A patient love to the unjust and the evil is one of the
attributes and manifestations of the divine nature, as that nature is
seen both in God and in all genuinely godly men. And, indeed, in no
other thing is the divine nature so surely seen in any man as just in his
love to and his patience with bad men. He schools and exercises himself
every day to be patient and good to other men as God has been to him. He
remembers when tempted to resentment how God did not resent his evil,
but, while he was yet an enemy to God and to godliness, reconciled him to
Himself by the death of His Son. And ever since the godly man saw that,
he has tried to reconcile his worst enemies to himself by the death of
his impatience and passion toward them, and has more pitied than blamed
them, even when their evil was done against himself. Let God judge, and
if it must be, condemn that bad man. But I am too bad myself to cast a
stone at the worst and most injurious of men. If we so much pity
ourselves for our sinful lot, if we have so much compassion on ourselves
because of our inherited and unavoidable estate of sin and misery, why do
we not share our pity and our compassion with those miserable men who are
in an even worse estate than our own? At any rate, I must not judge them
lest I be judged.
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