Best New Testament Application Commentary

1. NIVAC (own in print... someday hope to have electronic)
2. Life Application Commentary
3. Holman NT Commentary
4. John Courson
5. Opening Up

As an aside, one of the things I like to do is use Cited By with collection of sermons to see how others have applied this passage (Piper, Early Church, etc.)

One not mentioned so far is the Bible Speaks Today NT series.

Very good value for 22 volumes (and often on sale at 3rd party sites.)

Hopefully you have created a collection of your top commentaries? If so you can call it in your My Passage Guide, so its results turn up above above the others. Mine's defined like this:

(type:commentary OR mytag:commentary) AND Series:("Baker Exegetical","Word Biblical Commentary","Pillar New Testament","United Bible Societies","New International Greek Testament","The Bible Speaks Today","IVP Bible Background Commentary","Tyndale Commentaries","New American Commentary","Socio-Rhetorical Commentary")

Kent Hughes Preaching the Word series is brilliant for application. James Montgomery Boice isn't bad, and I agree that NIVAC is pretty good most of the time.

Dan DeVilder said:

Mark, in what way is it brilliant?  Does he bring it across with "how tos" or is it illustration, or what?  Never used his material.

It's expositional, which means it reads like a good sermon. When I'm thinking about both illustrations and applications, I find more relevant material in his books than in any others. Here's a passage chosen at random (James 1:3-4) that will give you a flavour of both:

THE RATIONALE FOR THE IRRATIONAL CALL (vv. 3, 4)

The rationale for such joy comes from knowing that the various trials we face have spiritual value. James says there is a two-step process through which our trials elevate us.

The first step is to understand that “the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (v. 3) Elaboration on what is meant by perseverance will unlock rich truth. J. H. Ropes renders this “staying power.” Martin Dibelius calls it “heroic endurance.”8 And the NEB translates this as “fortitude.” James is talking about toughness—“the testing of your faith produces toughness.”

Here is how this works: we develop toughness or fortitude by repeatedly being tested and prevailing. The more tests we pass, the tougher we become. As a boxer engages in bout after bout, he toughens and becomes wiser and stronger. After a time he develops such fortitude, perseverance and staying power that he can take on the best. There is no way a fighter, or any of us, can develop toughness without testing! The endurance and fortitude of the Apostle Paul or William Carey or Corrie ten Boom did not come overnight and did not come apart from trials. Paul, in Romans 5:3, confirms this truth: “but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.”

My experience in raising children has helped me understand how God views our testing. When my wife and I were young parents and our oldest child was in the first grade, we bought her a winter coat. We had intentionally bought a size too large, but it was a marvelous blue, fluffy, mock-fur coat with gold buttons down the front. The day after we bought it, a most unusual thing happened in California. It rained! It was a perfect day to wear her coat.

I never will forget how she looked as she went out the door—dressed in red boots, her blue coat with gold buttons, a little white knit hat, yellow yarn around her pigtails, and a red umbrella. We were so proud of her. It did not matter that her coat was a little long at the sleeves and at the hem. She was so happy as she walked out the door and down the driveway. Barbara and I stood behind the foggy windowpanes, watching her go.

Two little friends approached from down the street. Although I could not hear them, I saw one of them point at our daughter’s hair, and I knew she was saying something like, “Your hair looks dumb!” Then she pointed to the hem of my daughter’s coat, and my temperature went up. The little girls marched off to school. Holly trudged slowly behind.

I really wanted to set those little girls straight! But I knew that if I continued to step in whenever she experienced such difficulties, she might not develop fortitude and staying power—qualities she now has in abundance!

Nature teaches us the same principle. Free a butterfly from its chrysalis, and thus from the struggle of liberating itself, and you destroy its life, for it will never develop the strength to soar as it should. When fortitude is lacking in one of God’s children, he has a time-tested remedy—“the testing of your faith.” With this in mind, James’ irrational call—“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds”—becomes brilliant.

The rationale becomes even clearer when we observe the second step: perseverance produces maturity. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (v. 4). Spiritual perseverance or toughness produces a dynamic maturity. “Mature” refers to a personality which has reached its full development. Regarding the corresponding synonym “complete,” Peter Davids explains: “Perfection is not just a maturing of character, but a rounding out as more and more ‘parts’ of the righteous character are added.” Thus, maturity is a dynamic state in which a thousand parts of us are honed, shaped, tempered and brought together, making a dynamic wholeness.

It is commonly taught that trials bring maturity, but it is not so. Rather, fortitude and perseverance in times of testings produce maturity. In troubled times we must practice spiritual toughness. As we endure “trials of many kinds”—economic stress, disappointments, criticisms, domestic pressures, persecution for our faith, illnesses—the multiple facets of our being are touched with grace. Dick Seume wrote beautifully about this:

Life on earth would not be worth much if every source of irritation were removed. Yet most of us rebel against the things that irritate us, and count as heavy loss what ought to be rich gain. We are told that the oyster is wiser; that when an irritating object, like a bit of sand, gets under the “mantle” of his shell, he simply covers it with the most precious part of his being and makes of it a pearl. The irritation that it was causing is stopped by encrusting it with the pearly formation. A true pearl is therefore simply a victory over irritation. Every irritation that gets into our lives today is an opportunity for pearl culture. The more irritations the devil flings at us, the more pearls we may have. We need only to welcome them and cover them completely with love, that most precious part of us, and the irritation will be smothered out as the pearl comes into being. What a store of pearls we may have, if we will!

The key to a graced life, pearl-tipped facets of personality, and thus full maturity is constancy, tenacity, perseverance. Spiritual toughness is the key to saintliness!

The idea that when we “get it all together” our trials will lessen is a falsehood. Paul told Timothy the truth: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Life will always be full of testings for the true Christian. We must not imagine they will lessen with time—say, less trials at thirty-five than twenty-five, or at forty-five than thirty-five, or at fifty-five than forty-five, or at sixty-five than fifty-five, or at seventy-five than sixty-five. Trials are not a sign of God’s displeasure but are opportunities to persevere in the Lord.

James commands the irrational: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Is this crazy talk—pious prattle? Not when we embrace the double rationale:

1) Testing brings spiritual toughness—“because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (v. 3). When we, by God’s grace, tough it out, our entire person becomes pearly.

2) Toughness brings a dynamic maturity—“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (v. 4).

    When God wants to drill a man
     And thrill a man
     And skill a man,
    When God wants to mold a man
     To play the noblest part;
    When He yearns with all His heart
     To create so great and bold a man
    That all the world shall be amazed,
     Watch His methods, watch His ways!
    How He ruthlessly perfects
     Whom He royally elects!
    How He hammers him and hurts him,
     And with mighty blows converts him
    Into trial shapes of clay which
     Only God understands;
    While his tortured heart is crying
     And he lifts beseeching hands!
    How He bends but never breaks
     When his good He undertakes;
    How He uses whom He chooses
     And with every purpose fuses him;
     By every act induces him
    To try His splendor out—
     God knows what He’s about!

Such logic makes the command rational and supremely sane: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” James calls for a decisive act—to consider our troubles opportunities for joy and endurance. May we in prayer so acknowledge today and in days to come!