THE UNKIND RESPONSE
SHULAMITE
I have put off my coat;
How shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet;
How shall I defile them?
Sad answer from the beloved spouse of a king. More like the answer in a dream than in reality. The language only of one oppressed with physical or moral sleep. The excuse for not opening at once as silly as it was selfish. No great difficulty in resuming a garment just laid aside. No great sacrifice in soiling the feet by walking across the floor. The effects of spiritual sleep—
(1) To see difficulties in the way of duty where none exist, and greatly to exaggerate those that do. The language only of the sluggard, ‘There is a lion in the street’ (Proverbs 20:4; Proverbs 26:3. Haggai 1:2-4).
(2) To be unwilling to deny ourselves, or make sacrifices for Christ; and to think those we are called to make much greater than they really are.
(3) To be more careful about personal comfort and carnal case, than about the pleasures of Christ and the interests of His kingdom.
(4) To be oblivious of our own best interests.
(5) To forget our character and condition as believers, and to act in a way entirely inconsistent with it. Too common for believers to act in a way unlike themselves. In a low state of religion this usually the case. The wise virgins too often slumbering with the foolish ones. An early Apostolic rebuke to a Christian Church: ‘Are ye not carnal, and walk as men?’ Possible even for believers to act at times more according to the flesh than the Spirit.
(6) To act rather as in a dream than as one awake. The life and conduct of men in general. Possessed of deathless souls, yet caring only, or most, for a short-lived body. Born for eternity, yet concerned only, or most, for the things of time. Possessing interests inconceivably high, glorious, and important, and yet expending their time and energy on trifles. Sentenced as sinners to eternal damnation, but with the gracious offer of a free pardon; and yet under no concern to secure it. Under the power of a loathsome disease that must, unless removed, exclude them from heaven, and shut them up in hell; and yet slighting the freely proffered services of the only Physician who is able to cure them. The endless glories and felicities of heaven, with peace and comfort in the way to it, procured at an amazing cost by the Son of God, and freely offered, along with Himself, for the immediate acceptance even of the chief of sinners; and yet slighted and refused for the paltry enjoyments of time and ‘the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season.’ The testimony of Scripture true: ‘Madness is in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they go down to the dead’ (Ecclesiastes 9:3).
The language of the Spouse an example of the
Excuses,
made for not giving immediate attention to the Saviour’s call, and the concerns of the soul. Such excuses usually either—
(1) Want of time and leisure;
(2) The difficulty and sacrifice involved—as, loss of worldly favour, friendship, or enjoyment; the scoff and ridicule of neighbours and associates; the effort required to keep up a religious profession and attendance upon religious ordinances, &c.; or,
(3) The intention to give more heed to the things of eternity at a future and more favourable opportunity. Such excuses foolish and unreasonable; as—
1. Nothing of an earthly nature can for a moment be compared, in point of importance, with the concerns of eternity. ‘What shall a man be profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ Well-being for eternity obviously, with an immortal soul, the one thing needful.
2. No difficulty involved in accepting Christ and His salvation which His grace will not enable us to overcome; and no sacrifice which will not be infinitely more than compensated. His own testimony true: ‘My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ ‘When I sent you without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything? And they said: Nothing, Lord.’
3. The present moment only ours. A more favourable opportunity may never come. Felix never found his ‘more convenient season.’ With our salvation it may be now or never. Delay only hardens the heart, and makes salvation more difficult.
4. Persons of all classes, and in all circumstances and conditions, are continually by their example shewing the practicability and blessedness of receiving Christ and experiencing His salvation.
Main truths suggested by the passage in reference to believers:—
1. The carnal mind remaining in a believer always the same, and as much disinclined to spiritual communion as it was in his unconverted state.
2. That in a believer, through the remains of a carnal nature, which continually subjects him to condemnation, with the increased guilt arising from greater knowledge and past experience of the divine mercy.
3. Only the unchangeableness of Christ’s love, and of the Covenant of grace which has been made with him in Christ, along with the existence of a new and spiritual nature imparted to him at conversion, preserves the believer from final apostacy, and from sinking back into his former state of carnality and unbelief.