Life, the School for Eternity.
I. Look at the Great Teacher. Let anyone, that ever has been taught by anyone, say what are the requisites to make pleasant and effective teaching. Even a child will answer, "Two things: a thorough knowledge of his subject, and a power of sympathising with the mind which he is instructing." What must it be, then, to be taught by omniscience? by Him who can say, of all knowledge, in a sense no other could pretend unto, "I speak that I have seen"? How easy to learn the most difficult thing in the universe, when He makes it like a sunbeam. And yet, all the while, of all the things Jesus knows, there is nothing He knows so well as He knows man his capability, his weakness, his slowness, his perplexities. So that His omniscience is not greater than His compassion and consideration.
II. From the Master look at the lesson-book. A book with a precept, and an example, and an illustration upon every point: deep principles carried out rightly to their lofty conclusions close reasoning with exquisite imagery appeals to the affections always running equal with the convictions of the understanding. Now in this school, where Christ teaches the Bible, it is unnecessary for me to remark that no scholar can ever be greater than his Master.
III. "Every one that is perfect shall be as his master." The word does not convey equality, but similarity. The reflection is not equal to the original ray, but it is "as it." The picture is not like the original, but it is "as it." The inferior intellect is as the loftier mind from which it has taken its tone and sentiments. Therefore the true sense is this: "Every one whom God has furnished" that is the original word "shall resemble his master." As the well-taught pupil takes the colour from his preceptor, so shall you, by little and by little, take the mind of Jesus. You shall see things from the same standpoint. Your thoughts, your ideas, your modes of action, your inner man, shall gradually assimilate to Him. There shall be similarity.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,2nd series, p. 368.
References: Luke 6:40. Expositor,1st series, vol. xi., p. 178; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical,p. 231.Luke 6:41. J. Baines, Sermons,p. 73; J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity,part i., p. 118. Luke 6:41; Luke 6:42. D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels,p. 38. Luke 6:43; Luke 6:44. Ibid.,p. 76. Luke 6:44. Homilist,vol. vi., p. 361.Luke 6:45. J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life,p. 487. Luke 6:46-49. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxix., No. 1702.