Mark 12:38-40 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Traits of the scribe.

I. THE SEEMING GOOD OFTEN TH RI VE AND ARE HONORED. Insight into character is rare; men are judged by the outside, and are taken largely at their own valuation.

II. Pretension ever hides emptiness, and often guilt. Fixed for ever for our repugnance, hatred, and contempt is the character of the religious pretender in the Gospel. Men need to be warned that there is more danger to the soul in pretending to a piety we have not got, than in merely having none at all.—J.