John 7:17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 1. The Jews marvelled at Christ's spiritual wisdom. The cause of wonder was His want of scholastic education. He said, "My doctrine is not Mine," etc. The principle whereby He attained spiritual wisdom (John 5:30) He extends to all, "If any man." Here, then, are two opinions respecting the origin of spiritual knowledge — the popular one relying on a cultivated understanding, "that of Christ which relied on trained affections and habits of obedience." What is truth? Study, said the Jews. Act said Christ, and you shall know. 2. Religious controversy is fast settling into a controversy between two extreme parties. Those who believe everything, and those who believe nothing, the credulous and the sceptical. The first rely on authority — Romanists and all who receive their opinions because their sect or their documents assert them. The second rely on culture. Enlighten, and sin, which is an error of the understanding, will disappear, and we shall know all that can be known of God. These disciples of scepticism easily become disciples of credulity. It is instructive to see how those who sneer at Christian mysteries believe in the veriest imposture. In opposition to both stands the Christianity of Christ. I. CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 1. Its object, " The doctrine." Doctrinal is now opposed to practical. We call the Sermon on the Mount practical, and Paul's epistles doctrinal. But Christ!s doctrine means His teaching and embraces everything tie taught. In two departments of doctrine the principle of the text will be found true. (1) In speculative truth. If any man will do God's will he shall know what is truth and what is error. How is it that men are almost sure to arrive at the conclusion reached by their party? Because fear, interest, and vanity bias them. This hindrance is not to be removed by culture. By removing self-will the way is cleared for an approximation towards unity on points speculative. (2) In practical truths. Our opinions depend on our lives more than our lives on our opinions. Men think in a certain mode because their life is of a certain character, and opinions are invented afterwards as a defence for their life. "Let us eat and drink," etc. First they ate and drank, then believed tomorrow we die. Slavery is defended philosophically. But did not men first make slaves, and then search for plausible reasons? So too a belief in predestination is alleged in excuse of crime. 2. Its certainty. "Shall know," not have an opinion. There is a wide distinction between supposing and knowing, fancy and conviction. Whatever rests on authority remains only supposition. You know when you feel. In matters practical you know only so far as you can do. Read a work on "Evidences," and it may become highly probable that Christianity is true. That is an opinion. Feel God. Do His will, till the Absolute Imperative within you speaks as with a living voice; then you do not think, you know that there is a God. II. THE CONDITION OF ITS ATTAINMENT. 1. The universe is governed by laws. By submission to them you make them your own. Obey those of the body — temperance and chastity; of the mind — fix the attention, strengthen by exercise; and then their prizes are yours — health, strength, tenaciousness of memory, nimbleness of imagination, etc. Obey the laws of your spiritual being, and it has its prizes too. The condition of a peaceful life is submission to the law of meekness; the condition of the Beatific vision is purity of heart; the condition of spiritual wisdom and certainty in truth is obedience to the will of God. In every department of knowledge, therefore, there is an appointed "organ " for the discovery of its specific truth. In the world of sense, the empirical intellect; here the Baconian philosopher is supreme. The religious man may not contravene his assertions; but in the spiritual world, the organ of the scientific man, sensible experience, is powerless. If the chemist, etc., say we find in the laws of affinity, in the deposits of past ages, in the human frame no trace of God, no one expected they would. Obedience is the sole organ here. "Eye hath not seen it." And just as by copying perpetually a master-painter's works, we get at last an instinctive and infallible power of recognizing his touch, so by copying and doing God's will we recognize what is His — we know of the teaching whether it be of God, or whether it be an arbitrary invention of a human self. 2. The universality of this law. "If any man." In God's universe there are no favourites who may transgress its laws with impunity; none who can take fire and not be burnt. In God's spiritual universe there are no favourites who can attain know. ledge and wisdom apart from experience. See the beauty of this arrangement. If the certainty of truth depended on the proof of miracles, prophecy, etc., then truth would be in the reach chiefly of those who can weigh evidence, investigate, etc.; whereas, as it is, "The meek will He guide in judgment." The humblest may know more by a single act of charity, or a prayer of self-surrender, than all the sages can teach or theologians dogmatize upon. 3. Part of this condition is earnestness. "Will" here is volition, not the will of the future tense. So it is not a chance, fitful obedience that leads to the truth, but one rendered in entireness and in earnest. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. |
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