1 Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men… We suffer reproach. This is hard to bear, even when it is not deserved. All who have broken old ties of Church or home know its power. Men ever brand with heresy that which conflicts with their own opinions. Against St. Paul men brought false charges. We must not surround the gospel then with the glory associated with it now. We put the nimbus on the heads of the saints and martyrs; their enemies crowned them with shame. I. THERE WAS THE CONSCIOUS LOSS OF ALL THAT THE WORLD HOLDS DEAR. A good name and a fair fame, how precious these are to us all! But if we move daily in an atmosphere of suspicion and false accusation, how full of misery the outward lot becomes! It is a proof of how precious Christ was to Paul, that he counts all things but offal that he may win Christ. Reproach itself became a source of joy when he felt that it was endured for the Master's cause. "If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye." II. IT WAS A SURE PROOF OF THE REALITY OF THEIR RELIGION. "Because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil," said Christ, "therefore they have hated me." The Master was reproached as a blasphemer, a wine-bibber, a seditionist, a friend of publicans and sinners. It was a testimony to his earnest character that Paul suffered reproach. Wolves do not worry a painted sheep, and the world does not persecute a mere professor. In every age of religious earnestness reproach has had to be endured. The Covenanters of Scotland in their wilderness-worship, when they spread the white communion cloth on the yet whiter snow; the Puritans in their hidden assemblies; and missionaries like Carey, satirized by the reviews! Even now it is not an easy thing to be a Christian; but we find in the gospel that which no secular inspiration can give - the power to live in the face of an antagonistic world. - W.M.S. Parallel Verses KJV: For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. |
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