Ruth 1:14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth joined to her. An onlooker not able to discover the difference between Orpah and Ruth so far. The crisis has come. Both had made professions (ver. 10). Here the difference is made apparent. I. WE LEARN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO GO A LONG WAY TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY AND YET NOT TO BE A CHRISTIAN. To be born, educated, and dwell in Christian households, these are great blessings, but do not constitute or make a Christian. It will not do to be almost, we must be altogether, decided for Christ. The cup that is almost sound will not hold water. The ship that is almost whole will not weather the storm. Feelings, sentiment, profession are all good if they spring from a living faith in Jesus Christ; without this they are worse than worthless. II. WE LEARN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO DECEIVE OURSELVES, AND TO THINK THAT ALL IS RIGHT WHEN IN TRUTH ALL IS WRONG WITH OUR SOULS. Hardly possible that Orpah played the conscious hypocrite. She meant what she did when she became a proselyte — did not deliberately act a part. Feeling and sentiment (love for her husband) blinded her eyes. Love to God, which she had thought supreme in her heart, subordinate to the love of Moab. This often so with men; they are not hypocrites, they are self-deceivers. Education, circumstances, the force of influences around them, produce an emotional religion which they mistake for vital godliness. They hear with joy like the "stony-ground hearers." III. WE LEARN THAT OUR RELIGION WILL NOT PROFIT US AT ALL UNLESS IT BE CHARACTERISED BY PERSEVERANCE TO THE END. Improvement: Is our profession a mere profession or the fruit of a living faith? Brought by circumstances to the boundary-line between life and death, have we stopped there? The Bible full of such instances. Felix trembled; Balaam prophesied; Herod heard gladly; Judas sat at the sacramental table with our Lord! Whatever. we do, we must not stop short of conversion; if we do, we perish. (Aubrey C. Price, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her. |
    |