Moral perfection.
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." Three thoughts are suggested here concerning moral perfections.
I. THAT MORAL PERFECTION IS ATTAINABLE IN THIS LIFE. "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect." What is the perfection? No being is absolutely perfect but God; fallibility belongs to all rational creatureship. The perfection consists in the ruling principle of action, and that is supreme sympathy with the supremely Good. This is a thing perfect in itself; it can be strengthened, but is incapable of any modification. The perfection is, therefore, that of the embryo of character. The acorn is perfect as an acorn, not as an oak; the babe is perfect as a babe, not as a man; the dawn is perfect as a dawn, not as a noon. There is incompletion in development, but completion in the rudimental clement. All Christians have this or they are not Christians.
II. THAT THE MORAL PERFECTION ATTAINABLE IN THIS LIFE IS ESSENTIALLY PROGRESSIVE. Hence Paul speaks of "pressing towards the mark," of" walking by the same rule." The germinal principle is essentially growable. All life struggles for advancement. The acorn struggles to rise into majestic forests, infants into men, the unfledged eagle to soar into the heavens and to bask itself in sunny azure. Life not only creates its own organization, but goes on strengthening and enlarging it. There is the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear.
III. THAT PROGRESS IN MORAL PERFECTION IS AN URGENT OBLIGATION. "Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." Like all life, it has not only an instinct and a capacity for growth, but it has a moral obligation to grow. There is no obligation on plantal or irrational life to grow, but on moral life it presses with all the force of the Divine will. The progress is here indicated by four things.
1. By a walk. "Let us walk." Walking implies life, deliberation, and onwardness.
2. By a walk in loving union with others. "Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." We are so constituted that social intercourse is essential to the quickening, the development, and the satisfying of our natures. The society that is required for this is the society who attend" the same rule, mind the same thing," one in supreme aim and purpose. Thus walking, the soul advances, gets not only new energy for the old faculties, but new faculties developed.
3. By following the best examples. All life has its archetypes or ideals. The growth of true moral life requires this; hence Paul says, "Be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." He does not say, I am a perfect example. But, on the contrary, he says, elsewhere, "Be ye followers of me, even as I am a follower of Christ." Be followers of me so far as I follow Christ.
CONCLUSION. Perseverance in goodness, then, is not to be preached as a doctrine, but propounded as a law and urged as a duty.—D.T.
Conventional Christians as viewed by genuine.
"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." The apostle here refers to those who had joined the Christian Church, but whose hearts were unchanged and whose theology was antinomian. In sooth they were mere nominal Christians, having a name to live, but were dead. Observe—
I. THAT THE CONDUCT OF MERE PROFESSORS OF CHRISTIANITY IS VERY BAD IN THE EYES OF GENUINE CHRISTIANS. To the eye of Paul, who was Christly in spirit, idea, and aim, the conduct of these men was revolting and lamentable. It appeared to him:
1. As and-Christian. "They are the enemies of the cross of Christ." Enemies not to the mere fact of the cross. To this, perhaps, they would have no hostility, but otherwise. But to the spirit of the cross, which was self-sacrificing love, they were practically opposed; they did not "take up the cross" and deny themselves. Theoretically they believed, in it, practically they denied it. For some reasons the greatest "enemies of the cross" are mere conventional Christians; they practically deny that which they profess theoretically to believe. All selfish, carnal, formalistic, ritualistic men are "enemies of the cross of Christ," and they are "many."
2. As ruinous. "Whose end is destruction." The conduct of the genuine Christian is restorative; that of the spurious or conventional, ruinous. Sin, the principle of death, is in it. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
3. As sensual. Their sensuality is here indicated:
II. THAT THE CONDUCT OF MERE PROFESSORS OF CHRISTIANITY IS VERY HEART-DISTRESSING TO GENUINE CHRISTIANS. "Of whom I tell you even weeping." The sight of a genuine tear has an electric force; no eloquence so mighty. Such a tear streaming from the eye of a weak woman is powerful, from a strong man more powerful, from a man of transcendent greatness it is the most mighty moral force. Such a man was Paul, and a greater than Paul never lived; and here he is in tears. "Of whom I tell you even weeping." Such a man must have had a strong reason for such tears. Why did he weep?
1. Because the conduct of such mere conventional Christians was a mal-representation of Christ, the chief object of his love. Nominal Christians are the great slanderers and calumniators of the world's Redeemer. That man who ignores Christ is a saint compared to him who calumniates him. Such is the mere nominal Christian. All genuine Christians may well weep at the conduct of conventional Christians, who constitute the vast majority of our population, and are the reigning "principalities" in Church and state.
2. Because the conduct of such mere conventional Christians obstructs the progress of spiritual Christianity in the world. As obstructives to the flowing river of spiritual Christianity in the world, the Bradlaughs, as compared to the hireling preachers and the un-Christly members of Churches, are but as small pebbles to huge boulders. The waters roll comparatively smoothly over the former, but are chafed and blocked by the latter.
CONCLUSION. It is time, brothers, for us to estimate truly and to feel deeply the awful incongruity between the spirit of modern Churches and the spirit of Christianity. Talk about converting the world, the first thing to be done is to convert the Church!
The blessedness of the Christly.
"For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the [a] Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, [who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory] according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue [subject] all things unto himself." The word πολίτευμα which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, does not mean "speech" or "conduct," but "citizenship." The word "is" is emphatic, signifying "actually exists." If we are Christly our citizenship is not something to be, but is now. The passage, therefore, reveals to us glorious facts connected with the life of a Christly man.
I. HE IS A CITIZEN OF THE HIGHEST STATE. He is "in heaven"—heaven the glorious metropolis of God's spiritual empire. But how can this be? Is not heaven millions of leagues away, far beyond the reach or ken of men? Suppose it so, citizenship is not dependent on distance. Are not those at the antipodes citizens of the same commonwealth as ourselves? Two things make us citizens of a state.
1. That we be governed by its laws. What are the laws of heaven? The laws of love. In the New Testament these laws are sometimes called "the law of life," the "law of liberty," etc. Love is the supreme law of heaven, and every genuine Christian is governed by this law.
2. That we be invested with its rights. What are the rights which a good government secures to its citizens? Protection, liberty, freedom, facilities for advancement. Heaven secures all these to its citizens, wherever they are, on this planet or on any other. A Christly man enjoys perfect guardianship, glorious liberty, and facilities for everlasting progress.
II. HE IS A SUBJECT OF THE HIGHEST HOPES. Not only is a Christly man a citizen of heaven now, enjoying all its rights, but he is looking for, or waiting for, something glorious in the future.
1. The advent of a Savior. "From whence also we look for the Savior." Waiting for the return of him who is the supreme Object of his love. This attitude of mind implies four things.
2. A glorious transformation. "Who shall change our vile body"—"body of humiliation.'' The body is not normally vile; not vile, either, in its organization or functions. As an organism it is exquisitely perfect—" fearfully and wonderfully made;" but in its abnormal state it is "vile" by reason of the diseases to which it is subject, the uses to which it is put, and the undue influence which its pampered appetites have obtained over the intellect, conscience, soul. But a glorious transformation awaits it.
HOMILIES BY V. HUTTON