There were not wanting certain good elements about Amaziah; and had he not given way to a haughty temper and ambitious pride, his career might have been a useful and happy one. He was acquainted with the Scriptures, and paid respect to the ordinances of religion. He had the desire to live a virtuous and godly life, but the secret of his failure was that his heart was not right with God. His goodness was superficial, and therefore artificial; it was not the outcome of a regenerate nature.
I. Do not misunderstand this word "perfect." No man is perfect, in the absolute sense of the term, though we are to strive after this as the goal. It was not because Amaziah was not sinless that his life proved such a failure, but because he was not thorough-going in his principle and piety.
II. English life at present seems to be afflicted with a plague of levity. There is so much hollowness and unreality, so much veneer in character and work, that it behoves us to preach aloud the gospel of thoroughness. It is just because you claim to be the Lord's that any sort of work will not do. Bearing His name, you are responsible to Him for every detail of your daily life. Our religion is given us to be a universal blessing, to sharpen our faculties, to quicken our diligence, to increase our likelihood of success.
III. Remember that religion is something within you, working outward from the centre, and that centre a heart possessed by the grace of God. It is not, as too many imagine it, a reformation commencing in the outer circumference of one's life and habits, and then working its way to the core, till the heart is reached and changed; it takes its start in the innermost recesses of our being, and from thence reaches outwards, till the whole character and conduct are brought under its blissful sway.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth,p. 253.