to come and render them the respect due to those who were sincerely endeavouring to serve their Maker. The _truth_ taught here is, that it is in the power of the Lord Jesus so to turn the hearts of all the enemies of religion that they shall be brought to show respect to it; so to incline the minds of all people that they shall honour the church, or be at least outwardly its friends. Such homage the world shall yet be constrained to pay to it. ¶ _And to know that I have loved thee._ This explains what he had just said, and shows that he means that the enemies of his church will yet be constrained to acknowledge that it enjoys the smiles of God, and that instead of being persecuted and reviled, it should be respected and loved. 10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, [158]I also will keep thee from the hour of tempta tion, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 10. _Because thou hast kept the word of my patience._ My word commanding or enjoining patience; that is, thou hast manifested the patience which I require. They had shown this in the trials which they had experienced; he promises now, that in return he will keep them in the future trials that shall come upon the world. One of the highest rewards of patience in one trial is the grace that God gives us to bear another. The fact that we _have been_ patient and submissive may be regarded as proof that he will give us grace that we _may be_ patient and submissive in the trials that are to come. God does not leave those who have shown that they will not leave him. ¶ _I also will keep thee._ That is, I will so keep you that you shall not sink under the trials which will prove a severe temptation to many. This does not mean that they would be actually kept from calamity of all kinds, but that they would be kept from the _temptation of apostasy_ in calamity. He {95} would give them grace to bear up under trials with a Christian spirit, and in such a manner that their salvation should not be endangered. ¶ _From the hour of temptation._ The season; the time; the period of temptation. You shall be so kept that that which will prove to be a time of temptation to so many, shall not endanger your salvation. Though others fall, you shall not; though you may be afflicted with others, yet you shall have grace to sustain you. ¶ _Which shall come upon all the world._ The phrase here used――“_all the world_”――may either denote the whole world; or the whole Roman empire; or a large district of country; or the land of Judæa. See Notes on Lu. ii. 1. Here, perhaps, all that is implied is, that the trial would be very _extensive_ or _general_――so much so as to embrace the _world_, as the word was understood by those to whom the epistle was addressed. It need not be supposed that the whole world literally was included in it, or even all the Roman empire, but what was the world to them――the region which they would embrace in that term.