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Matthew 4:18-22

The Pulpit Commentary on Matthew 4:18-22

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

The call of Christ to his first disciples.

In the light of what we read in , we may regard the present passage as giving the account of the formal and final call of the four disciples named Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Note may also be taken of the circumstance that these four were all fishers. Notice—

I. THE CALL ITSELF IN THESE ORIGINAL EXAMPLES OF IT. And under this general head consider:

1. What it is in the essential meaning of it. The meaning is self's entire, willing, glad surrender to a new dominant love, to a new devoted life, and to these without end.

2. What it is in certain accidents of it.

II. THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH THE CALL IS UTTERED FORTH. Show how utterly unprofessional, untechnical, inartificial; and yet more, how, while already simplest of the simple, even this borrows illustration—illustration from life's familiar scenery.

III. THE OCCASION UTILIZED FOR A CALL SO GREAT, SO EVENTFUL. It is an occasion when the man concerned is found in the most ordinary, perhaps unhonoured and unloved, labours of his work-day life.—B.

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