An hypocrite with [his] mouth destroyeth his
neighbour
Deceives him with his flatteries and lies, and draws him into
destructive schemes and practices; or "corrupts" him, as the word
F9 signifies, and as the Targum renders
it, with false doctrines; so, with fair words and good speeches,
such who lie in wait to deceive impose upon the simple and
credulous; and false teachers, with their damnable heresies,
bring swift destruction on men; and particularly antichrist and
his emissaries, through speaking lies in hypocrisy, corrupt and
destroy many, ( 1 Timothy
4:1 1 Timothy
4:2 ) ; but through knowledge shall the just be
delivered;
from the hypocrite and deceitful worker, and from being corrupted
and destroyed by the words of his mouth: Jarchi says, through the
knowledge of the law, which warns against him; but rather through
the knowledge of the Gospel, which the just man has; for as by
this such escape the pollutions of the world, so likewise they
are delivered, are kept and secured, from the error of the
wicked: through a man's knowledge of himself, of his descent from
Adam, of the corruption of his nature, of the plague of his
heart, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin; of his lost and
undone state; of his impotency to that which is good, of his
incapacity to fulfil the law, and atone for sin; and of the
insufficiency of his own righteousness to justify him before God;
he is delivered and preserved from giving into the notions of the
purity of human nature, the power of free will, and the doctrine
of justification by works: through his knowledge of the person of
Christ; of his offices and relations; of him as a Saviour; of the
efficacy of his blood, the excellency of his righteousness, and
the completeness of his sacrifice; and through the knowledge of
God in Christ, and of the Spirit and of his operations of grace,
as well as of the sacred Scriptures in general; he is safe from
being carried away with any errors concerning any of the divine
Persons, particularly concerning the deity, sonship, and
satisfaction of Christ; in short, as ignorance is the mother of
devotion, superstition, and error, in the church of Rome,
spiritual experimental knowledge of the above things is the best
preservative from all errors and heresies which corrupt and
destroy the souls of men, to be found in that apostate church, or
elsewhere.