Bible Commentaries

RELIGION AND MORAL LIFE

‘Exercisx thyself rather unto godliness.’

1 Timothy 4:7

It is often said that you cannot make a man moral by Act of Parliament. Well, that means that all that Parliament can do is to diminish the opportunities and occasions of doing wrong.

I. You must come to religion to give a man moral strength.—A good deal can be done when the Church and the nation and Parliament work together. The Church can stir up and make a sound public opinion, and that means that good laws will get passed; but besides that, the Church must do her own part in building up the strong, sound moral character which will be, as it were, independent of those laws. The Church will work in two ways. It will try to get good laws passed, and it will build up that which no laws can ever make—the moral character which is able to resist temptation.

II. In all moral questions it is difficult to draw the line between what is right and what is wrong, and it is even best to draw two lines. That is to say, we draw a line here, and we say, all on this side is perfectly harmless and innocent; and then we leave a space and draw another line and say that all on the further side of that is wrong and sinful. The space between these two lines is doubtful and debatable. The ground about which we are not certain is dangerous ground, and when we pray ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ what we really mean is that we may not be allowed to stray on to it. We are determined that we will not court a fall. Therefore we shall sympathise with and honour any one who refuses to cross the line on one side of which he knows that all is safe.

III. A firm stand needed.—It is, of course, very easy to say this from the pulpit, but difficult to put it into practice on account of the pressure of social life. At the same time it is worth while being what people call ‘unsociable’ in such a matter as this. For instance, no game is worth playing if it cannot be played without money. In cricket we never think of money, and in billiards we need not. And certainly when we hear of young girls being led into all sorts of trouble through being obliged to play bridge in country houses for stakes far above what they can afford, we must consider that this principle is worth making a stand for. Is it really good for me? Does it lift me or does it lower me? That is what we have to consider in all these cases where the ground is doubtful or debatable.

—Rev. T. R. Hine-Haycock.

Illustrations

(1) ‘You who have been much at the seaside know that we can often walk along a cliff path very near a precipice, but quite safe. Some day we come to a hurdle which bars the path. A new path has to be made some ten or twenty feet inland. Then, by and by, you get to the old path again. We know by that that some part of the cliff has fallen away and that other parts are cracking. If we are rash and young, very likely we jump over the hurdle and walk over the debatable or doubtful ground a dozen times without any harm. But the dozen-and-first time may be our last. And so it is between what is right and what is wrong.’

(2) ‘In every large town the practice of betting among men and boys, and even among women and girls, has been on the increase, causing a great deal of wrong and misery. We all feel that something should be done to create a sounder opinion on this matter. If a really strong public opinion existed, it would be impossible for many forms of betting to continue, but without such public opinion little can be done to hinder the shameful wrongdoing of the man who bets—the misery he brings upon himself and also upon his home, his wife, and his children. There are, unhappily, thousands who indulge in this practice with perfectly clear consciences. Some of them discover when it is too late that the passion has taken hold of them, and that it is a curse and a slavery. It is said that there is a difficulty in this, as in every matter, in drawing the line between what may be innocent and harmless and what is certainly sinful and wrong. But do we not feel that a man is wise and right who refuses to bet or play cards, even for small stakes? It is just as well for all of us to guard against a practice which, although it may begin in a small way, is yet fraught with enormous danger.’

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE

‘And exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily exercise is profitable for a little.’

1 Timothy 4:7-8 (R.V.)

Godliness, and not asceticism, is to be the Christian’s aim. ‘Bodily exercise,’ or physical severities and privations, such as many of the early saints imposed upon themselves, is contrasted here with ‘godliness’ or piety, as being only a means to the attainment of the latter, and not therefore an end in itself. The ‘godliness’ here inculcated is well interpreted by the old English word, from which it was probably derived, viz. godlikeness. It is the cultivation of a Divine character in ourselves, a heavenly temper, taste, and disposition. Just as the ‘pietas’ of the ancient world consisted of reverent and loving attachment to the gods, and to one’s parents and family, so that of the Christian should be shown in the service of God, our heavenly Father, and the hallowing of domestic ties. The supreme aim of Christianity is holiness, a life consecrated to God and in constant communication with Him. Everything is therefore to be in subordination to this, and to be tested by it. Not even ‘truth’ in the abstract is to be chiefly sought after, but that ‘which is after godliness’ (Titus 1:1); and only as securing this end is the Christian to lay any stress upon external discipline or the rites of the Church.

Godliness requires constant training. Its attainment is the loftiest to which man can aspire. It is nothing else than being like God.

I. The Christian must therefore impose discipline upon himself.—Not that he is to invent trials or to court temptation: the circumstances of every life are divinely ordered. But that which our heavenly Father has ordained, or which Christian duty may involve, ought to be submitted to, and so submitted to as to display the graces of the Gospel, and to suffer every experience to produce its due impression upon the spirit. Difficulties must not be evaded at the cost of principle. The hardest trials and most mysterious dispensations are to be accepted as from the hand of Infinite Love.

II. To be successful it must be continual and persistent.—The most energetic similes, e.g. a fight, a race, etc., are employed by St. Paul in describing the pursuit of godliness. He that would follow the Crucified must be content to take up his cross daily.

III. Its grand end must ever be kept in view.—It is not simply the infliction of penance or privation that is to be to us a source of spiritual satisfaction. Whenever we are tempted to rest in the outward works, and to congratulate ourselves upon our diligence therein, we ought to distrust ourselves. What we have to do is not to destroy our nature in any of its parts, but to render it, as a whole, responsive to the heavenly will.

THE PRESENT BENEFIT OF A PIOUS LIFE

‘But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’

1 Timothy 4:8

Religion is not meant only to fit us for heaven. It is for this present state no less. And if only we let religion have its proper place, and put it into everything, we should have little cause to be discontented with our condition; and we should arrive at the deepest and truest secret of the well-being of society.

I. That man must be entirely without faith in God’s moral government, who could doubt that He favours those who please Him, and that His blessing is upon the righteous.

II. The great end of Christianity, as respects the man himself, may be said to be to give him a sense of perfect safety. Composure is one great principle of success. And so the real Christian carries about with him the advantage in daily life, and illustrates, by his composure and its strength, the truth of the proposition of the text.

III. Follow a man into some of the relationships of life.

(a) Perhaps our first duty is to deal justly with our fellow creatures. The Christian will be a juster man in all his transactions than any other, because he has, more than any other, studied justice, and enjoyed justice, and stands the very monument of justice.

(b) The same principle will apply to love. Human love is an emanation of Divine love.

(c) In like manner, who will be the unselfish man but he who has contemplated and felt the vast unselfishness of Jesus?

IV. The conclusion of the whole matter: ‘Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.’ There is a deeper secret of ‘social science’ than the wisdom of the wisest of this world has ever known. The real remedy of all moral and physical evil lies in that restorative process, which God has provided for a disorganised and degraded world.

Illustration

‘Godliness is not gloom, nor asceticism. It makes no man a monk, no woman a nun. To enjoy with God, all that God has created, is godliness. Godliness despises no good thing, no beautiful thing, but rather freely receives all good things in thanksgiving and turns them into gladness. In the enjoyment of this world’s blessings, cherish the confidence that they are shadows, and only shadows, of richer blessings—the perfectly human blessings and delights of our Father’s home-kingdom.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

GODLINESS AND REPOSE

How is godliness profitable for this life? It is profitable, affording us a temperate, steady strength in all action; a sweetening ingredient in pleasurable action; a solace in painful action. If we are in true sympathy with God, as God is in Christ, our longings will be for what is pure and perfect. We shall yearn for the common good.

The promise of godliness for the life to come is rest, satisfaction with God in that rest, and enjoyment of the results of our labour in that satisfaction. Rest is a sweet and necessary thing. Our day of rest is the Lord’s day; our country of rest, the Lord’s country. He is the Giver of rest. Very close then is the association between godliness and repose.

What shall we do to quicken and to cultivate that godliness which is strength here and rest afterwards?

I. We must pray.—God our Sun is no dead orb, but a conscious Sympathiser, Enlightener, and Enlivener.

II. We must revise our estimates of things temporal that are things desirable. The worst case is that of those who profess to be spiritual, yet care for only such things. The next worse case is theirs who seek both things above and things below. But there is another case: it is to give up ‘worldly’ things because so to do is right, yet to remain troubled because others less scrupulous have got them.

III. Does our mind move towards God naturally?—Is a feeling of eternity diffused through our days? He that lives in shade does not see his own shadow; he that walks in sunshine does. Living in God we live in sunshine.

Illustration

‘St. Paul’s words are quoted sometimes as if he meant that through godliness we might make our future here and hereafter, and as if a skilful Christian man might find life a sort of palatable soup, pleasant to the dainty, by the due mixture of earthly and heavenly ingredients. Christ entered into His glory afterwards. Godliness paid its way, but that way led it to the Cross.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

‘THE LIFE THAT NOW IS’

The essential comfort and welfare of the life that now is depend mainly on three conditions, all of which are so far within the control of man himself, and all of which rather materially influence personal piety and godliness.

I. A healthy body.—That is one of life’s very choicest blessings, whose value we never know till we come to lose it. There can be no essential comfort without health. The preservation of health, speaking generally, there can be no doubt, is directly conducive to godliness. Whatever helps to make a man clean in his body, temperate in his habits, orderly in his life; whatever helps him from indolence on the one hand, or from excess on the other, from evil companions, and causes him to keep a seventh portion of his time for worship, is helpful to that godliness which ‘is profitable unto all things,’ both in ‘the life that now is’ and ‘that which is to come.’

II. A happy home.—This is oftener within our control than a healthy body. A happy home, that brightest spot on earth, the eye of God looks down on. Love and peace in his home sends sunshine round a man wherever he goes; disorder and trouble there is misery everywhere. There are few worries of life which a man cannot now and then shake off; but who can shake himself free from the skeleton in the closet, from the worry in the household, the blister on the heart? A day will tell how many a man carried that with him without wincing down to the grave. When husband and wife are helpmeets to each other in the best sense, when order and love and goodness prevail in the house, then the man who has a hard battle in life to fight can leave his struggles behind him when he enters there.

III. A clean conscience and a holy heart; and issuing thence like a stream from the fountain, there will be holy conduct, a holy life, a life well ordered, actuated by worthy aims, inspired by lofty hopes, at peace with the world and itself, because at peace with God, trusting in His merit, sanctified by His grace, and waiting for the rest of the eternal home.

Illustration

‘An intelligent man, a Spanish marquis, while maintaining the Roman Catholic religion to be the only true one in the world, admitted the backward condition of Roman Catholic countries in comparison with others; but he held that the things of time were nothing compared to the things of eternity—an assertion which meant that the pursuit of the things of time is incompatible with the things of eternity—and that the surest way for a nation to be right with God is to neglect as much as possible the duties of earth. When this world is spoken of in such terms, and the hard duties of everyday life are treated with contempt in comparison with the duties of eternity; when to be religious is to be gloomy and morose, I understand why men should think harshly of a religion so presented, and say, If this is Christianity, I will have nothing to do with it. There is a great deal that is unreal published and preached in the name of religion, and men will not have unreality. To tell men who have to toil hard from sunrise to sunset, from day to day, from month to month, from year to year, that the matters of this world are of little consequence, is simply to tell them what they know to be nonsense.’

LIFE AND DOCTRINE

‘Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.’

1 Timothy 4:16

Two outstanding things are to be noted in the text:—

I. The connection between our doctrine and ourselves.—‘Take heed unto thyself and unto thy doctrine.’

II. The connection between two great results.—‘So shalt thou save thyself and them that hear thee.’

That is not the order in which we might put those two pairs of things. Take heed, O teacher, father, mother, counsellor, to thyself, and then to thy doctrine. Take heed in order that thou mayest save thyself.

Illustration

‘While our doctrine is that by which we influence others, the best way to keep our doctrine true and right is to look after our own heart. Salvation—“save thyself.” What does that mean? Take measures to cultivate submission to God, acceptance of an atonement that shall exempt you from hell hereafter. Do you call that saving yourself? Oh, no; the real salvation that Jesus Christ came and died to give to you and me is a salvation here and now, to-day in your house, among your children, in your heart.’