Revelation 1:13-20 And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot… Fire is the element used to consume; and when we think of our Master's character in the light of that fiery vision, what do we see? Well, putting it into the plain language of every-day life, what St. John must have remembered, and what you and I must remember, is not so much the actual authority of the Judge as the innate sincerity of Christ. Christ was true. He never flinched from the entirety of truth. He met philosopher and Pharisee and Sadducee as He met all others, with perfect calmness and decision; but with firmness and without relenting He dragged out their contemptible baseness of thought and purpose, and set it out in the sunshine before the eyes of all, and said to them all, "Oh, ye hypocrites!" And when He met those who talk about the religion of impulsiveness and not the religion of principle — with the men whose religion varied with every breath of public opinion, who held no truth long, who grasped this thing as being very useful to-day, and flung it to the winds this day week — with this sort of people He dealt, to their intense and surprised mortification, in order to wound their consciences and teach them that religion requires permanent self-denial. And when He met the soul which was at least approximately near to Him, the soul that felt and acknowledged its sin, and did not play a part, or put on airs, or have a stately gait or philosophic mind — to that soul He was tenderer than a woman, kinder than the truest friend, bringing to that soul the bright lights of hope and the stars of eternity; no trace of scorn then, no anger. And so He went through the world; dragging out the defects of the unreal, condemning the falsehood of His friends, and this at the risk of all His popularity. Christ never flattered, never bowed down to human opinion; knowing what was in the mind He was ever true and sincere. I want you to meditate upon that example, to meditate upon His force of sincerity as it touches us. Now apply that truth and sincerity to the judgment. Christ is coming, Christ shall judge us. Apply that character to the judgment. The last judgment, so Scripture tells us, will be the unfailing, true, righteous judgment of God. God's judgment — the judgment of the coming Christ — is discriminating with fine accuracy; it deals with facts, and not with professions of heart, as we shall know in that last hour. Christ shall save us because He is true. "His eyes are as a flame of fire." And then remember that it shall be a judgment when He shall show whether our confession was true. (Canon Knox Little.) Parallel Verses KJV: And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. |
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