Acts 9:26-30 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him… The odor of character and "ill report" are two very different things. The character of most fragrance may be in worst "report." Was it not true of Jesus? The noblest personages that have graced the world have often been temporarily of ill report, but not, correctly speaking, of ill odor. Of all ill odor none is a hundredth part so bad as the ill odor of character. Notice - I. ITS CHIEF POINTS OF STRONG CONDEMNATION. 1. It is an intrinsic shame to the person of whom it is true. It is the result of what he is and what he says and what he does, and not of the mistakes others may possibly make respecting him in any of these particulars. 2. It is a virulent disintegrant of human society and love. It turns the place and opportunity of attraction into those of repulsion, and substitutes for the union of trust the disunion of suspicion. 3. It is cruelty to all those who are of the same kind by nature. Some kind of sin, beside all the black front it shows as such to God, adds the aggravation of widespread and keenly felt domestic misery. 4. It is a very fountain of fear to an indefinite number of others. The character that is correctly answerable to the description of one of ill odor is an offence to those who hare to come in contact with it, and to those who fear lest they should come in contact with it. 5. It is constantly diffusing its noxious and malarious influences, and not least when perhaps for a brief while least observed. II. THE REMEDY. There is one remedy, one only, that goes to the root of the matter. That character must be changed. Come what may, let what may seem risked, through whatsoever experience of suffering and anguish of a new birth, nothing short of a real and penetrating change will avail. Nothing partial, no outside improvement, no mere mitigation of his style of word or deed, could have reconciled "disciples at Jerusalem" or anywhere else to Saul, had there not been proof patent of radical change. The source of the old ill must be cut off, and in such wise that it comes to be the natural thing to men to feel convinced that it is really and undoubtedly cut off. III. THE ROOM THAT THERE IS FOR THE EXERCISE OF BROTHERLY CHARITY WITHAL. Men who go by the name of Christian do often suspect when they should not, and distrust too long. The example of Jesus is clear against such conduct and such a disposition. To the worst sinner he was prompt to give the hand of hope and the hand of help, and to shield them from the glance and the pointed finger of tauntings drawn from the past. We may admit that the eye of Jesus recognized genuineness, and his lip could pronounce upon it with a certainty shut out from ourselves. None the less must we recognize his principle, and honor it by using it. Barnabas now took Saul by the hand, and showed him the brotherly kindness the spirit of which the great Master first gave to the Church. And it is agreeable to observe how "apostles" and "brethren" thereupon believed in Saul, and acted as though they believed in him. Grateful is it at one and the same time to see how the trust reposed in Barnabas quite sufficed to counteract the distrust that had been so naturally felt towards Saul. Broad as is the line, therefore, that separates the repentant man from the sinner; uncompromising as our conduct must be in having no fellowship with darkness; and trenchant as our fidelity to doctrine as it were; - yet for all this amount of reason, the more promptly, gladly, and trustfully must we give heart and hand to the repentant, whatsoever they have been heretofore. From the moment Jesus pardons, receives, and sets to work one who has long and deeply insulted him, we must pardon, "receive as a brother beloved," and welcome as a fellow-laborer that man. Nor ever forget that to suspect and distrust a moment too long, or to wonder past believing, is to put ourselves into the last position that we would wish or mean to occupy. For our immovable and gladdest creed is that Christ can do all things in human heart and human life. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. |
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