The Moral and the Positive in the Duties of Life
Deuteronomy 22:11
You shall not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together.


I. THAT THIS PRECEPT EXHIBITS A "POSITIVE" DUTY. The ground of this ordinance is to be sought for, not in the nature of things, but in the will of God.

II. THAT AS THE INCULCATION OF A POSITIVE DUTY THE PRECEPT OF THE TEXT WAS NOT SO BINDING UPON THE JEWS AS THOSE DUTIES WHICH WERE WHOLLY MORAL. A Jew might be reduced to the alternative either of wearing no garment at all, or of wearing one woven of woollen and linen together. The preservation of health is a moral duty, and therefore more important than the observance of a ritual precept.

III. THAT WE, WHO LIVE UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION, ARE NOT BOUND TO OBSERVE THIS PRECEPT AT ALL. Neither sowing your fields with wheat and rye together, nor ploughing with horses and oxen together, nor wearing a garment of wool, or of linen, or of divers sorts, availeth anything, "but a new creature."

IV. THAT WHILE WE ARE UNDER NO MANNER OF OBLIGATION TO OBSERVE THIS PRECEPT IN ITS LITERAL MEANING, STILL THE MORAL PRINCIPLE WHICH UNDERLIES THAT MEANING, AND WHICH IT WAS INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE, IS AS BINDING NOW AS EVER — AS BINDING UPON US AS IT WAS UPON THE JEWS. This prohibition, in its primary application to the Israelites, was doubtless intended to show that they were not to mingle themselves with the heathen, nor to weave any of the usages of the Gentiles into the ordinances of God. This is the spirit of the precept, and it is as binding upon us as it was upon them. We are to avoid an accommodating way of dealing with the Divine law. We are not to alter its sacred principles to suit the temper of the times, and the habits of the world.

(R. Harley.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.

WEB: You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together.




The Linsey-Woolsey Garment
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