The Christian Life: Its Perils and Protection*
GR IFF ITH -THOMAS , D. D. think of our P erils . It would almost' seem as though St. John gives us his teaching largely in a three-fold way. There are three perils mentioned in this epistle. 1. The first is called “ t h e world .” In chapter 2:15-17, we have the most important passage in this epistle, on that subject.- What is the world? I wish somebody could tell me. It is .one of the most difficult things to de fine; indeed, I would say it is impossi ble to define it. Perhaps the nearest approach -is, that the'world means everything in «the present order of things separate frjim God. At any rate, this is clear: the world is not a sphere, but an atmosphere; not a po sition, but a condition; not a place, but a power; not a territory, but an in fluence. This passage tells us of a three-fold evil in the world. “ Eove not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Perhaps the word materialism, in its widest sense, is the best idea of what worldliness means. And yet even here y.ou will notice that there is no close definition. There are many things that could be called “ the lust of the flesh, the lust o f the eyes, and the vainglory of life.” There are some things’ that are recognized at once clearly as of the world, and the Christian soul, as a rule, finds practically no difficulty in detecting these. The difficulty comes with other things which are amongst the doubtful ones, and as far as lean see we can only test them by their ef fect on the Christian life. What is the effect of these doubtful things on our devotional life of prayer, our de-
By REV. PROFESSOR W . H. F RO.M the Epistle, as a whole, we have endeavored to see sorrie- thing of the purpose of the Christian life, with its privileges in that purpose; and then how that Christian life may be experi enced arid lived by God’s own method of proof in- the light of the Divine Pattern of bur Saviour. We must now look at the Epistle more in detail for its teaching of various aspects of the Christian life. It is manifestly impos sible to cover anything like all the as pects found' even in this short epistle, but for this morning we must look at some dangers of the Christian life, and how they are to be met; because even the highest and truest life has its per ils. We might have supposed that the higher our experience the more im mune we should be from attack. But of the five “ heavenlies” in the Epistle to the Ephesians, one o f them has to do with our enemies in those very heavenly places. And so’ this Epistle, while concerned with the fullest, strongest, highest, deepest truths, does not fail to remind us of dangers in that' pathway. You will remember that in Psalm 63 we have, first, “ My soul thirsteth for Thee”—the soul seeking. Then we have, “ My soul shall be satisfied”— the soul satisfied, ' Then again, “ My soul followeth hard after Thee”—the soul making progress. But it does not stop there, for the next verse tells us, “ Those that seek My soul, to de stroy it.” It is when the soul is seek ing, satisfied, and following that Satan endeavors to destroy it. I. . P er il . First, then, this morning, let us *An address delivered Tuesday, August 5, 1913, at Montrose Bible Conference, Montrose, Pa.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online