Jesus thought it not beneath the dignity of his office, nor the
sacredness of the Sabbath, nor the proprieties of the synagogue, to
discourse to people on politeness and good breeding; nor to enforce
attention to decorum, by the comparatively low consideration, "Then
shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with
thee." Unworthy alike, both the lesson and the motive, would cry a
false spirituality, if the example of such preaching were set by any
lower authority. A false spirituality it is, for it originates in
missing the close connection between the temporal and the spiritual,
the outward and the inward, the life that now is, and that which is to
come.
In faithfully delivering the whole counsel of God, we may encounter
something like the wrath of the ruler of the synagogue, whose
spirituality was offended at the restoration of a withered hand on the
Sabbath. We may find, that we have cast pearls before swine. We may
be referred to Paul's determination to know nothing among the
Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And, if we
minister to a people who, like the Corinthians, need to be fed with
milk and not meat; like them carnal, factious, party-spirited, and if
we would delicately hint to them their character--let us do it
indirectly, following Paul's example, when he put restraint on the
fullness of matter within, and discoursed only on the elements of
Christian doctrine.
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