DIVINE PRECEPTS
‘Be ye therefore merciful.… Judge not; … Condemn not.… Give.… Cast out first the beam.’
Our Lord dwells here on what we are to do, not what we are to believe (John 7:17), and He begins by putting before us the blessing and the curse (Luke 6:20-26; Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Have you made your decision? Which course are you pursuing? This is the first great thought in the way of duty, ‘As your Father also is.’ The eye must be fixed on Him to watch for guidance (Psalms 32:8). The ear must be opened to Him to listen for counsel (Psalms 85:8). What is enjoined here?
I. There is counsel about acting mercifully and justly (Luke 6:36; Luke 6:38). It is in four words. (1) ‘Be ye, therefore, merciful’—love as Christ hath loved you. (2) ‘Judge not.’ We ought not to find fault with others, for we ourselves are far from perfect (Romans 2:1-2). If we have the love of God in our hearts, we should rather seek to hide the faults of others (Galatians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7). (3) ‘Condemn not.’ This follows upon judging—see what Christ says (John 12:47), and both these bring their own reward (1 Corinthians 11:31). Others will be kind to us, if we are kind to them. (4) ‘Give.’ We have it often in our power to supply the need of another in some way. Why should we not be self-denying? Remember the widow’s giving (1 Kings 17:15-16).
II. There is counsel about being sincere (Luke 6:39-42). Before we think of finding fault in others, we should look to see that there is none in ourselves. The Pharisee could find fault with the publican’s sins, but was not conscious of his own transgressions (Luke 18:11-12). So he was not justified of God (Luke 6:14). The publican only thought of the state of his own heart—‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ This was sincerity. This is a very difficult lesson to learn. We are so ready to see what is bad in others, so slow to recognise what is wrong in ourselves. The best advice is to study the Bible. We there see ourselves as God sees us. We are reflected as in a glass (James 1:22-25; Hebrews 4:12). And in knowing the state of our hearts, we shall be true to ourselves as well as to others.
These are some of the duties which form the Christian’s life and character.
—Bishop Rowley Hill.
Illustration
‘The manifest similarity in so many particulars between the discourse of which these words form a part and that which we have from the pen of Matthew as the Sermon on the Mount has led to the common supposition that they are but versions of one and the same discourse, Luke giving it in a much abbreviated form. But besides the difficulties of time and place which beset this theory—Matthew distinctly mentioning that that which he records was delivered on a mountain, Luke no less clearly asserting that this one was uttered on a plain, Matthew placing it before his own call to discipleship and the selection of the twelve Apostles, Luke putting it immediately after these events—there are also differences so large and important as to lead to the conclusion that the discourses are themselves distinct, and delivered on separate occasions, even where the words of a precept or maxim are identical, and where the sequence of thought seems to proceed precisely on parallel.’