|
I Corinthians 6:11 And
such were some of you but you are washed, but you are santified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
of the Spirit of our God. The Corinthians are warned against many great evils, of which they had formerly
been guilty. There is much force in these inquiries, when we consider that they were addressed to a people puffed up with
a fancy of their being above others in wisdom and knowledge. All unrighteousness is sin; all reigning sin, nay, every actual
sin, committed with design, and not repented of, shuts out of the kingdom of heaven. Be not deceived. Men are very much inclined
to flatter themselves that they may live in sin, yet die in Christ, and go to heaven. But we cannot hope to sow to the flesh,
and reap everlasting life. They are reminded what a change the gospel and grace of God had made in them. The blood of Christ,
and the washing of regeneration, can take away all guilt. Our justification is owing to the suffering and merit of Christ;
our sanctification to the working of the Holy Spirit; but both go together. All who are made righteous in the sight of God,
are made holy by the grace of God.
The first stanza of a famous Christian song
begins: "What a wonderful change in my live has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart."
Without doubt the greatest proof of the new
birth is a changed life. The child of God now suddenly loves the following:
1. He loves Jesus. Before conversion the sinner
might hold Christ in high esteem, but after conversion he loves the Savior (1 John 5:1, 2 1 Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Here the Christian brother is described by his faith; he that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ--that he is Messiah the prince, that he is the Son of God by nature and office, that he is the
chief of all the anointed world, chief of all the priests, prophets, or kings, who were ever anointed by God or for him, that
he is perfectly prepared and furnished for the whole work of the eternal salvation-accordingly yields himself up to his care
and direction. The ground of it must be our love to God, whose they are: Our love to them appears to be sound and genuine
when we love them not merely upon any secular account, as because they are rich, or learned, or kind to us, or of our denomination
among religious parties; but because they are God's children, his regenerating grace appears in them, his image and superscription
are upon them, and so in them God himself is loved. Thus we see what that love to the brethren is that is so pressed in this
epistle; it is love to them as the children of God and the adopted brethren of the Lord Jesus).
2. He loves the Bible. We should love God's Word a
the psalmist did in Psalm 119. He expresses his great love for God's Word no less than 17 times! See verses
24, 40, 47, 48, 72, 97, 103, 111, 113, 127, 129, 140, 143, 159, 162, 165, 168.
3. He loves other Christians. "We know that
we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethern (1 John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: As one that is justly condemned to die for an unpardonable
crime is a dead man, he is dead in law; and, in reference to this part of our danger, Christ came to save as
a prince or judge, publishing an act of indemnity, or general pardon, under certain provisos; this saving here is opposed
to condemning. )
4. He loves his enemies. (Matthew 5:43-45 43 Ye
have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Thou shalt love thy neighbour;
and by neighbour they understood those only of their own country, nation, and religion; and those only that they were
pleased to look upon as their friends: yet this was not the worst; from this command, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
they were willing to infer what God never designed; Thou shalt hate thine enemy; and they looked upon whom they pleased
as their enemies, thus making void the great command of God by their traditions, though there were express laws to the contrary.
. That we must do well to them: "Do good to them that hate you, and that will be a better proof of love than
good words. Be ready to do them all the real kindness that you can, and glad of an opportunity to do it, in their bodies,
estates, names, families; and especially to do good to their souls." It was said of Archbishop Cranmer, that the way to make
him a friend was to do him an ill turn; so many did he serve who had disobliged him. These gifts of common providence
are dispensed indifferently to good and evil, just and unjust; so that we cannot know love and
hatred by what is before us, but by what is within us; not by the shining of the sun on our heads, but
by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness in our hearts. ).
5. He loves the souls of allpeople. Like
Paul, he too can cry for the conversion of loved ones. Brethern, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel that
they might be saved (Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. The
strength and sincerity of his desire. It was his heart's desire; it was not a formal compliment, as good wishes are
with many from the teeth outward, but a real desire. This it was before it was his prayer. The soul of prayer is the heart's
desire. Cold desires do but beg denials; we must even breathe out our souls in every prayer.); (1 Corinthians 5:13 But
them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. But, as to members
of the church, they are within, are professedly bound by the laws and rules of Christianity, and not only liable to the judgment
of God, but to the censures of those who are set over them, and the fellow-members of the same body, when they transgress
those rules. Every Christian is bound to judge them unfit for communion and familiar converse. )
6. He loves the pure life. John says if one
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15-17 15 Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The heart
of man is narrow, and cannot contain both loves. The world draws down the heart from God; and so the more the love of the
world prevails the more the love of God dwindles and decays. The Father disallows them, and the world should keep them to
itself. The lust or appetite to these things must be mortified and subdued; and so the indulging of it is not appointed by
the Father, but is insinuated by the ensnaring world. The object of his love in opposition to the world that
passeth away, abideth for ever; his sacred passion or affection, in opposition to the lust that passeth away, abideth
for ever; love shall never fail; and he himself is an heir of immortality and endless life, and shall in time be translated
thither.; 1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armour and artillery
by which we overcome; for, (1.) In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and opposition to, the world. (2.) Faith
works in and by love to God and Christ, and so withdraws us from the love of the world. (3.) Faith sanctifies the heart, and
purifies it from those sensual lusts by which the world obtains such sway and dominion over souls. (4.) It receives and derives
strength from the object of it, the Son of God, for conquering the frowns and flatteries of the world. (5.) It obtains by
gospel promise a right to the indwelling Spirit of grace, that is greater than he who dwells in the world. (6.) It sees an
invisible world at hand, with which this world is not worthy to be compared, and into which it tells the soul in which it
resides it must be continually prepared to enter; and thereupon.) & He loves to talk to God. "Speaking to
yourselves in paslms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:18
).
|
