Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. By this text we are reminded that there are points of resemblance between sin and fire. The writer has before his mind, not a harmless fire, in range or furnace, for utility and comfort, but a dangerous, spreading conflagration, which demands immediate attention, and which makes the energy implied in the text both seemly and appropriate. I. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE IT IS MYSTERIOUS. What is fire? Of what are its consuming properties composed? What weight, shape, or size is it? No man can answer these questions. Yet, with all the mystery, we have such palpable evidence that there is such a thing as fire that no sane man would dare to deny it. So sin is a mystery. How came it into existence in a world made and governed by a Being of almighty power and love? Yet no man, properly under the sway of reason, can allow the mystery to cause him to ignore or deny the fact of sin. We have seen the destructive work it has wrought in society, and alas! what is worse than all, every man has felt its scorching in his own heart. II. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE IT EXISTS IN A TWOFOLD STATE — LATENT AND ACTIVE. Fire, in its active state, renders our homes habitable in winter, illuminates our cities by night, flames out in the sweeping conflagration, drives our factories and railways, flashes into the lightning, and thunders in the earthquake. Fire, in its latent state, exists in every material object about us. So sin exists in an active and latent state. In its active state it flames out in Sabbath desecration, profanity, and reckless living. It blazes up before the public in the destruction of individual character; it flashes out in deeply laid schemes of political corruption and in gigantic plans of commercial dishonesty. Sin, in its latent state, is strikingly symbolised by latent fire. It slumbers in the heart of universal humanity; it exists in "every man that comes into the world." The virtue of some people is nothing more than vice sleeping; all it wants is contact with some tempting circumstance to awake it into vigour. As savages light their fire by rubbing pieces of wood together, so men stir up the latent fire of depravity by mutual contact. There is sufficient latent fire around us to burn up the globe; and there is sufficient latent sin in human nature to turn this world into a hell. Latent sin in the heart of a child is somewhat like latent fire in nature. At first it does no particular damage, and scarcely indicates its presence. Through the friction of temper, the whispers of self-love, and the gusts of provocation, however, it soon begins its destructive work, though the seriousness of its doings may not be even suspected. Thus it is that sin begins its withering, debilitating business in the human heart. Like latent fire in a forest, it soon begins to destroy the roots and fibres of the moral nature. There are persons all about us, the very fibres and roots of whose character are all charred and wasted by this latent fire of sin, and they are ready to topple over into disgrace and ruin as soon as a gale of temptation comes in the right direction. III. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE OF ITS POWER TO ATTRACT. How a child loves to toy with fire! how oblivious to the possible consequences! What multitudes are attracted by a conflagration; what haste they make, and what dangers they run! So there is a marvellous power in sin to lure and fascinate, especially to the young to decoy them from the path of innocence and purity into the fiery pathways of sin and death. IV. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE IT IS REMORSELESSLY INDIFFERENT AS TO WHAT IT DESTROYS. The most splendid mansions, the most costly furniture, the most valuable paintings, the rarest gems of art, all, all are consumed as ruthlessly as the meagre contents of the beggar's hovel. So with sin. The man of broadest nature and noblest parts is the most tempting mark for Satan. No conflagration is so disastrous and dreadful as the burning down of a man. I have seen the poor wretch weep and groan under the periodical consciousness of the awful destiny before him. I have watched the progress of the fire, and seen self-control give way, and self-respect give way, and regard for the good opinion of others give way, and love of wife and children give way, and hope, the longest and strongest rafter in the structure, give way, and the whole man collapse — a heap of ghastly, smouldering ruins; a disgrace to his family, and a curse to the community where he lived. V. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE IT TURNS EVERYTHING INTO ITS OWN ESSENCE. Not only will fire turn ordinary fuel into fire, but also princely mansions; the most precious gems and diamonds, when brought in contact with fire, are at once transformed into its own nature. There is hardly any object in nature, even the hardest granite, that fire cannot turn into fire. So it is with sin. Its uniform tendency is to make everything like itself over which it gains control — that is, a curse. When Archimedes, in order to wreak vengeance upon the Romans, brought down the genial rays of the sun by his magic glass and burned up their ships, he only dramatised the universal fact that sin ever strives to turn the greatest blessings of God into the greatest curse. VI. SIN IS LIKE FIRE, BECAUSE IT CAN BE RESISTED AND PUT OUT, AND MUST BE, OR IT WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING WITHIN ITS REACH. You cannot set fire to the forest and accomplish the desire of burning down just one acre. So no man can kindle the fire of sin in the forest of his appetites and passions and forecast correctly the extent of the burning. Sin is like fire, then, because it must be resisted and put out, or it will destroy everything combustible within its reach. Fire, properly resisted, can be put out. So, thank God, the fire of sin can be put out, and God has His firemen to do it. (T. Kelly.) 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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