And Abraham said, Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place
On harsh and selfish judgments
The true fear of God was at that moment in Abimelech’s heart, and not in Abraham’s; it was Abimelech who was playing the Christian part, that of the child of the light and of the day; Abraham was for the moment the child of fear, darkness, night.
I. CONSIDER THE ORIGIN OF THE HABIT OF HARSH JUDGMENT. TWO main sources.
1. The first a heathen Roman can illustrate for us (Acts 22:27-28). The thing has cost us much; we feel it is hard to believe that it can be widely shared. Abraham had made a terrible sacrifice to assure his calling. As for those easy, jovial, prosperous heathen, surely the fear of God was not there.
2. A second source of this harshness of judgment is the predominance in all of us of the natural aristocratic principle over the Christian principle of communion. Men naturally believe in election. But, with tale exceptions, they naturally believe themselves to he the elect. It is hard indeed to believe that a private possession gains instead of loses by being shared by all mankind.
II. THE HISTORIES OF SCRIPTURE ARE A PERPETUAL WARNING AGAINST NARROW AND SELFISH JUDGMENTS OF MEN. It is as if the Spirit had resolved that the virtues of those outside the pale should be kept clearly before the eyes of men. God is no respecter of persons, and He keeps hold in ways, of which we little dream, of the most unlikely human hearts.
III. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN POLICY IN JUDGING MANKIND.
1. Let your personal fellowship be based on the clear explicit manifestation of that which is in tune with your higher life and Christ’s.
2. As for those who are without, believe that God is nearer to them than you wot of, and has more to do with them than you dream. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Morality outside the Church
I. MORALITY OUTSIDE THE CHURCH MAY ATTAIN TO GREAT EXCELLENCE.
1. Belief in a moral standard of right and wrong.
2. Belief in the moral relations of human society.
3. A sense of injured moral feeling in the presence of wrong.
4. A readiness to make restitution for faults committed against others.
II. MORALITY OUTSIDE THE CHURCH MAY HAVE LESSONS OF REPROOF FOR THOSE WHO ARE WITHIN IT.
1. For their mean subterfuges.
2. Their distrust of Providence.
3. Their religious prejudices. (T. H. Leale.)
Prejudice
1. It is often strong in those who enjoy high religious privileges. Abraham thought himself so highly favoured of God that he was unwilling to admit that any goodness could be found among those who were less favoured.
2. The evils of it are great.
(1) It limits the power of the grace of God. He is not confined to one mode of making Himself known.
(2) It is a sin against charity.
(3) It issues in committing wrong against others.