Luke 11:37-39 And as he spoke, a certain Pharisee sought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.… A missionary in India writes about what the people there call sin. He says: "Travelling across the country one day, I took shelter from the sun in a native hut. The man kindly spread a mat for me, and the shade of the thatched roof was very acceptable. Soon a large number of poor men, who had been working in the muddy road, came there to eat their mid-day meal of rice. A young man of a better class came a little afterwards. While the rice was cooking at the foot of a tree outside, I began to tell them about Jesus. But soon the young man interrupted me, saying, 'Sahib, I have not so much need of salvation as these men have,' and he pointed to their mud-covered legs, and thought of his own white clothes so free from mire. But I said again that all are sinners. 'There is none that doeth good, no not one.' At last he said, 'Ha! I made a mistake. We are all sinners.' Another day a man said to me, 'Sahib, you are a great sinner;' as he said so he looked at my dusty boots and trousers, and then at my forehead streaming with perspiration. He had noticed how I had spoken to the people as though they were my brothers, and he concluded that if I were not a great sinner I should never be so poor, or have to work so hard, or mix so freely with the natives. Hindus, you see, think that God gives riches to the good and poverty to the bad. Once a man among the crowd said to me when I was preaching, 'Yes, that's true; we may do anything to get salvation, even sin.' This was a strange mixture of ideas, was it not? But it shows that they do not think of salvation as freedom from sin. We have to teach them this. They do not even know what sin is. How can they, if they know not the law of God? If you ask a large crowd of Hindus the question, 'What is sin?' they will answer in a moment, 'Eating beef.' They say there are two unpardonable sins — killing a Brahmin and killing a cow. Sometimes we are asked, most seriously, 'Did Jesus Christ eat meat?' They think that if He did, He too was a sinner. From this it will appear how difficult it is to get natives to understand what sin is not." (The Gospel in all Lands.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.WEB: Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table. |
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