Luke 22:32

Luke 22:32

I. In this world of sin and sorrow, we have our work to do, and the question is What work, and how do we do it? Let us take the world of sin, and plainly and practically, with earnest consideration, ask what we can and what we ought to do. On all sides of us we see life blighted and ruined by human passions, which sweep over the earth like flame over a dry heath, and leave it black and scarred behind them. The sorrows of the world are in the sad heritage of its sins and these bitter fruits of sin have their bitter roots in selfishness. Things are as they are, and this is the world of sin. We. may not leave it. We are where God has placed us, and there we must stay until He gives us the signal to fall out of the ranks. How can we make better this ruined world of sin? The answer is a very simple one, but stringent, rigid, and inexorable; that is, we can only begin to do it by personal innocence and by personal holiness. Ah, how many will stumble over this entrance! No man who is not sincere in self-amelioration can ever be a prophet of God. Men who have begun wickedly have indeed, sometimes, like St. Augustine, like Bunyan, like Whitefield, turned over a new leaf and begun a new life; but we do not believe that even these have done as much as they might otherwise have done; even as he builds better who builds upon a foundation than he who builds upon ruins. But this, at any rate, is certain that no hypocrite no bad, no insincere, man can heal, in any appreciable degree, the sinfulness of the world. Not till he is converted can he strengthen his brethren. Alas! even when he is converted he may find that he is maimed, that he has ruined his own transcendent powers of usefulness.

II. About the mere presence and person of good men there hang a charm and a spell of good which make them do good even when they are not consciously thinking of doing good at all. Their very presence does good, as if there were an angel there; and from their mere silence there spreads an influence, a flowing in of higher motives and purer thoughts into the souls of men. So, too, the mere presence of bad men makes us bad when they are not thinking of doing harm. Marguerite asks Faust with surprise how it is she finds herself unable to pray when his friend is by. How many a crime has been consummated solely because of vicious wickedness unconsciously made plastic by stronger wickedness! Among the pure and good the base and impure inspire a shuddering repulsion such as the presence of Judas Iscariot seems to have inspired in the heart of St. John; but among the many who are but the weakly bad the contagion of the stronger bad has an assimilating force. Are we noble enough to enter into the meaning of the sigh of Jesus, and to share His pure and Divine Passion for the world? If so, we must enter also into the spirit of His life, and the very first condition of doing that is, sincerity a sincerity which can only be shown in the whole-hearted effort after personal innocence and personal holiness. If we would do as Jesus did we must be His servants. If we would help to heal the acknowledged evils of the world, we must ourselves be free from them. If we would tend the plague-stricken, there must not be the plague-spot in our own hearts. He who would help others must not only show others, but lead the way.

F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 385.

References: Luke 22:31; Luke 22:32. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 476. Luke 22:32. A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,p. 198; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. vi., p. 135; H. Crosby, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 308; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 11; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 296. Luke 22:33. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 306. Luke 22:34. W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 278. Luke 22:35; Luke 22:36. Expositor,1st series, vol. vi., p. 312.Luke 22:35. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 471.