Colossians 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all… — Christianity is simply Christ. Without His person there is nothing left that is distinctively Christian. Other religions may be separated from their founders; and we rosy take any feature away without destroying its force. But separate any truth of Christianity from Christ and it has lost its peculiar character. Christ is the all in all — I. OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY. Even sceptics admit the extraordinary reformatory effect of Christianity. This is not due to any new truth of morals Christ gave to the world. His system is original in the new form and power given to truth. It would be absurd to deny the claim of an inventor to originality, simply because the materials of his machine were known before. But the peculiar power which has made Christian morality so effective is the living person of Jesus. Embodied in Him the truth is seen and felt and loved as never before, We first love Him and then we love the purity, charity, etc., which make Him "the altogether lovely," and enthusiasm for these follows. When the sun has set, the mountains, plains, and rivers may be still visible, but their glory has gone. When the person of Jesus is removed from His moral system, its precepts and maxims are there still, but their charm has gone. II. OF CHRISTIAN PHILANTROPHY. There is no such self-sacrifice and devotion as in Christianity. Witness the history of missionary and charitable effort. Its secret inspiration is "The love of Christ constraineth us," There are other motives, and Christians feel them as much as non-Christians — the beauty of self-sacrifice, the fine sentiment of humanity, the grandeur of heroic effort. But the grand inspiration is as Paul puts it. A child will work wonders under the approving eye of father or mother. A soldier will fight marvellously under the eye of his captain. A Highland chief fell; and his clan thinking him slain began to waver, but raising himself on his elbow he called, "My children, I am not dead, I am looking at you." That turned defeat into victory. At the battle of Ivry Henry IV. said, "My children, when you lose sight of your colours rally to my white plume. You will always find it in the way to glory." So when every other motive fails; when the flags of humanity, sentiment, duty have gone down, the Christian rallies round the Captain of his salvation. III. OF CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION. It is not in any new philosophy of suffering, or philosophical way of looking at it, that the Christian finds that peace which the world knows not nor can give. Take to an afflicted Christian even Paul's "These light afflictions," etc., and you elicit no peculiar response. But speak to him of the personal love and sympathy of Jesus; say, "In all thy affliction He is afflicted"; point out to him in the dark valley he is treading the bloody foot-prints of his Redeemer; show him in the furnace "one like unto the Son of Man," and mark the different effect. IV. OF THE CHRISTIAN PLAN OF SALVATION. Conclusion: Learn — 1. The folly of that cant about retaining all that is essential in Christianity without the person of Christ. 2. That to be a Christian is to be in personal communion with Christ. (S. P. Sprecher, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. |
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