I. Observe the extent of this saying, an extent of which it is impossible to divest it. Either it is a mere empty exaggeration, or it goes to the extent of applying to all the acts of man's life, important or unimportant. And it is plain, that for such to be the case it must propose to us some motive, and some rule, which shall touch that daily life at every point. No sight is more common than to find a man actuated by a powerful motive which rules and directs his whole life. Reality is the essence and necessary condition of all such springs of life and action. It is impossible that a man should give up his heart and life to pursuit of that which he does not believe. The hypocrite is no exception; he only makes use of something which he does not believe as an instrument towards the attainment of something which he does believe. Observe how such motives act on man.
(1) Their influence is a constraining power, of which he is unconscious, rather than a stimulus carried on by conscious effort.
(2) They are very seldom indeed loudly professed by the persons on whom they act. Here, as in nature, the deepest is the stillest. But, on the other hand, by its very stillness, all who are observant know its depth.
II. Note the motive implied in the words, "In the name of the Lord Jesus." Let Christ's love to me become to me not only an acknowledged fact, but the acknowledged fact of my life; then it will become a constraining motive; then it will not be contented with influencing some of my faculties, with employing some of my time, with claiming some of my affections; but from the very nature of things it must and will have all, will absorb me into His service, and take possession of my heart and motives, and my life, day by day; will be the sun that lights me to my unborn life; so that whatsoever I do, in word or deed, I shall do under the influence of this constraining motive.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. i., p. 67.
References: Colossians 3:17. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 12;vol. v., p. 31; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. i., p. 90; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvi., No. 913; Homilist,vol. iv., p, 415; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv.,p. 289; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit,10th series, p. 391.