritual nature of the sinner, tending to destroy conscience (Matthew 6:23). It involves both injustice and cruelty towards men.

More for Jeremiah 9:4-8

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

commentaryMatthew Henry on Jeremiah 9:1-11Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Prophet's Lamentation; Wickedness of Judah. (b. c. 606.)THE PROPHET'S LAMENTATION; WICKEDNESS OF JUDAH. (B. C. 606.) The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that destruction was brough…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:1-26EXPOSITIONJoseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:2-6The self-opposition and futility of the sinner's life. A strong argument against the practice of a thing may often be found in the supposition that it should become universal. This is valid in the case of the practices…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:2-22Complaint of the treachery and folly of the people; lamentation over their consequences.Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:4-8The social bond a rope of sand. This is very strong language for a man to use concerning the society in which he lives, but it harmonizes with the strength of the language which the prophet has been using with respect t…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:4Take ye heed every one of his neighbor. Such was the result of clinging to an unprogressive religion—one which refused to be spiritualized by the prophets. Certainly, if the established religion was so inefficacious, it…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 9:5They have taught their tongue, etc.; again an intimation of the unnaturalness (in the higher sense) of vice (comp. on Jeremiah 2:33).Joseph S. Exell and contributors