| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 15 |
Page 5 |
“If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that love them.” Anybody ought to be able to love his friends, to do good to those that are good to him, and to lend to those of whom he expects to receive as much in return. Even the coldest and most calculating selfishness can go thus far in loving, doing good, and giving. It requires no regeneration, no mind of Christ, no help of the Holy Spirit, to help one to follow that sort of life creed. The most wicked heathen can do it, and the most common infidel, if not utterly devoid of shrewdness, will need no Sermon on the Mount to inspire and teach him that this is the wisest way to live. His kindness to others brings kindness to him in turn. His giving and lending put other men under obligation to show him the same favors when he may need them. But Christians must do more than sinners. They are born again, are children of God, have a new heart in them, and are to be like God Himself, loving enemies, doing and lending, hoping for no return.
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.” We have no right to be censorious, to criticize others, to sit in judgment on their actions, to pronounce sentence on their conduct. Who made us judges of others? Under what law are they answerable to us for what they do? Besides, we have no wisdom for such judgment of others. We don not know all the circumstances and conditions that enter into human actions. There are often excellent reasons for doing certain things which to us, who do not know these reasons, seem to be unwise, or even wrong. There are elements of character which to us may appear unlovely because we see them in a certain light, but which, seen from a different point of view, in a different light, are really very lovely. In a certain church there is a stained window which, looked at from one point, gives a blurred and very unsatisfactory representation of a scene in our Lord’s life, but which, observed from another point, represents the scene in a very beautiful way. The same difference in aspect is often observable in men’s conduct and character, as seen from different points by different onlookers. Evidently, therefore, we are not qualified for judging, because of the fragmentary nature of our knowledge of the circumstances and conditions of people’s lives. Let us learn to be charitable and tolerant, seeking for the good things and the beautiful rather than the evil and the repulsive.
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