The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
[20] St. Paul, in 1 Tim. i. 15, says, "Faithful is the saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners; of whom I am chief." This verse is of ancient and
of very modern interest too. It shows that to the last St. Paul
retained the keenest sense of his early wickedness. It is of
present interest because it helps to correct a modern error. There
are people who object to use the Litany and the Lord's Prayer
because of the prayers for forgiveness of sins and the occurrence
of such expressions as "Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners."
Their argument is, that believers have been washed from all their
sins, and therefore should not describe themselves as miserable
sinners. St. Paul, however, saw no inconsistency between God's
free forgiving love and his own humility in designating himself
the chief of sinners. God may have cast all our sins behind His
back; but, viewing the matter from the human side, it is well,
nay, it is absolutely necessary, if spiritual pride is to be
hindered in its rapid growth, for us to cherish a remembrance of
the sins and backslidings of other days. The greatest saints, the
richest spiritual teachers have ever felt the necessity of it. St.
Augustine in his _Confessions_ mingles perpetual reminiscences of
his own wickedness with his assured sense of God's mercy. Hooker
deals in his own profound style with such objection to the Litany
in the Fifth Book of his _Ecclesiastical Polity_, ch. xlvii.,
where he writes, replying to the objection that the expressions of
the Litany implying fear of God do not become God's saints: "The
knowledge of our own unworthiness is not without belief in the
merits of Christ. With that true fear which the one causeth there
is coupled true boldness, and encouragement drawn from the other.
The very silence which our own unworthiness putteth us unto doth
itself make request for us, and that in the consequence of His
grace. Looking inward we are stricken dumb, looking upward we
speak and prevail. O happy mixture, wherein things contrary do so
qualify and correct the danger of the other's excess, that neither
boldness can make us presume as long as we are kept under with the
sense of our own wretchedness; nor while we trust in the mercy of
God through Jesus Christ, fear be able to tyrannise over us! As
therefore our fear excludeth not that boldness which becometh
saints; so if their _familiarity_ with God (referring to his
opponents) do not savour of this fear, it draweth too near that
irreverent confidence wherewith true humility can never stand."
Bishop Jeremy Taylor understood the bearing of St. Paul's view on
personal religion. In his _Holy Living_, in the chapter on
Humility, he teaches those who seek that grace thus: "Every day
call to mind some one of thy foulest sins, or the most shameful of
thy disgraces, or the indiscreetest of thy actions, or anything
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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