THE KING’S BUSINESS
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to be. The thing that concerned Jesus is that man is wrong and that he ought to be made right. Yet, while all this is true, we must not lose sight of the fact that Jesus did say a great deal about sin that throws a flood of light upon the subject of its nature and issues. Let me call your attention to three words which He used in speak ing of sin which alone are a searching revelation concerning this dark fact in the experience of men. The first of these is the word “Poneros” which is usually translated evil. The essential meianing of the word is sug gested by its use in Luke 11:34. “When it (eye) is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.” Here the word means something that injures the eye so as to incapacitate it in the perform ance of its usual function. Because this poneros is' present the eye is not able to perform its duty. According to Luke 6:45, and other passages, Je sus looked upon sin in this very way He looked upon it as a something that hindered life from being what it was intended to be. It is something that hurts and brings disaster to life. In stead of being a something to help life it binds and limits it so that it is not able to perform the duty for, which it was created. Therefore, it must be gotten rid of as soon as possible. Jesus was the physician who came to perform that very task. The son of man came to save men from sin. He was not here to save men from some thing that helped them, but from something that was robbing them of life. He came that men might have life and have it more abundantly. The thing that was keeping them from life was sin. Sin, therefore, was an ene my and not a friend. The second word used by Christ was the word
There are three more or less promi nent conceptions of sin found in the literature and thought of our day. Some contend that as a matter of fact there is nothing in the real world to correspond with what we speak of as sin in the religious world. God is good, and He has made all things, therefore, all things must be good. This conception permeates a great deal of our philosophic idealism and pan theism. It has found a very crude but popular expression in what is known as Christian Science. There are others who contend that sin is one of the essential factors in the development of the world. This conception of sin is held in a great variety of forms. Some say it is the opposite of good and is necessary in order to develop and appreciate good. It is also said that sin is simply the remains of the brute nature from which man is emerging and is being gradually cast off as men progress in realizing what they are intended to be. There is a third conception and we think the right conception. According to this idea sin is a something that is contrary to God and contrary to men’s highest interests, and therefore, a something that ought not to he. This, we believe, to be the teaching of Jesus concerning this awful fact in human life. As, once more, we go over our Gos pel of Luke we are surprised to find that Jesus has nothing to say about the origin of sin nor about the reason why it is permitted in the world. He recognizes it as a fact of life and speaks of it as such, and takes a most decided attitude towards it as the thing that should not be. His great busi ness in the world was to free men from its power. We give a great deal of time and thought to the endeavor of finding out how man has come to be as he is. Jesus was concerned with man as he is and with the means by which he can be made what he ought
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