Matthew 7:6 - Homilies By P.c. Barker

Christian economy, and gospel frugality.

This verse, apparently solitary and detached, depends for its effect certainly on no verbal connection with what precedes it, but throws itself fearlessly on its intrinsic virtue. It provides all needful counteractive, and counteractive very efficacious, to the verbally unqualified prohibition of the first and second verses of the chapter. Charity, moderation in our own inner judgments of others, and restraint of lip in the expression of them, are not to degenerate into lavish latitudinarianism, nor to presume on pleading the exhortation of Christ for sanction of any such perversion. To rule in one's own mind that any are "dogs" and "swine" sufficiently postulates, surely, an unemasculated judgment, and suffers none to tax it with want of vigour in expression. The language is, indeed, figurative under any circumstances, but it is some of the most trenchant of all left on record as proceeding from the lips of Christ. It may be termed another great direction of conduct, but probably in this case, if not in the last, specially of apostolic conduct. A certain wisdom, and restraint of judgment, and temperateness of language are an imperative necessity for those in responsible office, both for safeguard to themselves and example to others. To throw "holy" food to dogs must be counted a monstrosity of profanity. and certainly would very promptly be apprehended such by a Jew in particular; and to "cast pearls before swine' must be counted a monstrosity of prodigal wastefulness and insane folly pretty well all time and all the world over. But if these directions be plain for their meaning and very plain for their force, they are perhaps not so plain as regards the question to what possible conduct they apply. It may be necessary herein to guard their intent. They do not mean, e.g. ,

I. FORBIDS THE DISREGARD ( WHETHER THROUGH INDISPOSITION TO TAKE THE RIGHT PAINS , OR THROUGH UNSKILFUL INDISCERNMENT , OR THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF DEFIANCE ) OF THE PERSONS TO WHOM , THE TIME WHEN , THE PLACE WHERE , THE PRICELESS BLESSINGS OF REVEALED TRUTH ARE OFFERED IN ALL THE WORLD . Before Christ himself it was ordained that the way be prepared by John the Baptist. Again, in every city and village whither he would go, he did himself appoint that two disciples should prepare the way. And we are told that once and again, where the field of operation was manifestly unhopeful, manifestly obstinately set against impression, he withdrew alike his doctrine and himself Perhaps it may be said that an instinctive , an almost unconscious appreciation, and approving from the heart of this powerful direction of our Lord, has through all the ages since guarded sacred, at any rate, the administration or even offer of the holy sacraments of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. FORBIDS THE RECKLESS OR THE UNADVISED AGGRAVATING OR ENRAGING OF A HUMAN WICKEDNESS ALL THE APPEARANCE OF WHICH PROCLAIMS IT IN VERY NEAR ALLIANCE WITH THE INFERNAL WICKEDNESS ITSELF .

III. FORBIDS ANY AND ALL EITHER MANIFEST OR SUBTLY - CONCEALED WASTEFUL SACRIFICE OF HUMAN EFFORT , ABILITY , OPPORTUNITY , WHICH , THE LESS THEY ARE , DO RATHER NEED ALL TO BE RELIGIOUSLY TREASURED AGAINST THE DAY OF INCONTESTABLY NECESSARY EXPENDITURE AND UNAVOIDABLE CONFLICT .

IV. EMPHATICALLY FORBIDS THE PRESUMPTION OF COURTING MARTYRDON .

V. STILL MORE CERTAINLY FORBIDS WITH CONDEMNING EMPHASIS THE COURTING OF IMPERFECT MARTYRDOM , i.e. THAT IN WHICH THE GOAL INVOLVES A VERY POOR CHANCE —A MERE TRAVESTY — OF THE ACTUAL WITNESS OF BLOOD . The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Granted, with deep-drawn "Amen" of acclamation. But the blood of pseudo-martyrs is very different seed! This seeds tares, and is another of those "devices of Satan, of which we are not ignorant." And the pseudo-martyr is not only the man who might from a guiltily presuming ambition dare a bid for the real martyr's crown hereafter, but also the man whose literal wreck of himself and of useful work has been paid as the tribute to despair on the one hand, or on the other to the unholy bravado of unspiritual and mere sentimental or even physical inflation. Such examples stand along the line of history not altogether infrequently. But they are to the discredit of -human reason and heavenly prudence; of Christian devotion and gospel frugality; of the Word which we have received, and of that all-gracious Personage from whom we have received it. They are not to the glory of God; they are not to the weal and service of the Church of Christ.—B.

Matthew 7:7 (first clause)

The generous challenge.

The trio clauses of this verse will all be best understood if they are sufficiently viewed as what may be called representative words. They stand for a whole type of thought, fact, truth. These same challenges and assurances linked, we find repeated much later in the life of Christ ( Luke 11:29 ). It adds to our conviction that these utterances of our great Teacher were of the nature that might be designated very studied and deliberate, very designed and far on-looking. The three clauses cannot for a moment be supposed to be merely repetitions, nor even merely three ways of putting the same essential thing. They require to be considered seriatim. Each grows on that which precedes it, and the added force is only obtainable at the end. The first of the clauses is sure to be the most generic, elementary, fundamental. The prospect which it holds out seems to one sometimes vague, sometimes too comprehensive to be anything but the language of extravagance or exaggeration. It has had the effect perhaps of producing misgiving in the heart. Note then—

I. CHRIST IS NOT SPEAKING OF MEN IN THEIR WIDE , SCATTERED , UNCERTAIN RELATIONS TO THE WORLD AND TO ONE ANOTHER ; HE HAS THE BEGINNING OF HIS OWN SCHOOL BEFORE HIM , WHICH SHOULD INDEED BECOME LARGE AND VARIOUS TILL IT GATHERED ALL IN ITS EMBRACE , AND IT IS WHAT THESE , AS HIS LEARNERS , HIS FOLLOWERS , HIS SERVANTS , MAY RELY UPON , THAT HE DECLARES . Let the world speak for itself, publish its manifesto, which it does large enough, loud enough, false enough. Jesus here speaks his own manifesto, and it is deficient by no means in largeness, but awaiting the test of quality and reliableness! Ever since, all who have in any sense, in any appreciable degree, really known Jesus, have been investigating, testing, pronouncing upon these two things—what his Word is good for, and how good he is to his Word.

II. CHRIST HAS AN OPEN EAR AND AN OPEN ' HAND ; FOSTERS EXPECTATION , AND DOES NOT DISAPPOINT IT ; INVITES PRAYER — PRAYER WIDE , VARIOUS , IMPORTUNATE , LARGE — AND THEN ' DEALS BOUNTIFULLY FROM HIS TREASURY AND WITH HIS OWN INFINITE RESOURCES . Facts all answer to these assertions. The very genius of Christ's truth points to them. That truth is not repressive to the mind, not contracting to the heart, not crushing to the life, not adverse to knowledge, to civilization, to brotherly fellowship, to practical benevolence. To all appearance Christ himself was nowhere without exciting a vast amount of inquiry and a vast variety of it. Never was breath of wind so healthful, so enlivening, so purifying by a millionth part, as was the breath of his Word. And wherever his truth has travelled, rested, paid the casual visit, or rooted itself, its force has been of similar kind. It has taught and provoked men to ask for things outside of and above themselves, and with no idle fancy and no unrewarded desire has their eye rolled from earth to heaven. Things they never dreamed of before have become visions of brightness at which they gazed, objects of attraction that never lost their power, and of solemn practical quest which they never rested till they found and secured. They have been led to want to ask , have asked, and have found. In all this world there is no asking which conies near to that which Christ has originated in it—so large, so various, so deep or again high in its nature, and so richly rewarded. Souls ask, and souls have given to them, beyond all ambition's asking, or love of money's asking, or love of pleasure's asking, or love of life's asking, or the goading of misery's asking. Most native, therefore, to the spirit of Christ was it, is it, to say "Ask," and in his radiant generosity of nature to "give" to the asking! Oh! wonderful fountain of fresh life, Giver of good, Pitier of sorrow, Rescuer from death—it is he whose free, unqualified invitation needs but one short word in which to express itself, and that word "Ask."—B.

Matthew 7:7 (second clause)

The challenge to the seeker.

When we pass on to the consideration of this second challenge, with accompanying assurance, of Jesus Christ, we may at once inwardly notice a leading difference between it and that which went before, and that difference one in the nature of an advance. It is true that when a child "asks" he expects to receive, and to receive "bread," and not a "stone," at the hand of his father. And Jesus emphasizes this fact to his present purpose: "if ye then, being evil, know bow to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall that Father of yours, which is in heaven, give good gifts to them that ask him?" On the other hand, it is a most certain thing that when as grown men we "ask"—not like children asking of their father—our voice is not very acceptable to the world, even when it is attended to, and very often is not attended to. "Asking" is not liked. And it is no little evidence of this that we do not like "asking." We all feel that a solitary act of asking means some sort and some little degree of humiliation; more asking means that we are run into some extremity; and perpetual asking, that we are lost to self-respect. Nor have we fashioned this rough code without some good reason; for we have been sometimes sharply reminded that stones may be sent for bread, and serpents for fish. But, again, who can deny that the world has some admiration for the man who "seeks"? The better part of the world despise those who live ever on the "ask" system, but are prone to respect those who set to work, "quit them like men," and "seek" with mind and heart and strength. May we not, then, note, that while Christ does love, for his own reasons and in his own sense, what the world and the better part of it do not over and above love, viz. the "askers," yet this is no reason why he does not love the "seekers"? "Faith without works is dead." And so in a sense is asking without seeking. Prayer and work are far too often divorced. Note, then—

I. SEEKING LOOKS LIKE HONESTY ; SHOWS SINCERITY ; PROVES REALITY ; ADDS TO FAITH , AS SURELY AS DILIGENCE SCOUTS DOUBT ; WAKES SLEEPING POWERS ; PREVENTS THEM FALLING ASLEEP AGAIN ; AND ACQUIRES FRESH FORCE . Whatever advantage genuinely belongs to the real observing of practical work in our worldly life, is the merest shadow of that which any one may find who shall heartily, lovingly take to it in the conduct of his Christian life.

II. SOME THINGS ARE IN THEIR VERY NATURE TO BE HAD MORE REALLY IN SEEKING THAN IN ASKING , THOUGH EVEN THE ASKING BE OF GOD . The great thing, sanctification as compared with justification, may illustrate this. The latter is to be had, from that first solemn moment which finds us, with all the deepest anguished desire of a sin-convicted conscience and soul, begging, crying, or "asking" for it. But sanctification is not to be had for the mere asking for it, any more than that "increase of faith" which the disciples so ignorantly, yet so innocently, "asked" from Christ. But sanctification needs a long, patient, earnest "seeking" for. How many are fatally faulty in this very matter! They wish for forgiveness, beg for pardon, cry for mercy; and these got, or supposed to be so, they do not continuously and with holy perseverance and patience seek sanctification. Other, perhaps we should rather say all, Christian graces demand the same earnest practical seeking ; certainly those that follow on that root of all graces, faith—as, for instance, hope and love. We "seek" these by using them, doing the works of them, trying their strength.

III. SPECIAL PROMISES ARE MADE TO SEEKING . How wide is the range of these even through the Old Testament! "They that seek me early shall find me;" "Blessed are they that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways;" "Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, saith the Lord; yea, seek ye me;" "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad;" "He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life." Whatever best things diligent and honourable earthly seeking has found, as lesson and encouragement by the way, what are they all by the side of the things given to the seeking of what is contained in three such words as those, "glory, honour, immortality,"! It is surely this kind of "seeking" to which Christ here gives the sanction of his emphatic invitation. It is to this matter of seeking, to these objects of seeking, that an illimitable prospect of supply opens. For these none can seek too early, too perseveringly, too earnestly, too long. The seeker is blessed because he seeks, blessed all the while he seeks, and blessed in the entire escape assured to him, from illusion now or disappointment hereafter, in respect of the fact and the habit of seeking, which mark him.—B.

Matthew 7:7 (third clause)

The challenge of the closed door.

This clause marks the climactic challenge of the three which the verse contains. It certainly equally bespeaks the climactic stage in the inner experience of many a timid, or doubting, or unbelieving, or disbelieving soul. After many askings of mere words, their accents betraying distrust; after wayward and intermittent seeking, that scarcely earned its name, at length strife and conflict have wrought themselves up to the crucial point, the task of one distinct effort. Upon that one distinct effort close has come the answer, and with this answer content and peace, progress and happiness, have come. In this third part of the triplet of reviving impulse offered by the language of Christ, the preacher may bring up the subject, make general and comprehensive observation of the working of human nature, as baulked by the difficulties incident to individual peculiarities of character (legion by name), to the petty and untractable tyrannies of habit, and to the confrontings of the events and circumstances of (that element, which acts so largely on human nature) the outer world, with all its cotemporary history, looming large now, and now diminishing to the deceptively trivial. The instances of the places and the manners, the concealed, unconscious motives, and the manifest determining impulses of the resurrections of the soul's life and health, are as boundlessly interesting as they are various and innumerable. And they show for how much misery and ruin the pale features of hesitation and indecision are answerable. Against all this, like the sound of some welcome trumpet of morning, are these words spoken by the voice of heaven upon earth, "Knock, and it shall be opened." Consider—

I. THE NECESSITY TO CHRISTIAN LIFE , TO THE BEGINNING OF IT AND CONTINUOUSLY TO THE VERY CLOSE OF IT , OF HOLDING A DIRECT , UNDIVIDED CONVICTION THAT THERE IS AN ACCESSIBLE AND AN APPROACHABLE PLACE OF MERCY AND OF VARIOUS HELP .

II. THE NECESSITY OF AN UNDETERRED FORCE OF RESOLUTION IN MAKING DEFINITE APPLICATION AT THAT PLACE .

III. THE SUGGESTION WHICH THE FIGURE HERE EMPLOYED CONTAINS , AS TO THREE LEADING PETITIONS FOR MERCY AND VARIOUS HELP , APPROPRIATELY MADE AT THAT PLACE CALLED A DOOR OR GATE , VIZ .

IV. THE UNLIMITED , UNCONDITIONED PROMISE . "It shall be opened." That you are challenged to "knock" points to the supposition that you have arrived at a door, and that a closed door. It also means that the door need not certainly remain closed, for that there is a power on the other side, from within, that may open it, to your wish, to your need, and to your confession and expression of the same. But in this case it means all this and yet much more; the challenge is accompanied with a promise to the full as unconditioned and unlimited. "It shall be opened.." On the other side there is compassion and there is good will, there is mercy and there is love; and these all decide to "open;" and their promise is engaged thereto.—B.