John 3:31-36 He that comes from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth… Among those who stay away from Christ, who will not believe in Him, who will not come to Him, the motive of the chief part has ever been, that they are destitute of the consciousness of sin, and of all thoughts and wishes rising above the objects of the senses, or else that they love their sins, and are determined to cleave to them, in despite of all that God can do to draw them away. Others there are who will not believe in Christ through pride and self-righteousness. Others have involved themselves inextricably in the labyrinthine abstractions of a sceptical understanding. Some will say, in their high-swelling imaginations, that they need no Redeemer, no Ransom, no Reconciler, no Atonement, no Pardon — that they can find the way to God by themselves — that they can build up a tower of their own virtues, a grand and gorgeous tower, virtue above virtue, the top of which shall reach to heaven. Such men there have been more or less in all ages; and the way their devices have been baffled has ever been the same, by the confusion of tongues. They have been unable to understand one another's language. When one of them has asked for bread, his neighbour has given him a stone; when asked for a fish, he has given a serpent; indifference and scorn, instead of sympathy and encouragement. The hand of each has been against his brother. There has been no unity of spirit amongst them, but variance and strife and railing: they have never entered into the bond of peace. This is the other form of sin by which men are kept away from Christ. The great mass stay away because their hearts are paralyzed and crumbled by carelessness and self-indulgence, or rotted by the cankering pleasures of sin; the few, because their hearts are hardened and stiffened by pride. (Archdeacon Hare.) Parallel Verses KJV: He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. |
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