United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
'So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall he judged by the law of liberty. How inconsistent for a pardoned malefactor to insult even those who are under condemnation! If any man seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue from commending himself and condemning others, this man's religion is vain.
The certain determinate meaning of the text then being, that he who seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but in that particular deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain, we may observe somewhat very forcible and expressive in these words of St. James.
Do you ever think of the irrevocable nature of speech? The things you say are often said forever. You may find, years after your light word was spoken, that it has made a whole life unhappy, or ruined the peace of a household. It was well said by St. James, "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man's religion is vain." Stopford Brooke.
And again, verse 26, 'If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. These words, 'but deceiveth his own heart, I have much mused about: for they seem to me to be spoken to show how bold and prodigiously desperate some men are, who yet religiously name the name of Christ: desperate, I say, at self deceiving.
James tells us, "that if any man among us seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain;" and that "pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
This determines that the words, but deceiveth his own heart, are not put in opposition to seemeth to be religious, but to bridleth not his tongue.
Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times; and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings, are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances: memento quod es homo; and memento quod es Deus, or vice Dei; the one bridleth their power, and the other their will. Of Counsel THE greatest trust, between man and man, is the trust of giving counsel.
As if the apostle had said, No man surely can make any pretences to religion, who does not at least believe that he bridleth his tongue: if he puts on any appearance or face of religion, and yet does not govern his tongue, he must surely deceive himself in that particular, and think he does; and whoever is so unhappy as to deceive himself in this, to imagine he keeps that unruly faculty in due subjection when indeed he does not, whatever the other part of his life be, his religion is vain; the government of the tongue being a most material restraint which virtue lays us under: without it no man can be truly religious.
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
Remember the Apostle's declaration, that "if any man bridleth not his tongue, he only seemeth to be religious, and deceiveth his own heart;" and that it is one of the characters of that love, without which all pretensions to the name of Christian are but vain, that "it doth not behave itself unseemly."
Word Of The Day