A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 12TH, 1909,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, DEC. 14TH, 1873
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled.” — Matthew 5:6.
I REMARKED, on a former occasion, that each of the seven Beatitudes rises
above the one which precedes it, and rises out of it. It is a higher thing to
hunger and thirst after righteousness than to be meek, or to mourn, or to
be poor in spirit. But no man ever becomes hungry and thirsty after
righteousness unless he has first passed through the three preliminary
stages, and has been convinced of his soul poverty, has been made to
mourn for sin, and has been rendered humble in the sight of God. I have
already shown that the meek man is one who is contented with what God
has given him in this world, that he is one whose ambition is at an end, and
whose aspirations are not for things beneath the moon. Very well then,
having ceased to hunger and thirst after this world, he is the man to hunger
and thirst after another and a better one. Having said farewell to these
gross and perishing things, he is the man to throw the whole intensity of his
nature into the pursuit of that which is heavenly and eternal, which is here
described as “righteousness.” Man must first of all be cured of his ardor for
earthly pursuits before he can feel fervor for heavenly ones. “No man can
serve two masters;” and until the old selfish principle has been driven out,
and the man has become humble and meek, he will not begin to hunger and
thirst after righteousness.
I. Proceeding at once to consider our text, we notice here, first, THE
OBJECT WHICH THE BLESSED MAN DESIRES; he hungers and thirsts after
righteousness.
As soon as the Spirit of God quickens him, and really makes him a blessed
man, he begins to long after righteousness before God. He knows that he
is a sinner, and that, as a sinner, he is unrighteous, and therefore is
condemned at the bar of the Most High; but, he wants to be righteous, he
desires to have his iniquity removed, and the defilement of the past blotted
out. How can this be done: The question which he asks again and again is,
“How can I be made righteous in the sight of God?” and he is never
satisfied until he is told that Jesus Christ is made of God unto us “wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” Then, when he sees
that, Christ, died in the sinner’s stead, he understands how the sinner’s sins
are put away; and when he comprehends that, Christ has wrought out a
perfect righteousness, not for himself, but for the unrighteous, he
comprehends how, by imputation, he is made righteous in the sight of God
through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But until he knows that, he
hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and he is blessed in thus hungering
and thirsting.
After he has found Christ to be his righteousness so far as justification is
concerned, this man then longs to have a righteous nature. “Alas!” says he,
“it is not enough for me to know that my sin is forgiven. I have a fountain
of sin within my heart, and bitter waters continually flow from it. Oh, that
my nature could be changed, so that I, the lover of sin, could be made a
lover of that which is good; that I, now full of evil, could become full of
holiness!” He begins to cry out for this, and he is blessed in the crying; but
he never rests until the Spirit of God makes him a new creature in Christ
Jesus. Then is he renewed in the spirit of his mind, and God has given him,
at least in measure, that which he hungers and thirsts after, namely,
righteousness of nature. He has passed from death unto life, from darkness
to light. The things he formerly loved he now hates, and the things he then
hated he now loves.
After he is regenerated and justified, he still pants after righteousness in
another sense; he wants to be sanctified. The new birth is the
commencement of sanctification, and sanctification is the carrying on of the
work commenced in regeneration; so the blessed man cries, “Lord, help me
to be righteous in my character. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts;
keep my whole nature pure. Let no temptation get the mastery over me.
Subdue my pride; correct my judgement; keep my will in check; make me
to be a holy man in the innermost temple of my being, and then let my
conduct toward my fellow-men be in all respects all that it should be. Let
me speak so that they can always believe my word. Let me act so that none
can truly charge me with injustice. Let my life be a transparent one; let it
be, as far as that is possible, the life of Christ written over again.” Thus,
you see, the truly blessed man hungers and thirsts for justification, for
regeneration, and for sanctification.
When he has all of these, he longs for perseverance in grace. He thirsts to
be kept right. If he has overcome one bad habit, he thirsts to put down all
others. If he, has acquired one virtue, he thirsts to acquire more. If God has
given him much grace, he thirsts for more; and if he is in some respects like
his Master, he perceives his defects, and mourns over them, and goes on to
thirst to be still more like Jesus. He is always hungering and thirsting to be
made right, and to be kept right; so he prays for final perseverance, and for
perfection. He feels that he has such a hunger and thirst after righteousness
that, he will never be satisfied until he wakes up in the image of his Lord,
that he will never be content until the last sin within him is subdued, and he
shall have no more propensity to evil, but be out of gunshot of temptation.
And such a man, beloved, honestly desires to see righteousness promoted
among his fellow-men. He wishes that all men would do as they would be
done by; and he tries, by his own example, to teach them to do so. He
wishes that there were no fraud, no false witness, no perjury, no theft, no
lasciviousness. He wishes that right ruled in the whole world; he would
account it a happy day if every person could be blessed, and if there were
no need of punishment for offenses because they had ceased. He longs to
hear that oppression has come to an end; he wants to see right government
in every land. He longs for wars to cease, and that the rules and principles
of right, and not force and the sharp edge of the sword, may govern all
mankind. His daily prayer is, “Lord, let thy kingdom come, for thy
kingdom is righteousness and peace.” When he sees any wrong done, he
grieves over it. If he cannot alter it, he grieves all the more; and he labors
as much as lieth in him, to bear a protest against wrong of every sort. He
hungers and thirsts after righteousness. He does not hunger and thirst that
his own political party may get into power, but he does hunger and thirst
that righteousness may be done in the land. He does not hunger and thirst
that his own opinions may come to the front, and that his own sect or
denomination may increase in numbers and influence, but he does desire
that righteousness may come to the fore. He does not crave for himself that
he may be able to sway his fellow-men according to his own imaginings,
but he does wish that he could influence his fellow-men for that which is
right and true, for his soul is all on fire with this one desire,-righteousness,-
righteousness for himself, righteousness before God, righteousness
between man and man. This he longs to see, and for this he hungers and
thirsts, and therein Jesus says that he is blessed.
II. Now NOTICE THE DESIRE ITSELF.
It is said that he hungers and thirsts after righteousness,-a double
description of his ardent desire for it. Surely it would have been enough for
the man to hunger for it, but he thirsts as well, all the appetites, and
desires, and cravings of his spiritual nature go out towards what he wants
above, everything else, namely, righteousness. He feels that he has not
attained to it himself, and therefore he hungers and thirsts for it; and he
also laments that others have not attained to it, and therefore he hungers
and thirsts for them; that they too may have it.
We may say of this passion, first, that, it is real. Hungering and thirsting
are matters of fact, not fancy. Suppose that, you meet a man who tells you
that he is so hungry that he is almost starving, and you say to him,
“Nonsense, my dear fellow, just forget all about it; it is a mere whim of
yours, for you can live very well without food if you like;” why, he knows
that you are mocking him. And if you could surprise some poor wretch
who had been floating away in a boat cast away at sea, and had not been
able for days to moisten his mouth except with the briny water which had
only increased his thirst, and if you were to say to him, “Thirst! it is only
your fancy, you are nervous, that is all, you need no drink,” the man would
soon tell you that he knows better than that, for he must drink or die.
There is nothing in this world that is more real than hunger and thirst, and
the truly blessed man has such a real passion, desire, and craving after
righteousness that it can only be likened to hunger and thirst. He must have
his sins pardoned, he must be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, he
must be sanctified; and he feels that it will break his heart if he cannot get
rid of sin. He pleas, he longs, he prays to be made holy; he cannot be
satisfied without this righteousness, and his hungering and thirsting for it is
a very real thing.
And not only is it real, it is also most natural. It is natural to men who
need bread to hunger; you do not have to tell them when to hunger or
when to thirst. If they have not bread and water, they hunger and thirst,
naturally. So, when the Spirit of God has changed our nature, that new
nature hungers and thirsts after righteousness. The old nature never did,
never could, and never would do so; it hungers after the husks that the
swine eat, but the new nature hungers after righteousness; it must do so, it
cannot help itself. You do not need to say to the quickened man, “Desire
holiness.” Why, he would give his eyes to possess it. You need not say to a
man who is under conviction of sin, “Desire the righteousness of Christ.”
He would be willing to lay down his life if he could but obtain it. He
hungers and thirsts after righteousness from the very necessities of his
nature.
And this desire is described in such terms that we perceive that, it is
intense. What is more intense than hunger? When a man cannot find any
nourishment, his hunger seems to eat him up; his yearnings after bread are
terrible. I have heard it said that, in the Bread Riots, the cry of the men and
women for bread was something far more terrible to hear than the cry of
“Fire!” when some great city has been on a blaze. “Bread! Bread!” He that
hath it not feels that he must have it; and the cravings of thirst are even
more intense. It is said that you may palliate the pangs of hunger, but that
thirst, makes life itself a burden; the man must drink or die. Well now, such
is the intense longing after righteousness of a man whom God hath blessed.
He wants it so urgently that he says in the anguish of his heart, that he
cannot live without it. The psalmist, says, “My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that
watch for the morning.”
There is no other desire that is quite like the desire of a quickened man
after righteousness; and, hence, this desire often becomes very painful.
Hunger and thirst, endured up to a certain point, involve the very keenest
of pangs; and a man who is seeking the righteousness of Christ is full of
unutterable woe until he finds it; and the Christian warring against his
corruptions is led to cry, “O wretched man that I am!” until he learns that
Christ has won the victory for him; and the servant of Christ desiring to
reclaim the nations, and to bring his fellow-men to follow that which is
right and good, is often the subject of pangs unutterable. He bears the
burden of the Lord, and goes about his work like a man who has too heavy
a burden to carry. Painful indeed is it to the soul to be made to hunger and
thirst after righteousness.
The expressions in our text also indicate that this is a most energetic
desire. What will not a man who is hungry be driven to do? We have an
old proverb that “hunger breaks through stone walls,” and, certainly, a man
hungry and thirsty after righteousness will break through anything to get it.
Have we not known the sincere, penitent travelling many miles in order to
get where he could hear the gospel? Has he not often lost his night’s rest,
and brought himself almost to death’s door by his persistency in pleading
with God for pardon? And as to the man who is saved, and who desires to
see others saved, how often, in his desire to lead them in the right way, will
he, surrender home comforts to go to a distant land; how often will he
bring upon himself the scorn and contempt of the ungodly because zeal for
righteousness works mightily within his spirit! I would like to see many of
these hungry and thirsty ones as members of our churches, preaching in our
pulpits, toiling in our Sunday-schools; and mission stations,-men and
women who feel that they must see Christ’s kingdom come, or they will
hardly be able to live. This holy craving after righteousness, which the Holy
Spirit implants in a Christian’s soul, becomes imperious; it is not merely
energetic, but it dominates his entire being. For this he puts all other wishes
and desires aside. He can be a loser, but he must be righteous. He can be
ridiculed, but he must hold fast his integrity. He can endure scorn, but he
must declare the truth. “Righteousness” he must have, his spirit demands it,
by an appetite that lords it over all other passions and propensities; and
truly “blessed” is the man in whom this is the case.
For, mark you, to hunger after righteousness is a sign of spiritual life.
Nobody who was spiritually dead ever did this. In all the catacombs there
has never yet been found a dead man hungering or thirsting, and there
never will be. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you are
spiritually alive. And it is also a proof of spiritual health. Physicians will
tell you that they regard a good appetite as being one of the signs that a
man’s body is in a healthy state, and it is the same with the soul. Oh, to
have a ravenous appetite after Christ! Oh, to be greedy after the best
things! Oh, to be covetous after holiness;-in fact, to hunger and thirst after
everything that is right, and good, and pure, and lovely, and of good
repute. May the Lord send us more of this intense hunger and thirst! It is
the very opposite condition to that of the self-satisfied and the selfrighteous.
Pharisees never hunger and thirst after righteousness; they have
all the righteousness they want, and they even think that they have some to
spare for that poor publican over yonder who cries, “God be merciful to
me a sinner.” If a man thinks that he is perfect, what can he know about
hungering and thirsting? He is filled already with all that he wants, and he,
too thinks that he could give of his redundant riches to his poor brother
who is sighing over his imperfections. For my part, I am quite content to
have the blessing of hungering and thirsting still, for that blessing stands
side by side with another experience, namely, that of being filled, and when
one is in one sense filled, yet in another sense one hungers still for more,
and this makes up the complete Beatitude, “Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst, after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
III. Having thus described the object and the desire of the truly blessed
man, I must now proceed, in the third place, to speak of THE BLESSING
ITSELF, the benediction which Christ pronounces over those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness: “They shall be filled.”
This is a unique blessing. No one else ever gets “filled.” A man desires
meat, he eats it, and is filled for a little while; but he is soon hungry again.
A man desires drink, and he has it, but he is soon thirsty again. But a man
who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be so “filled” that he shall
never again thirst as he thirsted before. Many hunger and thirst after gold,
but nobody ever yet filled his soul with gold; it cannot be done. The richest
man who ever lived was never quite as rich as he would have liked to be.
Men have tried to fill their souls with worldly possessions; They have
added field to field, and farm to farm, and street to street, and town to
town, till it seemed as if they would be left alone in the land; but no man
ever yet could fill his soul with an estate, however vast it might be. A few
more acres were wanted to round off that corner or to join that farm to the
main body of his territory, or if he could only have had a little more upland
he might have been satisfied; but he did not get it, so he was still
discontented. Alexander conquered the world, but it would not fill his soul;
he wanted more worlds to conquer. And if you and I could own a dozen
worlds, were we possessors of all the stars, and if we could call all space
our own, we should not find enough to fill our immortal spirits; we should
only be magnificently poor, a company of imperial paupers. God has so
made man’s heart that nothing can ever fill it but God himself. There is
such a hungering and thirsting put into the quickened man that he discerns
his necessity, and he knows that only Christ can supply that necessity.
When a man is saved, he has obtained all that he wants. When he gets
Christ, he is satisfied. I recollect a foolish woman asking me, some years
ago, to let her tell my fortune. I said to her, “I can tell you yours; but, I
don’t want to know mine; mine is already made, for I have everything that
I want.” “But,” she said, “can’t I promise you something for years to
come?” “No,” I answered, “I don’t want anything; I have everything that, I
want, I am perfectly satisfied and perfectly contented.” And I can say the
same to-night; I do not know anything that anybody could offer to me that
would increase my satisfaction. If God will but bless the souls of men, and
save them, and get to himself glory, I am filled with contentment, I want
nothing more. I do not believe that any man can honestly say as much as
that unless he has found Christ; but if he has by faith laid hold upon the
Savior, then he has grasped that which always brings the blessing with it.
“He shall be filled.” It is a unique blessing.
And the blessing is most appropriate as well as unique. A man is hungry
and thirsty; how can you take away his hunger without filling him with
food, and how can you remove his thirst without filling him with drink, at
least in sufficient quantity to satisfy him? So Christ’s promise concerning
the man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is, “He shall be filled.”
He wants righteousness; he shall have righteousness. He wants God, he
shall have God. He wants a new heart; he shall have a new heart. He wants
to be kept from sin; he shall be kept from sin. He wants to be made perfect,
he shall be made perfect. He wants to live where there are none that sin; he
shall be taken away to dwell where there shall be no sinners for ever and
ever.
In addition to being unique and appropriate, this blessing is very large and
abundant. Christ said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall,-have a sup by the way? Oh, no! “for they
shall” — have a little comfort every now and then? Oh, no! “for they shall
be filled-filled,” and the Greek word might even better be rendered, “they
shall be satiated;” “they shall have all they need, enough and to spare. They
who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled:- filled to the brim.
How true this is! Here is a man who says, “I am condemned in the sight of
God, I feel and know that no actions of mine can ever make me righteous
before him, I have given up all hope of self-justification.” Listen, O man,
wilt thou believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and take him to stand
before God as thy Substitute and Representative? “I will,” saith he; “I do
trust in him, and in him alone.” Well, then, O man, know that thou hast
received from Christ a righteousness which may well satisfy thee! All that
God could rightly ask of thee was the perfect righteousness of a man; for,
being a man, that is all the righteousness that thou couldst be expected to
present to God; but, in the righteousness of Christ, thou hast perfect
righteousness of a man, and more than that, thou hast also the
righteousness of God. Think of that! Father Adam, in his perfection, wore
the righteousness of man, and it was lovely to look upon as long as it
lasted; but if you trust in Jesus, you are wearing the righteousness of God,
for Christ was God as well as man. Now, when a man attains to that
experience, and knows that, having believed in Jesus, God looks upon him
as if the righteousness of Jesus were his own righteousness, and in fact
imputes to him the divine righteousness which is Christ’s, that man is filled;
yea, he is more than filled, he is satiated; all that his soul could possibly
desire he already possesses in Christ Jesus.
I told you that the man also wanted a new nature. He said, “O God, I long
to get rid of these evil propensities; I want to have this defiled body of
mine made to be a temple meet for thee; I want to be made like my Lord
and Savior, so that I may be able to walk with him in heaven for ever and
ever.” Listen, O man! if thou believest in Jesus Christ, this is what has been
done to thee; thou hast received into thy nature, by the Word of God, an
incorruptible seed, “which liveth and abideth for ever.” That is already in
thee if thou art a believer in Jesus, and it can no more die than God himself
can die, for it is a divine nature. “The grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away; but the Word of the Lord” — that Word which thou
hast received if thou hast believed in Jesus, — “endureth for ever.” The
water which Christ has given thee shall be in thee a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. In the moment of our regeneration, a new nature is
imparted to us, of which the apostle Peter says, “The God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away;”
and the same apostle also says that believers are “partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Is
not that a blessed beginning for those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness?
But hearken further; God the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the blessed
Trinity, condescends to come and dwell in all believers. Paul writes to the
church of God at Corinth, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost?” God dwelleth in thee, my brother or sister in Christ.
Does not this truth astonish thee? Sin dwelleth in thee, but the Holy Ghost
has also come to dwell in thee, and to drive sin out of thee. The devil
assails thee, and tries to capture thy spirit, and to make it like those in his
own infernal den; but lo! the Eternal has himself come down, and enshrined
himself within thee. The Holy Ghost is dwelling within your heart if you
are a believer in Jesus; Christ himself is “in you the hope of glory.” If you
really want righteousness, dear soul, surely you have it here, the nature
changed, and made like the nature of God; the ruling principle altered, sin
dethroned, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you
as your Lord and Master. Why, methinks that however much you may
hunger and thirst after righteousness, you must count yourself well filled,
since you have these immeasurable blessings.
And hearken yet, again, my brother or sister in Christ. Thou shalt be kept
and preserved even to the end. He who has begun to cleanse thee will
never leave the work until he has made thee without spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing. He never begins a work which he cannot or will not
complete. He never failed in anything that he has undertaken, and he never
will fail. Thy corruptions have their heads already broken; and though thy
sins still rebel, it is but a struggling gasp for life. The weapons of victorious
grace shall slay them all, and end the strife for ever. The sins that trouble
thee to-day shall be like those Egyptians that pursued the children of Israel
into the Red Sea, thou shalt see them no more for ever. “The God of peace
shall bruise Satan under thy feet shortly;” and as surely as thou hast
believed in Christ, poor imperfect worm of the dust as thou art, thou shalt
walk with him in white, on yonder golden streets, in that city within whose
gates there shall never enter any thing that defileth, “but they which are
written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Yes, believer, thou shalt be near and
like thy God. Dost thou hear this? Thou hungerest and thirstest after
righteousness; thou shalt have it without stint, for thou shalt be one of the
“partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Thou shalt be able to
gaze upon God in his ineffable glory, and to dwell with the devouring fire
and the everlasting burnings of his unsullied purity. Thou shalt be able to
see the God who is a consuming fire, and yet not be afraid, for there shall
be nothing in thee to be consumed. Thou shalt be spotless, innocent, pure,
immortal as thy God himself; will not this satisfy thee?
“Ah!” thou sayest, “it satisfies me for myself; but I would fain see my
children righteous too.” Then commend them to that God who loves their
father and their mother, and ask him to bless your children as he blessed
Isaac for Abraham’s sake, and blessed Jacob for Isaac’s sake. “Oh,” you
say, “but I also want to see my neighbors saved.” Then hunger after their
souls, thirst after their souls as you have hungered and thirsted after your
own; and God will teach you how to talk to them, and probably, as you are
hungering and thirsting for their souls, he will make you the means of their
conversion.
There is also this truth to solace you, there will be righteousness all over
this work one day. Millions still reject Christ, but he has a people who will
not reject him. The masses of mankind at present fly from him, but “the
Lord knoweth them that are his.” As many as the Father gave to Christ
shall surely come to him. Christ shall not be disappointed, his cross shall
not have been set up in vain. “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” Well may you groan because
of the idols that do not fall, and the oppressions that do not come to an
end, and the wailing of the widows, and the weeping of the orphans, and
the singing of those that sit in darkness, and see no light; but there will be
an end of all this. Brighter days than these are coming, either the gospel
will cover the earth, or else Christ himself will personally come. Whichever
it be: it is not for me to decide; but somehow or other, the day shall come
when God shall reign without a rival over all the earth, be you sure of that.
The hour shall come when the great multitude, as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, shall say, “Alleluia: for the
Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” If we are hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, we are on the winning side. The battle may go against us
just now; priestcraft may be pushing us sorely, and evils which our
forefathers routed may come back with superior strength and cunning, and
for a little while the courage of the saints may be damped, and their armies
may waver; but the Lord still liveth, and as the Lord liveth, righteousness
alone shall triumph, and all iniquity and every false way must be trampled
under foot. Fight on, for ye must ultimately be victors. Ye cannot be beaten
unless the Eternal himself should be overthrown, and that can never be.
Blessed is the man who knows that the cause that he has espoused is a
righteous one, for he may know that in the final chapter of the world’s
history, its triumph must be recorded. He may be dead and gone; he may
only sow the seed, but, his sons shall reap the harvest, and men shall speak
of him; with grave respect as of a man who lived before his time, and who
deserves honor of those that follow him. Stand up for the right, man! Hold
fast to your principles, my brethren and sisters in Christ! Follow after
holiness and righteousness in every shape and form. Let no one bribe or
turn you away from this blessed Book and its immortal tenets. Follow after
that which is true, not that which is patronised by the great; that which is
just, not that which sits in the seat of human authority; and follow after this
with a hunger and a thirst that are insatiable, and you shall yet be “filled.”
Would you be up there in the day when the Prince of Truth and Right shall
review his armies? Would you be up there when the jubilant shout shall
rend the heavens, “The King of kings and Lord of lords has conquered all
his foes, and the devil and all his hosts are put to flight”? Would you be up
there, I say, when all his trophies of victory are displayed, and the Lamb
that was slain shall be the reigning Monarch of all the nations, gathering
sheaves of sceptres beneath his arms, and treading on the crowns of princes
as worn out and worthless? Would you be there then? Then be here now,
— here where the fight rages, here where the King’s standard is unfurled,
and say unto your God, “O Lord, since I have found righteousness in
Christ, and am myself saved, I am pledged to stand for the right and for the
truth so long as I live, so keep me faithful even unto death.” As I close my
discourse, I pronounce over all of you who are trusting in Jesus the fourth
benediction spoken by Christ on the Mount of Beatitude, “Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON.
MATTHEW 5:43-48; AND 6:1-4.
Matthew 5:43. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
In this case a command of Scripture had a human antithesis fitted on to it
by depraved minds and this human addition was mischievous. This is a
common method, to append to the teaching of Scripture a something which
seems to grow out of it, or to be a natural inference from it, which
something may be false and wicked. This is a sad crime against the Word
of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will only father his own words. He owns the
precept, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor,” but he hates the parasitical
growth of “hate thine enemy.” This last sentence is destructive of that out
of which it appears legitimately to grow, since those who are here styled
enemies are, in fact, neighbors. Love is now the universal law; and our
King, who has commanded it, is himself the Pattern of it. He will not see it
narrowed down, and placed in a setting of hate. May grace prevent any of
us from falling into this error!
44, 45. 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; 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. See Metropolitan
Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1,414 (double number), “No Difference.”
Ours it is to persist in loving, even if men persist in enmity. We are to
render blessing for cursing, prayers for persecutions. Even in the cases of
cruel enemies, we are to “do good to them, and pray for them.” We are no
longer enemies to any, but friends to all. We do not merely cease to hate,
and then abide in a cold neutrality, but we love where hatred seemed
inevitable. We bless where our old nature bids us curse, and we are active
in doing good to those who deserve to receive evil from us. Where this is
practically carried out, men wonder, respect, and admire the followers of
Jesus. The theory may be ridiculed, but the practice is reverenced, and is
counted so surprising that men attribute it to some Godlike quality in
Christians, and own that they are the children of the Father who is in
heaven. Indeed, he is a child of God who can bless the unthankful and the
evil; for in daily providence the Lord is doing this on a great scale, and
none but his children will imitate him. To do good for the sake of the good
done, and not because of the character of the person benefited, is a noble
imitation of God. If the Lord only sent the fertilising shower upon the land
of the saintly, drought would deprive whole leagues of land of all hope of a
harvest. We also must do good to the evil, or we shall have a narrow
sphere, our hearts will grow contracted, and our sonship towards the good
God will be rendered doubtful.
46. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye, do not even
the publicans the same?
Any common sort of man will love those who love him; even taxgatherers
and the scum of the earth can rise to this poor, starveling virtue. Saints
cannot be content with such a grovelling style of things. “Love for love is
manlike,” but “love for hate” is Christlike. Shall we not desire to act up to
our high calling?
47. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? See
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1,029 (double number), “A Call to
Holy Living.” do not even the publicans so.
On a journey, or in the streets, or in the house, we are not to confine our
friendly greetings to those who are near and dear to us. Courtesy should be
wide, and none the less sincere because general. We should speak kindly to
all, and treat every man as a brother. Anyone will shake hands with an old
friend, but we are to be cordially courteous towards every being in the
form of man. If not, we shall reach no higher level than mere outcasts.
Even a dog will salute a dog.
48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect.
Or, “Ye shall be perfect.” We should reach after completeness in love,-
fullness of love to all around us. Love is the bond of perfectness; and if we
have perfect love, it will form in us a perfect character. Here is that which
we aim at,-perfection like that of God; here is the manner of obtaining it,-
namely, by abounding in love; and this suggests the question of how far we
have proceeded in this heavenly direction, and also the reason why we
should persevere in it even to the end, because as children we ought to
resemble our Father. Scriptural perfection is attainable, it dies rather in
proportion than in degree. A man’s character may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing; and yet such a man will be the very first to admit that the
grace which is in him is at best in its infancy, and though perfect as a child
in all its parts, it has not yet attained to the perfection of full-grown
manhood.
What a mark is set before us by our Perfect King, who, speaking from his
mountain-throne, saith, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect”! Lord, give what thou dost command; then both the
grace and the glory will be thine alone.
Matthew 6:1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen
of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
“You cannot expect to be paid twice, if therefore you take your reward in
the applause of men, who give you a high character for generosity, you
cannot expect to have any reward from God.” We ought to have a single
eye to God’s accepting what we give, and to have little or no thought of
what man may say concerning our charitable gifts.
2. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before
thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they
may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
And they will have no more; there is, in their case, no laying up of any
store of good works before God. Whatever they may have done, they have
taken full credit for it in the praise of men.
3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth:
“Do it so by stealth as scarcely to know it thyself; think so little of it with
regard to thyself that thou shalt scarcely know that thou hast done it. Do it
unto God; let him know it.”
4. That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly.
There is a blessed emphasis upon that word “himself” for, if God shall
reward us, what a reward it will be! Any praise from his lips, any reward
from his hands, will be of priceless value. Oh, to live with an eye to that
alone!
