p. 522 | The Commentary by Geikie

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 25, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 33.

The Commentary.

By Geikie

NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.

GOLDEN PRECEPTS.

(September 11.—Matt. 7:1-12.)

JUDGE not, said He, that ye be not judged (by God); condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. For with what judgment ye judge (men) ye shall be judged (hereafter). Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you. Be charitable respecting the errors and short-comings of others, that you may not have your own sins brought against you in the great day, and find there the condemnation you have yourself shown here.

It is a fearful thing for you, who are to teach men, to fall away from the truth, for how, then, will you instruct sinful men aright? If the blind attempt to lead the blind both fall into a ditch, and if you yourselves be wrong you cannot lead others, who know nothing of it, to the salvation of the new kingdom. You will both go more and more hopelessly wrong, till, at last, you sink into Gehenna. Those you teach cannot be wiser than you, their teachers, for a disciple is not above his master, but comes, at best, in the end, to be like him. If, then, you would not be blind leaders of the blind, take care, before you essay to judge and better the religious state of others, to examine your own spiritual condition, and reform whatever is wrong in it. Why should you mark the atom of straw or dust that is in your brother's eye—his petty fault—if you do not, in your self-righteousness, see the beam that is in your own eye? Self-blinded hypocrite! first cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye.

You will meet with men, He continued, who, when the divine truth is offered them, will only profane it—men utterly ungodly and hardened, who willfully reject the counsel of God, with blasphemy, mocking, and slandering. Do not put it in their power to dishonor it. To do so is like casting a holy thing to the street dogs, or throwing pearls before wild swine, who would only trample them as worthless under their feet, and turn against yourselves and rend you.

You will need help from God in your great task for your own spiritual welfare, and for success in your work. Ask, therefore, and it will be given you; seek, and ye will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If your son asks bread, do you mock him by giving him a stone? or, if he ask a fish, do you mock him by giving him a serpent? or, if he ask an egg, will you give him a scorpion? You need, then, have no fear of refusal of spiritual help from your heavenly Father, for if you who are sinful, though members of the new kingdom, would not think of refusing to supply the wants of your children, far less will your Father above refuse you, his spiritual children, what you need.

JESUS had now come to the close of his exposition of the nature and duties of his kingdom, and ended his statement of them by a brief recapitulation and summary of all he had said of the latter, in their relation to men at large. "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." The law had said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," but it had meant by neighbor a Jew or a proselyte. These grand words were, therefore, a rule for the nation towards its own members, but no great law for mankind. But Jesus ignores this narrowness, and proclaims all men brethren, as common children of one Father in Heaven.

But the law is much more than a mere code of morals between man and man. Its fitting summary is much rather that central requirement repeated each day, even till now, by every Jew in his prayers—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Morality, apart from its religious basis and supreme enforcement, degrades the law to a level with the common morality of the world at large. It was reserved for Jesus to announce our duty to man in its subordination to our higher relation to God; to make it only part of that filial love which reflects the tenderness on all our brethren which it feels supremely towards their Father and ours, in Heaven. With him, love of universal humanity has its deep religious ground in the love of God, whom we are to resemble,—towards all the race, as his children. The love of man, he tells us, is the second great commandment, not the first; it is the moon shining by light borrowed from that Sun. The highest of the Rabbis cannot stand in the presence of the Son of Mary!—Geikie.