And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
Suffering, the measure of worth
I. The “weak brother” is not of much value in himself; but he is made valuable by the fact that Christ died for him.
1. How much of themselves men will give for one another, measures the worth in which that other is held. “I love you,” may mean only “you are my plaything,” or “I love myself”; but true love will give up for another’s sake time and convenience. It will employ all the resources of its being for the sake of that friend. And when, in some great exigency, all this will not avail, then love, in the glory of its power, goes to death as to the consummation of itself, and leaves a witness to itself which all mankind recognises (John 15:13).
2. Even when this is the fruit of instinct, it is impressive. The bear that dies defending its cubs, the hound that pines and dies on its master’s grave, the little sparrow that fights the hawk and owl, not for itself, but its nest--one must be heartless indeed to feel no admiration for these fidelities of love.
3. But how much more when one’s love and suffering spring from a perception of excellence in an object loved? The greater the nature that suffers, the higher is the estimate which his example gives of that for which he suffers. And by this analogue, the suffering and sacrifice of a Divine Being carries out the witness to its utmost conceivable extent.
4. We see at once a new element in the hands of the apostles after this testimony of the Master. No sooner was He gone up than they began to preach that man was valuable on account of what Christ suffered for him. A man for whom Christ died became a very different creature from a man before Christ had died for him. The fact that Christ died for a man made him worth protecting if he was weak.
5. This suffering was not founded upon man’s character. It would be a testimony to the value of good character if Christ had come to die for it; but that was the very point of conflict between Him and the Pharisees. They held that Christ ought to suffer and identify Himself with them; but He most scornfully rejected that, and said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. I came to give My life for the lowest and worst men.” He more sharply than any other discriminated between good and bad character; yet there was something behind character to which Christ was bearing witness, viz., the abstract original value which inheres in human life. The death of Christ is a testimony to the value of man in his very substance, if I may so say; so that the least and the lowest have the essence of value in them.
II. The effect which this fact has of determining man’s place, his rights, and his worth.
1. Consider what the world’s way of estimation has been in judging men. Earliest, men measured physical power. Now the habit of society is to classify men into relative ranks of value by the effects which they are able to produce; by what they are worth to society. Therefore, when a great man dies men say, “The world has met with a great loss.” If a poor man dies, men say, “The world has one less incumbrance.” The dog that hunts well is better than a pauper that does not do anything, in the estimation of men. If a race are not able to hold their own against aggressive peoples men say, “There is no help for it; they must go.” They judge men by the standard of political economy. There is no such contempt on the globe for anything as man has for man. We need therefore to go back to this testimony of our Master’s example, who came by His suffering and death to bear a testimony of that element in human nature which every man has like every other.
2. This view interprets the future. A man in the lowest condition here is not the man that he is to be; and when you have measured and weighed him, you have not estimated what he is worth in the kingdom to come. He has before him another world; and we are told most solemnly by our Saviour that the men who are the most regarded here will be worth the least there. “The first shall be last, the last first.” Many of the plants of our northern summer come up quickly, and do exceedingly well; but they are coarse and rank at that. And there are many seeds that I plant by the side of them every spring, which in the first summer only grow a few leaves high. There is not sun enough to make them do what it is in them to do. But if I put them in some sheltered hot-house, and give them the continuous growth of autumn and winter, and then, the next summer, put them out once more, they gather strength by this second planting, and lift up their arms and spread out the abundance of their blossoms. The plants that grew quickest the year before, are now called weeds by their side. And I doubt not that there is many a man who rushes up to a rank growth in the soil of this world, and of whom men seeing him, say, “That is a great man,” but there are many poor, feeble creatures in this world who will be carried safely on and up, and rooted in a better clime; and then, lifting up their whole nature, they will come out into that glorious summer of fervent love in heaven, where they will be more majestic, more fruitful, than those who so far surpass them here.
III. The effects which this doctrine will have upon our feelings and conduct to our fellow-men.
1. Let us suppose that we are in full possession of the Christian feeling--Christ died for that man. It will be a powerful restraint upon lawless liberty, and will bring us into such sympathy with all our fellow men, that, at the sacrifice of our own convenience and rights, it will be a privilege and a pleasure for us to serve them. Some men go through life, saying, “I will take care of myself, and you must take care of yourself”; and they feel that they have a right to go through life thus. Now no one who has drunk deeply of the spirit of the Master will refuse to accept the injunction, “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.” It is as if a strong swimmer should turn back and lend a helping hand to buoy up and lift across the flood one that was weaker or less able to swim than himself. We have no right to disregard, much less to hinder, the welfare of any human being. Have I a right to go tramp, tramp, tramp, according to the law of my physical strength, among little children? If I have had better privileges than others, and have come to conclusions which they cannot understand, have I a right to scatter sceptical notions through society? A man is bound to hold his knowledge, his conscience, his pleasures, &c., subject to this great law: “Christ died for men, and I must live for men, and restrain my power, and forego my rights, even for their sake.” We have a right to employ men, of course; but there is a habit which prevails in society of thinking that a man has a right to just so much of his fellow-men as he is able to extract from them. A man may fleece a hundred men during the week, and take the communion on Sunday, and nobody thinks that there is any violation of good-fellowship or of orthodoxy. But that great law of fellowship which knits every man to every other man on the globe says not only “Thou art his brother,” but, “Thou art responsible for his weal as well as thine own. Thou shalt not in any wise harm him.”
2. This is one of the most precious of doctrines to those that look and long for a better period of the world. It was almost the only thing we could urge when slavery rent our land. The single strand that held against the storms of avarice and the fire of lurid lusts was the single argument, “For these Christ died.” And that held; and the most wonderful change toward regeneration that the world ever saw has taken place by the simple operation of that great law. And what have we now for the weak races? Men of a hard heart and an iron-shod foot are preparing to tread these people down and deny them their rights. And I take my stand by the side of every weak creature, whatever his nationality may be, and I say, “For him Christ died.” Give men at the bottom a chance to come up. God, the highest, bowed down His head and came upon the earth and suffered for the weakest and the worst.
3. Christian brethren, we must arm ourselves betimes. The seeds of a better public sentiment must be sown. Then let no man be discouraged because he is labouring with a very much neglected class. There is no material in this world which is un-promising. No man is beyond salvation since “Christ died” for him. (H. W. Beecher.)
But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.--
Sin against Christ
It is a proof of the intimate character of the relation between Christ and His people that it should be the very climax of reproach against Christians because of any course they followed, to charge them with sin against Christ. Language like this could be used of no merely human teacher and leader. To act without due charity is a sin against Christ because it is--
I. To offend against Christ’s commandment, viz., to love one another. This was to be the test of Christian discipleship.
II. To contradict Christ’s example. What Christ enjoined He exemplified in His whole life, and at last in His death.
III. To injure Christ in the person of one of His little ones. Christ so identified Himself with His disciples as to regard what was done to them as done to Himself. Whosoever is indifferent to the welfare of the Lord’s servants, sins against the Lord Himself, and shall not be held guiltless. (Prof. J. R. Thomson.)
Wounding a weak conscience
I. What a weak conscience is.
1. Such a conscience is improperly called tender; for tenderness imports quickness and exactness of sense, which is the perfection of this faculty, whose duty it is to be a spiritual watch to give us warning of whatsoever concerns us. It is opposed to a hard or seared conscience; but a weak conscience is opposed to a strong, which very strength consists in the tenderness or quickness of its discerning power.
2. The weakness of conscience here spoken of is opposed to faith (Romans 14:2), by which is not meant that act by which a man is justified, but signifies the same with knowledge (1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 8:10). The clear discernment of what is unlawful, and what is only indifferent, together with a firm persuasion of the lawful use of such indifferent things, all circumstances being duly observed in the using of them. And therefore, on the other side, the weak conscience is such a one as judges otherwise of the nature of things than indeed it is, supposing that to be unlawful in itself which really is not so.
3. From whence it follows that weakness of conscience implies--
(1) An ignorance of the lawfulness of some certain thing or action. That ignorance must be such a one as is not willing.
(a) Because it must be such a one as renders it in some degree excusable; but so far as any defect is resolved into the will, it is in that degree inexcusable.
(b) Because it must be such an ignorance as renders the person having it the object of compassion.
But no man pities another for any evil lying upon him, which he would not help, but which he could not. And consequently it must be resolved into the natural weakness of the understanding faculty, or else the want of opportunities or means of knowledge. Either of which makes ignorance necessary, as it is impossible for him to see who wants eyes, and equally impossible for him who wants light.
(2) A suspicion of the unlawfulness of any thing or action.
(3) A religious abstinence from the use of that thing of the lawfulness whereof it is thus ignorant or suspicious. It brings a man to that condition in Colossians 2:21.
II. What it is to wound or sin against it.
1. To afflict or discompose it; i.e., to rob it of its peace. For there is that concernment for God’s honour dwelling in every truly pious heart which makes it troubled at the sight of any action by which it supposes God to be dishonoured. And as piety commands us not to offend God, so charity enjoins us not to grieve our neighbour.
2. To encourage or embolden it to act against its present judgment or persuasion: which is, in other terms, to offend, or cast a stumbling-block before it: i.e., to do something which may administer to it an occasion of falling or bringing itself under the guilt of sin. So that as the former was a breach upon the peace, this is properly a wound upon the purity of the conscience.
3. The conscience may be induced to act counter to its present persuasion.
(1) By example; which is the case here expressly mentioned, and principally intended.
(2) By command; as when a person in power enjoins the doing something, of the lawfulness of which a man is not persuaded. (R. South, D. D.)
Dissuasives against an undue use of Christian liberty
1. A weak conscience is easily wounded.
2. The infliction of such a wound is a violation of the law of love.
3. It is a sin against Christ Himself. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth.--
The great argument for abstinence
I. Arguments for abstinence are often grounded on.
1. Danger to ourselves.
(1) We may be led to excess.
(2) We may injure ourselves, physically or morally.
2. Wastefulness.
3. Intrinsical wrongness.
II. Such arguments frequently lack cogency.
1. The third will have no application to a large class of things indifferent in themselves, and it is generally in respect of such that the war is waged.
2. The others are open to question. Conflicting facts will be adduced, and where knowledge is imperfect the contest is likely to continue. And the argument often acts as a temptation, for when human nature is warned of peril it often delights to show how brave and steadfast it can be.
III. The apostolic argument. St. Paul--
1. Enlarges the view so that others are included as well as ourselves. Abstinence is sometimes not for ourselves at all, but only for our fellows (Philippians 2:4). We are units, but united units. We cannot legislate for that little area which we ourselves occupy.
2. Recognises the influence of example. Our words are a spider’s web; our acts are a cable. Men do what we show them, not what we tell them. And we cannot persuade men that we are strong and they weak.
3. Asserts the obligation of self-sacrifice for the welfare of others. That which is “indifferent” becomes anything but that if our indulgence is injurious to others. Our sacrifice is small indeed compared with their possible loss. This argument has special force for Christians.
(1) They have the example of self-sacrifice in their Master (verse 12). They have a more impressive view of the issues involved in the fall of a fellow-creature.
(2) Their non-abstinence may be a sin against a fellow-Christian (verse 11). The fall may be, not of an unbeliever, but of a brother associated in Christian fellowship and service, and thus be--
(3) A sin against the brethren (verse 12), i.e., the Church, bringing scandal and disgrace through a brother’s fall. And also--
(4) A sin against Christ (verse 12). For Christ and Christians are one--He the Head and they the members.
(5) They have in their ears such utterances of their Master’s as Matthew 18:6; Matthew 25:40. (W. E. Hurndall, M. A.)
Personal sacrifice is
I. Necessary.
1. Not only in meats and drinks, but in many other things.
2. To avoid offence.
II. Is obligatory--
1. On Christians.
2. By the law of love, and--
3. The example of Christ.
III. Is magnanimous. It is--
1. A conquest of self.
2. An act of benevolence.
3. A feature of renewed nature.
IV. Will be abundantly compensated.
1. By the approval of conscience.
2. The benefit of others.
3. The approbation of God.
4. Final reward. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Abstaining for the good of others
Do you not think, dear friends, that though it may be quite proper for you to take a glass of wine or a glass of beer, and there is no sin in the thing at all, your example may be injurious to somebody to whom it would be a sin to take it? Perhaps some persons cannot take a glass without taking two, three, four, five, or six glasses. You can stop, you know; but if your example leads them to start, and they cannot stop, is it right to set them going? Though you have a clear head, and can stand in a dangerous place, I would not recommend you to go there if somebody else would thus be placed in danger. If I were walking by the cliffs of Dover, and I happened to have a very fine cool head, yet, if I had my sons with me, and I knew that they had ordinary kinds of heads, I should not like to go and stand just on a jutting piece of crag so as to induce them to try the same position. No; I should feel, “Though I can stand here, you cannot; and if I stand here, perhaps you will attempt it, and fall, and I shall be guilty of your blood.” Let us treat men as we would treat our sons; and let us be weak to their weakness, and deny ourselves for their sakes. Is not that good and proper reasoning? It seems to me that it is. If it is not good reasoning, it is safe. I never have asked God to forgive me for my sin in going without strong drink. I have never seen any commandment in Scripture showing that I am bound to take it. I feel free to do as I like about abstaining; but especially free when for the good of others I prefer to abstain altogether. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian consideration for others
Now you may say to me if you please as a man, “Mr. Gough, I am a moderate drinker; I use these things in moderation, and therefore I set you a good example.” I say at once, “Sir, you do not.” “Well, if I drink one glass and there stop, is not that an example for others?” “No, sir; no, sir; no more than if there was a bridge built over a gulf, to fall into which was utter ruin, and that bridge will bear 150 lbs., and you weigh 1501bs., and you say to that young man (and he weighs 200 lbs.), ‘Follow my example.’--‘I don’t like the look of that bridge.’ ‘Don’t be a fool, I have walked it forty years; proved it perfectly safe; never cracked with me; never sprung with me; perfectly safe.’--‘But I don’t like it.’ ‘Don’t be foolish; you can do that which I can do; now I am setting you a good example; follow me step by step.’ That young man attempts to follow it; he sets his foot on the centre; crash! crash! down he goes, with a shriek, into destruction. Now, did you set a good example? No, because you didn’t take into consideration the difference of weight.” Before you can say to a young man, “I set you a good example,” you must take into consideration the difference between his temperament and yours, his susceptibility and yours. (J. B. Gough.).