II. A general rule. Another proposition here laid down is, that although absolutely pure men are not to be found, and although faithful men are rare, yet “most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness” (verse 6). There is a natural tendency in men to shrink from a very close inspection of their own motives, and desires, and feelings—they look anywhere rather than within, and consequently, very few have any conception of their own depravity. They have never measured even their actions, much less their thoughts, by the requirements of God’s law, and consequently, while He pronounces them “wretched, and miserable, and poor” they are saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Rev. iii. 17, 18). Most men are thanking God that “they are not as other men are” when they ought to be smiting their breasts and saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke xviii. 13). It is this wide-spread self-deception concerning their real condition that renders men so indifferent to God’s method for restoring them, and thus keeps the world in its present state of soul-sickness and death.
For Homiletics on verse 10, see on chap. [xi. 1].
outlines and suggestive comments.
This faithfulness, where it exists, develops itself in two branches; the one suppressing our neighbour’s vanity, and the other our own. The last mentioned is first in order of nature and in relative importance the chief. True faithfulness, like charity, begins at home. . . . Faithful reproof of another’s foibles is a virtue which some can exercise without an effort. They deal a hearty blow on the head of a luckless brother egotist who stands in the way of their own advancement, and then expect to be praised for faithfulness. But it is Jehu’s driving. The zeal which impels it is not pure.—Arnot.
The meaning is (see [Critical Notes] for Miller’s rendering) that a man is apt to call mere animal traits, like amiableness, or good nature, by the name of goodness; and the caution is, that seeking deep for piety (ver. 5), we should be careful to take up with no such stupid counterfeit. Much of the mere flesh to borrow a New Testament expression, is kind and honest. There is much of the mere man’s native morality. We must take care not to take that for “goodness.” There is a certain true fidelity that embraces everything. That is religion. It embraces God. It embraces spiritual faithfulness. It may be easily counterfeited. It has been the snare of our race to take “what is of the mere man,” and confound it with it.—Miller.
A faithful man—as a parent—a reprover—an adviser—one “without guile”—who can find? (Mic. vii. 1, 2). Look close. View thyself in the glass of the Word (Psa. ci. 6). Does thy neighbour, or thy friend, find thee faithful to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the attempt to speak what is agreeable often made at the expense of truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross violations are restrained, a thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall between sin and duty, and, judged by the Divine standard, are indeed guilty steps upon forbidden ground.—Bridges.
But the manner in which men make known what they account their goodness is very various. Some are open with it. They almost literally “proclaim” it upon the housetops. To every individual, and in every company, they speak of it—of what they are, of what they have said, of what they have done, of what they think, and of what they wish and intend to do. And O! if they had but the means what would they not accomplish!
Some there are who are quite as vain, and as ambitious of commendation and praise—who, knowing that everything of the nature of ostentation is exceedingly unpopular, and lets a man down, and tempts others to pluck his feathers from him—set about their object with greater art. They devise ways of getting their merits made known so as to avoid the flaw of ostentatious self-display. In company, they commend others for the qualities which they conceive themselves specially to possess, or for the doing of deeds which they themselves are sufficiently well known to have done; and they turn the conversation dexterously that way; or they find fault with others for the want of the good they are desirous to get praise for; or they lament over their own deficiencies and failures in the very points in which they conceive their excellence to lie—to give others the opportunity of contradicting them; or, if they have done anything they deem particularly generous and praise-worthy, they introduce some similar case, and bring in, in as apparently accidental and unintentional a way as possible, the situation of the person or the family that has been the object of their bounty.—Wardlaw.
Verse 7. Many are the several walks of men in this world—one walketh in his pleasure, as it were in the walks of a garden; another walketh in his profit, and he walketh as it were up and down the exchange; another walketh in troubles, and he walketh as it were in a wood; another walketh in his poverty, and he walketh as it were in a desert; another walketh in his beastly lusts of drunkenness and uncleanness, and he walks as it were in mire and dirt; the just man walketh in his integrity, and he walketh as it were in the holy temple.—Jermin.
Verse 8. We must be very careful, then, how we do our sifting. God’s is perfectly complete. . . . He winnows us at a glance. It is important, therefore, that we have something more than “evil,” because “all” that He shall winnow bodily away.—Miller.