Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Personal holiness, the concern for which called forth this admonition, is uniformly the object of Christian doctrine and Christian precept. To profess faith in Christianity is to choose a life of purity; for in our professing it we are said, according to a strong figure, "to put on Christ Jesus." I. BE WARNED AGAINST THE INFLUENCE OF EVERY DEGREE OF FAMILIARITY WITH WHAT IS SINFUL. To come so frequently in the way of sin as to see men engaged day after day, and thus to grow familiar with the view of what is criminal, may indeed easily be calculated in the amount of its evil influence. The perception of the odiousness of iniquity is thereby weakened — the sensibility of conscience is diminished — partial attention, indifference, and callousness to vice often follow in quick succession. II. For the same important end it is suggested that these words of the apostle may warn you, not only against the vices of the world themselves, BUT LIKEWISE AGAINST WHATEVER IS ALLIED TO THEM. It is, you will observe, not the disease merely, but even the "garment" infected with it, which you are to turn from. That is, everything that may prove an incitement, or an accessory, or by remote and indirect ways an introduction to sin, is to be shunned for the very reasons which urge you to flee from the sin itself. The doing so is cutting off the possibility, by removing the occasions, of guilt. It is as a person extinguishing the little spark which his taper has thrown off among the combustible materials of his dwelling. It is as a person closing up every chink and aperture in his embankment against the stream. It is as a person not suffering himself to touch even a shred of raiment which has lain in the vicinity of the plague. The wisdom which these illustrations recommend does reflect, it must be owned, somewhat hardly upon many of the indulgences in common life. These indulgences are allowed and entered into, because you cannot prove that there is anything decidedly sinful in them. There is an amusement which no law, either human or Divine, can be brought to condemn. And if there be nothing criminal in it, am I not free, every one asks, to partake of it? But the person who, following the principles of Christianity, is sincerely desirous of advancing his moral improvement will deem it necessary to ascertain first what is its tendency, whither it leads, what shall be its effects on his peculiar condition or temperament. Is it the forerunner, or the means, or the attendant of aught that is wrong? To say absolutely that we are to enter into no situation where we may dread the exercise of any evil influence upon the principles and habits of the religious character would certainly be prescribing what cannot be practised. We should have, as the apostle expresses himself, "to go out of the world." But still is it not true that there is frequently an uncalled-for, a premature, a rash, and hence a hazardous, intercourse with the world? Are not situations entered upon without due forethought? Are not objects pursued after with avidity, the utility or hurtfulness of which has never been seriously considered? Where the wonder, then, that the garment which no care is exerted to retain pure should, in the very centre of pollution, become spotted? III. To the duty of shunning evil there is another which it is incumbent on us to add, the strong language of the text intimating THAT INIQUITY IS TO BE THE OBJECT OF OUR EXPRESSED AVERSION. We are to hate it, and to show that we do so. Hence, if ever there is made in our hearing the attack against our blessed religion, whether through the grave objections of philosophy or the sarcasms of profane wit — if ever those immoral maxims which, for the easier diffusion, are coloured over with the fallacious names of liberality are inculcated in our presence — if ever the character and ordinances of our God and Saviour are lightly spoken of, or those works which His Spirit is sent to destroy are approved and defended before us, let us feel how urgent is the call to make that "confession before men," which is to be followed with the acknowledgment of our fidelity "before the Father and His holy angels." In these circumstances, however, we cannot make that confession without showing "hatred" to what opposes the high subject of our confession. And "hatred," when turned against sin and all the appearances of sin, is the only lawful form under which that passion may be cherished. Nothing is so worthy of our hatred. Ought sin ever to be seen by us, then, without moving aversion and stirring up a holy resentment within us? IV. But here let us be admonished, while we cherish and on every fit occasion express the feeling of zeal against iniquity, TO MAKE IT EVER APPEAR THAT OUR "HATRED" IS ALL THE WHILE TO THE SIN, AND NOT TO THE SINNER. Him we compassionate; and we are not to leave him in doubt that he is the object of our sympathy. And let us remember that there is no hope of giving efficacy to our remonstrances against sin, nor of recommending the good cause for the support of which we offer ourselves, nor of honouring the name of Jesus by our testimony to His gospel, as long as we render it hard to separate our zeal for religion from the appearance of a proud struggle for our own superiority. Pride, contempt, and overbearing haughtiness make the sinner feel that you are hostile to his person. He is stirred up, as it were, to the defence of his own interests. Charity is the subduing part of religious zeal. I repeat it therefore, Let there be hatred at the very garment spotted by sin. But show that you have none to the unhappy person who wears it. (W. Muir, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. |
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