Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. Text taken in literal and material sense, as applying to that great world of fraud and imposition and over-reaching in which we live, and the subject is our duty as Christians in the midst of it. I. THE MANIFEST TRUTH OF THE ASSERTION OF THE TEXT, AND THE GROUNDS ON WHICH IT RESTS. God is a God of justice. Truth, pure and unspotted, is the very essence of the Divine character. Wherever there is deceit in the world, wherever injury, wherever oppression, there is God's anger and loathing accompanying it. The false balance, which is an abomination to the Lord, where do we not see it around us? From the powerful guides of public opinion, each assuming to be written in the interest of justice and truth, but each, almost without exception, warping justice and truth by false statements, false inferences, predetermined conclusions, down to the petty fraud, in measure and weight, which you will find in any chance shop you enter, certain known and avowed avoidances or disguises of truth, are every day practised, and acquiesced in as inevitable. The evil is in every class. But the mischief is not universal. But Christian men and women sin by tacit acquiescence in these wrong things. II. HOW MAY WE REST SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM, AND DISCOURAGE THE FALSE BALANCE, AND UPHOLD AND CLEAVE TO THE JUST WEIGHT? We must not begin with mere practical details. The secret of all wrong is the false balance within the heart; the real cheating begins there. Is our estimate of men and things which guides our action the real and true one, or some artificial one, that is altogether wrong, and leading us altogether wrong? Men who know what is right are sometimes mixed up with the system of fraud. Why? Because they will not let recognised religious principle hold the balance nor regulate the estimate formed of the relative importance of men and things. "I must think," such a man says, "as others think; I must do as others do." If we would get rid of the false balance without, and in our streets and markets, we must begin within ourselves. Were buyers honest, sellers would, by compulsion, be honest too. Here the fault begins. Practical suggestions: conscientiously regulate the bestowal of employment and patronage: there are certain signs by which even the dull of discernment may discern the tokens of fraud and pretension. Be not an admirer of the system of universal cheapness. (Dean Alford.) Parallel Verses KJV: A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.WEB: A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but accurate weights are his delight. |
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