The Pulpit Commentary on Mark 4:11

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

The reward of discipleship.

The sense of the word "mystery." Eleusinian and other heathen mysteries. Something previously hidden, but revealed in the gospel; or rather, something hidden from certain conditions of the moral nature of man, but revealed to other conditions.

I. IT AGREES WITH THE MANIFEST END OF DISCIPLESHIP. The learner seeks for knowledge. The disciple of any master desires to receive his special doctrine or discovery. It is the highest, the esoteric, teaching that is here promised. There are to be no secrets or reserves between the Master and his disciples. Revelation not the mere anticipation of experience, but its determining influence and its consummation.

II. IT IS BEYOND THE COMPASS OF UNAIDED HUMAN FACULTY. Christ said," To you it is given." They were not to discover it of themselves.

1. The noblest saints who had preceded them were not able to understand (1 Peter 1:10-12).

2. The wisdom of man could not discover them. "Eye hath not seen," etc. (1 Corinthians 2:8-10; cf. Ephesians 1:15-23; Colossians 1:9, seq.).

III. IT IS A DIVINE GRACE FOR MORAL PURPOSES. This appears from the negatives of Verse 12. To produce:

1. Repentance and faith.

2. Sympathy with Christ in his aims, works, and sufferings.

3. Triumphant superiority to the evil circumstance of the world.—M.

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