Homilist Malachi 3:14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance… I. RELIGION DELINEATED. Three expressions used to represent it 1. To serve God. A great difference between serving God and serving man. In the one case the servant benefits the master, in the other the sole benefit is the servant's. In the one the service is estimated by work actually done; in the other by work earnestly purposed. In the one there is a surrender of freedom; in the other there is an attainment of it. He who engages to serve man must surrender some portion of his liberty; he who serves God alone, secures the highest freedom. 2. To keep His ordinance. This is only a branch of the service, or, perhaps, the method of doing it. God has ordinances or institutes, some are moral, some are ceremonial; the latter may cease to bind, the former are everlastingly in force. 3. To walk mournfully before the Lord. To "walk" before the Lord is religion in perfection, religion in heaven. It implies an abiding consciousness of the Divine presence, and continual progress in the Divine will. Walking "mournfully" characterises the religion of earth; it is associated with penitence, contrition, etc. The walk of religion is only mournful here. II. HERE WE HAVE PRACTICAL RELIGION DEPRECIATED. "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it," etc. 1. Men say this when religion does not answer their secular expectations. Many take up with religion in these days because of the secular good they expect will accrue from their profession of it; if the good come not they think it vain. 2. Men say this when they see the truly religious in poverty and affliction. Asaph saw this when he said, "I have washed my hands in vain." 3. Men say this when they have taken up religion from selfish motives. A man who takes up with religion for the sake of good will get no good out of it; nay, will get disappointment, for "he that seeketh his life shall lose it." No truly religious man has said religion is vain, he feels it to be its own reward — the highest reward. In truth, it is the only service on earth that will not prove vain. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? |
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