Hebrews 5:7

Hebrews 5:7

Irreverence.

"Was heard," the Greek text says, "from His reverence."

I. Irreverence is the not fearing, the not being awed into silence, the not bending of the knee, of the soul before Him in whom we live and move and have our being. And we see this evil spirit everywhere. We have seen it in the open profaneness of the scoffer at holy things. We have seen it in the insolent defiance of the "busy mocker," who asks, "Who is the Lord?" and "Where is the promise of His coming?" We can trace it, if we will look for it, in the lurking-dens of the heart, in the chambers of the imagery. Every movement of the mind concerning Providence, concerning duty, concerning revelation, is an irreverence if God is not remembered in it.

II. Whence comes this irreverence? It is easy to tell of some particular instances which assist, if they do not create, the irreverence of which we are speaking. (1) The first of these is levity. "They made light of it," says the Gospel. There was nothing which they could not twist into a subject for jesting. (2) A second ingredient in irreverence is vanity. A man must be humble who would be devout. The first condition of reverence is humility. Where this is not, vainly shall we look for the prayer, vainly for the acceptance, of Him who was heard in that He feared. (3) A third of these counteractions of reverence is excitement.

III. The battle against irreverence is one of detail. It is only by attention to particulars that it can be won. (1) Be reverent in worship. (2) Be reverent in speech. It is bad to have bad thoughts; it is worse to utter them. Worse, because then they infect others. Worse, because then we use speech, which is man's glory, for the very purpose of doing God dishonour. (3) Be reverent, finally, in thought. There is a grace which we sometimes fear is dying out could any grace quite die out? in the Church of this latter day; and this is the grace of meditation. It is out of such communing that reverence springs, the worship of reverence and the speech of reverence, and the soul of reverence too. Without it there is no root to our religion; the growth is all outward; the world scorches it; "in the time of temptation it falls away."

C. J. Vaughan, University Sermons,p. 145.

References: Hebrews 5:7. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 84; Homilist,2nd series, vol. i., p. 97; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 92; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount,p. 204.