Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. JohnMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries; Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries; Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
And, brethren, remember, a part of the separation is that your light
shall be a constant condemnation of the darkness. 'But rather reprove
them,' says my text; that is a work that devolves upon all Christians.
It is to be done, no doubt, by the silent condemnation of evil which
ever comes from the quiet doing of good. As an old preacher has it, 'The
presence of a saint hinders the devil of elbow-room for doing his
tricks.' The old legend told us that the fire-darting Apollo shot his
radiant arrows against the pythons and 'dragons of the slime.' The sons
of light have the same office--by their light of life to make the
darkness aware of itself, and ashamed of itself; and to change it into
light.
But silent reproving is not all our duty. The Christian Church has
wofully fallen beneath its duty, not only in regard to its complicity
with the social crimes of each generation, but in regard to its cowardly
silence towards them; especially when they flaunt and boast themselves
in high places. What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to
war? What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to impurity?
What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to drunkenness? What
has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to the social vices that
are honeycombing society and this city to-day? If you are the sons of
light, walk as the sons of light, and have 'no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness'; but set the trumpet to your lips, and
'declare unto My people their transgressions, and to the house of Israel
their sin.'
THE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT
'The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and
truth.'--Eph. v. 9 (R.V.).
This is one of the cases in which the Revised Version has done service
by giving currency to an unmistakably accurate and improved reading.
That which stands in our Authorised Version, 'the fruit of the Spirit'
seems to have been a correction made by some one who took offence at the
violent metaphor, as he conceived it, that 'light' should bear 'fruit'
and desired to tinker the text so as to bring it into verbal
correspondence with another passage in the Epistle to the Galatians,
where 'the fruits of the Spirit' are enumerated. But the reading, 'the
fruit of the _light_,' has not only the preponderance of manuscript
authority in its favour, but is preferable because it preserves a
striking image, and is in harmony with the whole context.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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