Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Whether the man whose soul is represented as "lifted up" refers to the unbelieving Jew or to the Babylonian, is an unsettled question amongst biblical critics; and a question of but little practical moment. We take the words as a portraiture of a good man. I. A GOOD MAN IS A HUMBLE MAN. This is implied. His soul is not "lifted up." Pride is not only no part of moral goodness, but is essentially inimical to it. It is said that St. Augustine, being asked, "What is the first article in the Christian religion?" replied, "Humility." "What is the second?" "Humility." "And the third?" "Humility." A proud Christian is a solecism. Jonathan Edwards describes a Christian as being such a "little flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble in the ground, opening its bosom for the beams of the sun, rejoicing in a calm rapture, suffusing around sweet fragrance, and standing peacefully and lowly in the midst of other flowers." Pride is an obstruction to all progress and knowledge and virtue, and is abhorrent to the Holy One. "He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." "Fling away ambition, By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?" (Shakespeare.) II. A GOOD MAN IS A JUST MAN. "The just shall live by his faith." To be good is nothing more than to be just. 1. Just to self. Doing the right thing to one's own faculties and affections as the offspring of God. 2. Just to offers. Doing unto others what we would that they should do unto us. 3. Just to God. The kindest Being thanking the most, the best Being loving the most, the greatest Being reverencing the most. To be just to self, society, and God, - this is religion. III. A GOOD MAN IS A CONFIDING MAN. He lives "by his faith." This passage is quote! by Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11; it is also quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:38). What is faith? Can you get a better definition than the writer of the Hebrews has given in the eleventh chapter and first verse? - "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This definition replies three things. 1. That the things to which faith is directed are invisible. "Things not seen." These things include things that are contingently unseeable and things that are essentially unseeable, such as thought, mind, God. 2. That some of the invisible things are objects of hope. "Things hoped for." The invisible has much that is very desirable to us - the society of holy souls, the presence of the blessed Christ, the manifestations of the infinite Father, etc. 3. That these invisible things faith makes real in the present life. "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The realization of the hopeable. Now, it is only by this faith that man can live a just life in this world; the man who lives by sight must be unjust. To be just, he must see him who is invisible. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.WEB: Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. |
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