Proverbs 3:27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. I. CHARITY, AS OF MORAL OBLIGATION, STANDS AT THE HEAD OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICE. It is not a duty purely of positive command and institution, but in its own nature, and by a constant and eternal obligation. The Jews easily confounded things morally good and evil with things made good and evil by positive command. The distinction was vigorously set forth by the prophets. Charity, then, is the principal duty of our religion, as being universal and indispensable and a perfection in its own nature. II. CHARITY IS THE NEAREST IMITATION OF THE DIVINE NATURE AND PERFECTIONS THAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF. The Divine perfections are not imitable by us, as to the degree and extent of them. They are all infinite in God. We may do good according to our power and in our sphere. God will accept according to that a man hath. III. THIS GOOD DISPOSITION OF MIND IS MADE OF THE IMMEDIATE CONDITIONS OF OUR FUTURE HAPPINESS. The virtue of charity is an immediate gospel-condition of our future happiness, and it is a natural cause of it, or such a temper of mind as may be called beatific. In the nature of things, it prepares men for admission into the quiet regions of peace and love. This is also a virtue proper and necessary to this life, without which the world cannot subsist. This earth is the only stage where this virtue can and must be exercised. It is not easy to prescribe rules, measures, and proportions to men's charity, but neither is it necessary. (Francis Astry, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.WEB: Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. |
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