45. That ye may be the children--sons.
of your Father which is in heaven--The meaning is, "that ye may show
yourselves to be such by resembling Him" (compare
Mt 5:9;
Eph 5:1).
for he maketh his sun--"your Father's sun." Well might
BENGEL exclaim,
"Magnificent appellation!"
to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust--rather, (without the article) "on evil and good, and on
just and unjust." When we find God's own procedure held up for imitation
in the law, and much more in the prophets
(Le 19:2; 20:26;
and compare
1Pe 1:15, 16),
we may see that the principle of this surprising verse was nothing new:
but the form of it certainly is that of One who spake as never man
spake.
JFB.
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