"They began to make excuse." There is one excuse by which we either plead the example and authority of our neighbours for doing evil, or for fear of their laughing at us and persecuting us, leave off to do good, and become even ashamed of appearing to care for it. In this state it may well be said that "a man's foes will be they of his own household;" that nothing is so dangerous to his salvation as the principles and practice of other men with whom he is living in daily intercourse, nothing so much to be feared as that he should make their opinions his standard, instead of the declared will of God.
I. Nothing, I suppose, shows the weakness of human nature more than this perpetual craving after some guide and support out of itself this living upon the judgment of others rather than upon our own. And it is not to be disputed that we do need a guide and support out of ourselves, if we would but choose the right one. For the bulk of mankind there is a choice of only two things they must worship God or one another; they must seek the praise and favour of God above all things, or the praise and favour of man. Being too weak to stand alone, they must lean upon the Rock of Ages, or upon the perishing and treacherous pillar of human opinion.
II. It is so natural an excuse to deceive our consciences, that we are but doing what every one else does, that we are but doing what no one else considers to be wrong. We make it a sort of merit that in general we do follow a higher standard; and on the strength of this we think ourselves entitled to follow the lower one sometimes, when we are particularly tempted to do so. I could imagine that St. James had had much experience of people of this description, from several passages in his Epistle. Those double-minded men whom he bids to purify their hearts, and whom he tells not to think that they shall receive anything of the Lord they apparently were persons who lived in general far above the heathen standard, who only wished to keep in reserve some convenient points on which they might gratify their evil inclinations, and say in their excuse that no one else thought there was any harm in such things. They thought and knew that there was harm in them, for their eyes had been opened by Gospel light, and they would be judged by their own knowledge, and not by their neighbours' ignorance.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. ii., p. 101.
The Sword of the Kingdom of Heaven.
I. Consider the twofold aspect of the problem which Christianity undertook to solve, the dual nature of its work. It had both to take to pieces and to reconstruct society, and this is the true key to much that is most perplexing in its history. It could not, by a simple reformation, convert the pagan empire into a kingdom of heaven, nor a pagan home into a household of faith. But one means existed for the accomplishment of that purpose the spiritual renewing of the individual elements of which the households and the states were composed. The condition of that renewing was a personal faith in Christ. And faith transformed the man; he passed under a higher government, and became subject to a new and absolute Lord. You see what a discomposing, dissolving force was here at work. The strain on the bonds which had held society together would be tremendous. The man would find himself under new and holy constraints, which all around thought unholy; opposed to friends, comrades, and all that he had been wont to regard as the most sacred duties of life. Those who have looked at all into the inner life of the first Christian ages know well how terrible was the rending of bonds which the love of Christ compelled.
II. But the matter does not end here. The fact of our nature is that men cannot live without Christ. Depart from us, leave us alone, men cry; and then suffer moan till He returns. "Who will show us any good?" is in the end the cry of all pagan societies and all worldly hearts. And it really means, "O Christ, help us." The unrest of a Christless soul, a Christless nation, a Christless world is really the beginning of a vital process, which in its first stages is always a travail. The constant sorrowful failures of man's wrath and self-will to work out salvation for himself and for society are part of the method by which God is seeking to draw man to Himself. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but I am thy Saviour," is the witness which His Word is ever bearing. The same voice is ever repeating the same sentence, in the sorrows, the anguish of nations, and in the chronic miseries of all self-willed sensual hearts.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon,p. 211.
References: Matthew 10:36. H. W. Beecher, Sermons,3rd series, p. 281.Matthew 10:36-38. C. G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes,p. 319.