KEY PRINCIPLES FROM THIS MESSAGE:
A loving heart is a grateful heart. In other words, if you love like Christ, and you know it, you are forever grateful for the gift to do so!
“submitting” – from hupotasso [hupo = “under” + tasso = “arrange”] – properly, “under God’s arrangement,” i.e. submitting to the Lord (His plan); 1. to subordinate 2. (reflexively) to obey
There is no good news for the human flesh. There never really is for dead things. So, when the Word of God smashes all the flesh’s worldly thoughts, hopes, and dreams, it is a grace gift from God! It may cause you pain, but like any surgical procedure that cuts something cancerous out of you, it is meant to heal you.
Until YOU learn to let go of your “haughty eyes” YOU will remain miserable.
You don’t want to be on the wrong side of God’s wrath when it comes.
“brotherly love” – from philadelphia [philos = “loving friend” + adelphos = “a brother”] – means fraternal affection — brotherly love (kindness), love of the brethren; properly, affection for the brethren (fellow-believers).
Ellicott’s Commentary on Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
As has been before remarked, the character of the princely son of Saul [Jonathan] is one of the most beautiful in the Old Testament story. He was the type of a true warrior of those wild, half-barbarous times—among brave men seemingly the bravest—a perfect soldier, whether fighting as a simple man-at-arms or as the general of an army—chivalrous and generous—utterty free from jealousy—a fervid believer in the God of Israel—a devoted and loyal son—a true patriot in the highest sense of the word, who sealed a devoted life by a noble death, dying as he did fighting for his king and his people.
The long and steady friendship of Jonathan no doubt had a powerful and enduring influence on the [life] of the greatest of the Hebrew sovereigns [David]. The words, the unselfish, beautiful love, and, above all, the splendid example of the ill-fated son of Saul, have no doubt given their coloring to many of the noblest utterances in David’s Psalms and to not a few of the most heroic deeds in David’s life.
We read of this friendship as dating from the morrow of the first striking deed of arms performed by David when he slew the giant. It is clear, however, that it was not the personal bravery of the boy hero, or the rare skill he showed in the encounter, which so singularly attracted Prince Jonathan. These things no one would have admired and honored more than the son of Saul, but it needed more than splendid gallantry and rare skill to attract that great love of which we read.
What won Jonathan’s heart was the shepherd boy’s sublime faith, his perfect childlike trust in the “Glorious Arm” of the Lord. Jonathan and David possessed one thing in common—an intense, unswerving belief in the power of Jehovah of Israel to keep and to save all who trusted in Him.