---

The man with whom God will hold communion is described.

I. AS TO WHAT HE IS.

1. He is a man of whole heart and life; who does the will of God, and speaks the truth because he loves it: it dwells in his heart, and he speaks it there first, before he speaks it with his tongue. Luther says, "It is a beautiful order. First, the person must be acceptable by cleanness (alluding to the Vulgate translation, — qui ingreditur sine macula), then the work by righteousness; then the word by truth. So God has regard to Abel (himself) first, and then to his gifts."

2. He is not one who injures others, either by word or by dead or by listening and propagating slander. This is the meaning of the last clause. It may be rendered either: "hath not received (i.e. from others) a reproach," etc., or, "hath not taken up," i.e. has not stooped so as to pick up dirt out of the dunghill, that he may cast it at his neighbour; or, "hath not lifted up," i.e. so as to place it like a burden upon his neighbour.

II. AS TO WHAT HE IS NOT.

1. He is one who turns away from the evil and honours the good, who regards as inviolable the sanctity of an oath (not a casuist who sets himself a pretext for breaking his word when it is inconvenient to keep it).

2. He is not one who loves usury or takes bribes. The taking of usury is strictly forbidden in the law, and denounced by the prophets. Kimchis casuistic distinction, that it is lawful for the Jew to take usury of strangers, but not of his own people, is very significant; and, like too many Christian as well as Jewish interpretations of Scripture, framed to support a convenient and profitable practice. Thus in heart, in tongue, in actions, in conduct, as a member of society, he is alike free from reproach. Such is the figure of stainless honour drawn by the pen of a Jewish poet. Christian chivalry has not dreamed of a brighter. We have need often and seriously to ponder it. For it shows us that faith in God, and spotless integrity, may not be sundered; that religion does not veil or excuse petty dishonesties; that love to God is only then worthy the name when it is the life and bond of every social virtue. Each line is, as it were, a touchstone to which we should bring ourselves. To speak truth in the heart — to take up no reproach against a neighbour — would not the Christian man be perfect (teleios) of whom this could be said? And that other trait in this Divine character, "who honoureth them that fear the Lord," — is there a surer test of our spiritual condition than this, that we love and honour men because they love Christ?

(J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)

---

---

KJV: He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

WEB: He who walks blamelessly does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart;