The Peril of playing with Spiritual Convictions.
I. There is no greater peril than that of amusing ourselves with God's truth, taking pleasure in hearing it, in joining in discussions about religion and objects connected therewith, yet not making it the rule of action, or really doing anything to promote those objects. The story of Herod which the text brings before us contains a remarkable instance of this. We can quite imagine with what emotions of alarm the lewd king may have heard the tale of the wild unearthly man, with his proclamation of a heavenly kingdom at hand, to whom the whole nation flocked. His own looseness of morals and living would predispose him to be struck by the severe, self-mortified life, which the Baptist led. His own violation of Divine and human law stood rebuked by the presence of that man, holy and just. The impure Herod saw in John one whom the shadows of eternity appeared visibly to encircle. To hear of him was as it were to enter into the cloud, and as he entered, he feared.
II. "He did many things." Ah! it is just at this point that the whole history becomes so intensely practical. What those many things were which Herod amended at the bidding of John we vainly surmise. A few of the grosser corruptions of his foul course were perchance removed, or it may be John could hold back the stubborn king in some one occasional act of cruelty, or persuade him to pay some outward attention to the outward worship of God; but he could not, did not turn him to a thorough reformation of his own life. The only voice which had ever stirred the better spirit within him was quenched in blood, and the last state became worse than the first.
III. From Herod's history we learn (1) how it may happen that a man who has manifested a certain interest in and deference to religion will yet turn against religion when it assails his cherished idol. (2) How religious instruction, when not honestly followed out, becomes itself a snare.
J. R. Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the New Testament,p. 26.
References: Mark 6:20. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 347 vol. xxvi., No. 1548; Expositor,1st series, vol. vii., p. 136; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons,p. 229. Mark 6:21 Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 148. Mark 6:22. Expositor,1st series, vol. vii., p. 133.Mark 6:25. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 25; Outline Sermons to Children,p. 143.