Romans 14:7

PERSONAL INFLUENCE

‘None of us liveth to himself.’

Romans 14:7

Twofold is the mystery bound up in each human life:—

(a) It is lived out alone.

(b) It is bound up with others.

It is this second aspect which the text brings before us. It shows us the existence of subtle force called influence.

What are the conditions under which alone influence can be used for God’s glory?

I. Never seek for influence for its own, or rather for our own, sake. This would be to make it a caricature of the true thing.

II. Influence will come in inverse ratio to the degree in which we seek for it. Here, as elsewhere, humility is the groundwork of Christian virtues.

III. Influence must flow from what we are.—‘What you are, that you are,’ says Thomas à Kempis. It is easy to be busy about other people’s reformation and to neglect ourselves. We do not want plans: let us be at our dear Lord’s feet, and let Him lift us up.

IV. Influence must flow from union with Christ.—It is being more than doing that is wanted in these days.

—Rev. H. B. Bromby.

Illustration

‘Man is by his natural genius a social being. From the beginning of things it was ordained by God that he should not live alone. The story of Eve’s creation from one of the ribs of Adam has this everlasting spiritual truth underlying it. It is thus that the one is very closely bound up and intimately connected with the other. Man cannot live without his fellow-man, and further, he cannot come into this world and live in this world without being first of all touched by or touching somebody else.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

‘ONE TOUCH OF NATURE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD KIN’

The power of association dominates the whole of human life.

I. In our troubles and sorrows is it not to the power of association that we make our appeal? We go to somebody and look for sympathy. Have some of you never experienced that wonderful sense of relief and ease and spiritual refreshment when you unburden some terrible trouble you have upon you into the ears of love and sympathy? It is so true that ‘one touch of nature makes the whole world kin.’

II. In our joys.—To what do we attribute our happiness? Is it not to the power of association—that power which unites like with like, that mutual resolve of souls to stand by one another in fair weather or in foul? In all this there is the power of association, complete and beautiful. No man has yet lived who has found complete satisfaction in a self-centred life. True joy is to be found only in the power of association, and particularly in the gift of genuine and ennobling friendship.

III. In worship.—The power of association is clear and unmistakable. Look at the elaborate ritual of the Jewish Church. All religion in the old worship of God appealed directly, materially, to the sense of touch. There is the catalogue of things clean or unclean to be used or abstained from, eaten or left alone; the elaborate rules for the cleansing of things and of people. In all these injunctions we find that everything needed to be without blemish, perfect, whole—everything appealing to the sense of, touch. What is the spiritual teaching of that? Simply this: that we must not give to God anything that is imperfect, only that which is whole. So also all the ritual of the Christian Church appeals to the power of association to touch and to quicken our spirits, to remind us where we are and what we are doing. Whatever is done here is intended first of all to solemnise our thoughts. We come into Church and we say, This place surely has been consecrated to the service of God; surely this is God’s house, this is the gate of heaven. What is it that makes you feel this except the power of association?

—Rev. R. W. Wright.

Illustration

‘How often little things are indicative of a man’s character. Some small attention when we least expect it, some kind word in the midst of trouble, some generous thought anticipating a need, some manly shake of the hand—these things influence many lives in a way undreamed of by those who have so acted. Hinges are but small things compared with the great doors that hang upon them, but it is upon the hinges that the door depends for the opening and closing thereof. A drop of oil may make all the difference to a great locomotive engine. Is not this so, too, with the gigantic piece of mechanism called human society? We can all be lubricators of the wheels of life. Yes, voluntary influence does not always indicate what a man is, but involuntary influence always does. Our involuntary influence is as much the outcome of our character as the scent is the outcome of a plant’s life. It cannot be imprisoned.’