Ver. 12. Christian Humility.
I. The nature of this holy temper.—1. A humble apprehension of our own knowledge. The imperfection of our faculties, our fallibility of judgment, when we compare our knowledge with the attainments of others, and a persuasion of the small value of the most exalted knowledge without practical influence. 2. Of our own goodness. 3. Of our independence and wants. 4. Of our own rank and station.
II. The obligations to cultivate a humble temper.—1. It is mentioned in Scripture with peculiar marks of distinction and honour. The most distinguished promises are made to it. It is a necessary introduction to other graces and duties. 2. It is a grace which adorns every other virtue and recommends religion to every beholder. 3. Is recommended to us by the example of the Author and Finisher of our faith. 4. Is a grace that will go with us to heaven.
Lessons.—1. Those destitute of this grace have the rudiments of Christianity to learn. 2. We should look principally to the temper of our spirits to judge of our humility. 3. By it we judge of the improving or declining state of our souls.—J. Evans, D.D.
Ver. 13. Christian Forgiveness—
- Is exercised where there is mutual forbearance.
- Is the noblest method of ending quarrels.
- Is a Christ-like disposition.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.
Love the Perfection of the Christian Character.
Love is the commonest and most potent affection of the human heart. It has been the inexhaustible theme of writers in all ages, in poetry and prose. It has been invested with the bewitching drapery of romance and exhibited as the instrumental cause of the darkest crimes and of the brightest virtues. The world never tires of learning of its adventures, trials, and victories. While it is ever commonplace, it is ever fresh. It is the perennial force in human life—the first to inspire, the longest to endure, the last to perish. But Christian love—love to Jesus Christ, and to all others for His sake—is not a native-born affection. It does not spring spontaneously from the human heart. It is a gift from God. It is the richest fruit of the new spiritual nature implanted in the believer. It is first to be acquired and then diligently cultivated. The apostle has just described the distinctive garments with which the believer is to be adorned—with a heart of tender compassion, with humility, with a gentle, patient, and forgiving spirit. But in addition to all this, and in order to complete the Christian character, he is to be clothed in a robe which is to cover every other garment and bind it to its place—a robe whose purity and brightness shall shed a lustre over all the rest.
I. That love is the prime element in every other grace of the Christian character.—It is the soul of every virtue and the guarantee of a genuine sincerity. Without love all other graces, according to an old writer, are but glittering sins. There is a great power of affectionateness in the human heart, but no man possesses naturally the spiritual love of God and love of the race. It is a fruit of the Holy Ghost and comes though that faith which works by love. It is possible to assume all the essentials of the Christian character, enumerated in ver. 12, and previously commented on; but without love they would be meaningless, cold, and dead. Mercy would degenerate into weak sentimentality; kindness into foolish extravagance; humility into a mock self-depreciation—which is but another form of the proudest egotism; and longsuffering into a dull, dogged stupidity. Love is the grand element in which all other graces move and from which they derive their vitality and value. It is the grace which alone redeems all other from the curse of selfishness, and is, itself, the most unselfish.