Expositions of Holy Scripture: Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters; I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters; I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Commentaries
It comes, then, to be a testing question for each of us, have we learned
from Paul this lesson of tolerance, which is not the result of cold
indifference, but the outcome of fiery enthusiasm and of a clear
recognition of the one thing needful? Granted that there is preaching
from unworthy motives and modes of work which offend our tastes and
prejudices, and that there are types of evangelistic earnestness which
have errors mixed up with them, are we inclined to say 'Nevertheless
Christ is proclaimed, and therein I rejoice, Yea, and will rejoice'?
Much chaff may be blended with the seeds sown; the chaff will lie inert
and the seed will grow. Such tolerance is the very opposite of the
carelessness which comes from languid indifference. The one does not
mind what a man preaches because it has no belief in any of the things
preached, and to it one thing is as good as another, and none are of any
real consequence. The other proceeds from a passionate belief that the
one thing which sinful men need to hear is the great message that Christ
has lived and died for them, and therefore, it puts all else on one side
and cares nothing for jangling notes that may come in, if only above
them the music of His name sounds out clear and full.
IV. The calm fronting of life and death as equally magnifying Christ.
The Apostle is sure that all the experiences of his prison will turn to
his ultimate salvation, because he is sure that his dear friends in
Philippi will pray for him, and that through their prayers he will
receive a 'supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,' which shall be enough
to secure his steadfastness. His expectation is not that he will escape
from prison or from martyrdom, both of which stand only too clearly
before him, but that whatever may be waiting for him in the future, 'all
boldness' will be granted him, so that whether he lives he will live to
the Lord, or whether he dies, he will die to the Lord. He had so
completely accepted it as his life's purpose to magnify Jesus, that the
extremest possible changes of condition came to be insignificant to him.
He had what we may have, the true anaesthetic which will give us a
'solemn scorn of ills' and make even the last and greatest change from
life to death of little account. If we magnify Christ in our lives with
the same passionate earnestness and concentrated absorption as Paul had,
our lives like some train on well-laid rails will enter upon the bridge
across the valley with scarce a jolt. With whatever differences--and the
differences are to us tremendous--the same purpose will be pursued in
life and in death, and they who, living, live to the praise of Christ,
dying will magnify Him as their last act in the body which they leave.
What was it that made possible such a passion of enthusiasm for a man
whom Paul had never seen in the flesh? What changed the gloomy
fuliginous fanaticism of the Pharisee, at whose feet were laid the
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