July 1928
418
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
PASSAGES THAT PERPLEX
Speaking of Murderers! To W. U. B. This inquirer quotes Mr. Hickman, the mur derer, as saying he would be with Jesus in Paradise on April 27, because the blood of Jesus was shed for the whole world. He is said to have assumed from this fact that he had no sins to account for. “Please tell me,” asks W. U. B., “how it is done/’ There is no question as to the fact that Christ pro vided world-wide redemption (Jn. 1:9 ; 1 Jn. 2:2-).. Mr. Hickman is not the only one who has sought tp make th is. mean universal salvation. One only needs to read on to verse 12 of John 1 to discover that redemption avails nothing to one who does not definitely accept Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. If Mr. Hickman appropriated by faith the finished work of Christ, we have not heard of it. 1 Jno. 3:15 is a passage that has peculiar application to this young man. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a, murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” It is not his futurMstate that is considered here, but his present. A man who murders cannot, according to this passage, in his present state have eternal life-abiding in him. It does not say that a man who has committed murder could not afterward genuinely repent, accept Christ and be born from above.,, Such cases, however, are rare. Self-defense, under some circumstances, leading to the killing of another, or the protection of the lives of others resulting in the death of another, might not be con strued as murder. Personally we would not feel justified in using drastic means in self defense, for Christians are plainly instructed in Rom. 12:19: “ Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto zvrath, for it is written, Ven geance is mine '. I w ill repay, saith the Lord.” We are ready to die any time, and if another wishes to take life, we feel that somehow the cause of God would be better served by our giving place unto wrath, even if it resulted in martyrdom. Premeditated murder, however, cannot be the act of a child of God unless he is demented. Before we leave this passage, it will be well to notice that in God’s sight there are many murderers in the mem bership of some of our churches and possibly even among those who consider themselves defenders of the Christian Faith. “Whosoever hateth his brother js a murderer.” Not all hatred will end in outward murder, to be sure, nor is all hatred equally reckless. But the evil that lies in the heart differs not in kind from that which is ripened by op portunity. The powder that is explosive and the powder that explodes do not differ. The character assassin is a murderer in the sight of God, and our passage states that he who by the disposition of his heart wants to ruin his. brother, cannot have eternal life abiding in him. Cat W ith a Silver Collar “A cat with a silver collar,” said Spurgeon “is none the better mouser. Fine dress, learned degrees, high titles and grand offices do not give ability. We have heard of doctors of divinity who were duller preachers than the generality of the clergy.”
The U n ju st Steward To D. W. J. “I have sincerely tried to get an understand ing of Lk. 16:1-15, with no satisfaction as yet. ^ The Lord seems to commend a scheme to defraud. Our Lord here gives what is commonly called the par able of the unjust steward. A rich man, hearing that his steward was wasteful, calls him to account and threatens his dismissal. The steward resolves to make hims':If “solid” with his master’s debtors in case he is dismissed, so that they should receive him into their houses. He calls all the debtors together. Of the first he asks how much he is owing to his employer. Informed that he owed a hundred measures of oil, he instructs him to cut it to fifty. Another acknowledges that he owes a hundred measures of wheat and is told to make it 80. Verse 8 then declares that “the lord [note—not capital “L” ; he means the steward’s employer, not Christ] commended the ■ unjust steward because he had acted shrewdly: for the children o f this world are in their generation zviser than .thechil dren of light.” Jesus then draws a conclusion (v. 9) : “I say unto you, Make [or “You make” ], to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Many fail to notice that the “lord” spoken of in the parable, is not Christ. Our Lord does not commend ques tionable shrewdness, nor does He hold up the actions of this steward for imitation in every respect. He shows that “a son of this world” (v. 8, R. V.) is shrewd enough to use money committed to him to his own future advantage. Much more should “a son of light” do so, with reference to the eternal future, after his death. It should be carefully noted that Jesus definitely refers to the steward as “unjust” (v. 8—literally “unrighteous”) . This shows that Jesus did not approve of his actions from the moral standpoint. He addsMn verse 13 : “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” The parable was given as a direct rebuke to the phar isees because of their covetousness (v. 14). Jesus made considerable use of irony in dealing with the scribes and Pharisees ^c f. 7 :35; 15 :7; 18:9-14). This parable caused the Pharisees to scoff (verse 14), showing that He had correctly drawn their pictures. He practically says: “You Pharisees make use of mammon, thinking to gain eternal friends for yourselves. You act as if you thought God would commend you as this employer did his scheming steward, and continue in His Kingdom men who have wasted His entrusted treasures, simply to increase their friends in this world.” Verses 11- 13 clearly show that they were deceiving themselves by supposing that religion and business could be divorced. How could they hope to have “true riches” (verse 11) if they were not true, just, upright and faithful to the real principles of religion in handling the “unrighteous mam mon” ? There is no such thing as “serving two masters” (verse 13). There is no possibility of one code for church and another for business. The conclusion is that it is ridiculous to think of friends made on unrighteous principles receiving a man into eternal felicity, or of ill-gotten gains becoming per manently‘valuable to him. No marvel that the Pharisees scoffed!
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