THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Sunday, January 10. Matthew 5 :13-27.
an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” but the law of Christ, which is not for the admin istration of public justice but for the gov ernment of individual action, demands the most thoroughgoing forgiveness of injuries. Evil is not to be resisted even as Jesus Himself did not resist it, leaving us an ex ample that we should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:19-23). When one injury is done us, instead of resenting it, we should stand ready to receive another. The heart should be open to love all, and the hand ever ready to give. That most bothersome of men, the borrower, should not receive the cold shoulder, but a hearty welcome. Love should go out' to all, not merely to the friend and neighbor, but to the enemy as well. The religion that Christ taught “makes me love everybody.” The man who does everything in his power to injure us, to blast our reputation, to curtail our in fluence, should be the object of our kindest consideration. When others curse us we should bless them. When others hate us we should do them good. When others persecute us, we should pray for them. The more people there are who persecute us, the more there will be for whom we have the privilege of praying. In this way per secution becomes a means of unalloyed blessing, a stepping stone upon which we step higher into the likeness of Jesus Christ. God Himself is the Christian’s standard ol perfection. Christ’s own holiness is re vealed in the fact that He would set no lower standard than this for His disciples, “ye therefore shall be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” The imme diate reference is to perfection in love— loving enemies as well as friends, bad as well as good—but it is clearly implied that in all things God’s character is our stand ard, and nothing short of absolute likeness to Him should satisfy us, and to this infi nite standard of perfection we are finally to attain by the grace of God in Christ. Tuesday, January 12. Matthew 6:1-8. There are wonderful lessons here on do-
Nothing could be more plain, explicit and forceful than Christ’s endorsement or the absolute Divine authority of the law of Moses down to its smallest word, letter and part of a letter (v. 18). A jot is the He brew character yodh, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, less than half the size of any other character in the alphabet, and a tittle was the little horn on some of the Hebrew consonants, less than the cross we put on a t. And out Lord here tells us that not one single letter, nor single part of a letter, shall pass from the law of God, as originally given, until all be fulfilled. It is evident that Jesus did not have the diffi culties with the Pentateuch that some mod ern critics do. If we accept the authority of the Lord Jesus, we must also accept the Divine origin and authority of the Penta teuch. But while the law was not done away in one smallest part of it, its applica tion was enlarged and its meaning amplified in Jesus Christ. The law of Moses con tained the A, B, C of ethics, but in Christ we go on to the advanced grades. The righteousness of those who would have a part in the kingdom of heaven must ex ceed that of the scribes and Pharisees with all its strictness and minute requirements. The Pharisaic righteousness was all on the outside, the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven is a matter of the heart. The hate that leads to murder is essentially murder. The one who wishes another dead is essentially the same as the one who puts his wish into action and kills him. There must be purity in the inmost heart as well as in the outward action. Christ' Himself alone has kept the law of Moses in the way in which He interprets it here, but He is ready to keep it again in us if we will sur render to him the entire control of our in nermost life. Monday, January 11. Matthew. S:38-48. The law of Moses required exact justice in the punishment of offenses, an “eye for
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