the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? - 1 Peter 3:13.
WHATEVER difficulties there may be in the way of reconciling the providence of God with the promises of his word, this Scripture must be true notwithstanding all these. But let us see whether we cannot remove any such apparent contradictions. In attempting this, we may remark three things. The first regards the language of the apostle. A writer can hardly ever make use of a proposition, however just, general, and universal it may be, but it allows of and requires some exception and some qualification. And as to the sacred writers, they always express themselves very strongly upon the present subject, to make an impression thereby, regardless of qualifications and exceptions for the time. There are such qualifications and exceptions, but they are found in other places. Our Lord said to his followers, “Take no thought for the morrow;” and in the Book of Proverbs, prudence, forecast, and diligence are enjoined. “Look well to thy flocks and thy herds, for riches are not forever.” And we may observe that the sacred writers express themselves according to the common and natural and the proper appearances and operations of things, regardless of their accidental and occasional deviations. Thus, we read, the “wicked flee when no man pursueth;” that is, they often flee; their principles tend to cowardice. On the other hand, we read that the righteous is “bold as a lion.” He is not always so; but his principles lead to this, and demand this. So the apostle here tells us that the people of God may and ought to reckon on the divine protection.
The second thing regards the probability of their escaping harm; and we here observe,-First, That religion cuts off from good men many occasions of evil and injury. A meek temper, like wool, deadens the force of a blow. Who but a coward would strike one that he knew would not and could not strike again? Then we observe that, though men are depraved, there are yet in them the remains of reason and courage; the character and carriage of good men often excite respect in their enemies. “Why,” said Saul to David, “many times thou art more righteous than I.” Thus it was with Pharaoh, when he said to men he had repeatedly driven from his presence, “Entreat the Lord for me.” Thus Balaam said, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” There is often something within wicked men that tells them that truth, and righteousness, and God, are on the side of those they are opposing. We may also observe that though they cannot like in good men any thing that is really spiritual, yet there are other things in them that they do like. They do not like their repentance towards God, and their faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; yet they do like their honesty, and their diligence, and their morality. Even Hume, the deist, thought it was better for the common people to believe the Scriptures. And once more: though men hate religion, they do not always like to oppose it openly and directly. They know that this would bring upon them disgrace, especially in a religious country, and therefore they lay hold of something else,-something that is extraneous. But when Christians live and act as they ought, they furnish nothing for these men to lay hold of.
The third regards the alleviations of those evils which we allow may befall real Christians. They may suffer, but we observe nothing can befall them of this kind without the knowledge and permission of their God. All events are under his direction, and all hearts are in his hand. Christians may suffer, but the injury is only temporary. They may suffer, but the injury is only partial. It cannot reach any of their higher interests. Therefore our Saviour said, “Fear not them that are able to kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.”
The word of the LORD was precious. - 1 Samuel 3:1.
“Precious|” means valuable, costly, something of worth and importance. The preciousness of a thing is very distinguishable from the truth of it. Nothing can, indeed, be valuable and important that is not true; but a thing may be true without being valuable and important; but here both the truthfulness and the preciousness of the gospel are conjoined. According to the word of the Apostle, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This may be inferred not only from the Author, but from the design.
What is the design of the word of God, but the restoration of man from all the effects of moral evil, and placing him in a condition superior to that in which he was originally created? “These things are written,” says the Apostle, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name.” Here the mighty questions are answered-What must I do to be saved?” “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow before the High God?” The most precious book in the world to me ought to be that which contains “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord;” and this volume does contain it. We are commanded to “search the Scriptures,” for in them we think we have eternal life, and they are they which testify of him.
The heathen knew something of the fall: they must have felt the effects of it in the troubles of life-in the uneasiness of conscience-in the discord of their passions-in the dread of futurity-and in what the Apostle Paul calls their “subjection all their life to bondage through fear of death.”-We know that they did try to obtain relief; but they knew nothing of the “balm in Gilead” and the “Physician there;” they were “without Christ,” and therefore they were “without hope, and without God in the world.” O, how precious is one declaration of this book-the testimony of John. “We have known, and believe,” says he, “the love he hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” How precious is it to have a standard of doctrine with regard to our belief; so that if we feel perplexities-and perplexities there needs will be on such a subject-we may call in the judgment of God the Father himself. How satisfactory is it to have a rule of duty with regard to our conduct. How wretched we must feel if we had been left to conjecture what God would have us do, and how he would have us walk. But this is not our case; he hath shown us what is good; he has told us what he requires of us; he has furnished us with information, and this information is in proportion to the importance of the thing.
As to matters of moment, here everything is so legibly inscribed, that “he may run that reads it.” Where information is necessary to us, there the light of day is thrown upon the subject; where additional information would only amuse us, and draw us off from the “one thing needful,” there the Scripture becomes silent as death and dark as the grave. And is not this an excellency? Thus the Bible teaches us by what it conceals as well as by what it reveals. Just as Lord Bacon observes, “The shade of the sun on the sun-dial serves to show the hour as well as the sunshine.” And how advantageous is it to have, also, a manual of piety-a vade mecum of devotion, with everything comprised in it that is necessary to life, and in so small a compass that we can carry it conveniently along with us.
Ah, says Solomon, take this book, “bind it about thy neck, write it upon the tablet of thine heart; that where thou goest it may lead thee, and where thou sleepest it may keep thee, and where thou walkest it may walk with thee.”
