Luke 19:21

Luke 19:21

The Religion of Fear.

Such was the account, the only account, which a person could give why he had loved a useless, and because a useless a wrecked, life. There was indeed in his wickedness a strange inconsistency and contradiction. For he who could say, and truly say, as the secret of his whole life, "I feared Thee," was nevertheless the man to stand up with a most shameless effrontery, and say to the God whom he dreaded, words too insolent to be used to a fellow-man. So exceedingly remote may fear be from reverence; so easily may dread make common cause with daring.

I. You will observe that this man in the parable did not fear God because God was great and lofty and holy. Had his fear rested on that ground, probably he would not have been much blamed; or more probably still, his mind would not have been allowed to remain in that state. He did not, in fact, fear God for anything which God really is, he feared God for what God is not. And here was at once the nature of his fear and its guilt it arose from false views of God, for which the man was responsible. There are three results which appear to me almost inevitable from a hard, cold religion of fear. It is sure to make religion a separate thing from life. The religion of that man will be a parenthesis; religion the act, the world the feeling; religion a necessity, the world a delight; religion shadowy, the world real; religion an accident, the world the man. It is all summed up in the history of the ancient Samaritans: "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods."

II. The service of fear is sure to produce cunning. I see it again in the owner of the buried talent. He had not love or principle enough to do what he was told "Occupy till I come." But there must be something for him to show, and something for him to say when his Master comes back. Therefore he just does what costs him nothing, and makes up by stratagem for what he leaves undone.

III. Fear paralyses energy. It was a true chain which the man drew. "I did nothing because I was afraid." There is an awful negativeness about fear, a solitude, a desolation. The fact is, we all work up towards a final idea but if there is no final idea, what shall we work up to? Take away that final idea, and life in its immortality ceases to be.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 240.

References: Luke 19:22-32 . W. Hubbard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 378. Luke 19:26 . T. Hammond, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 113.Luke 19:28 . Homilist, vol. v., p. 502.Luke 19:29 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 136. Luke 19:29-44 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. i., p. 263.Luke 19:29-48 . A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 328. Luke 19:30-40 . Parker, Cavendish Pulpit, vol. i., p. 121 Luke 19:37 . J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 1.Luke 19:37-40 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 678; Homilist, vol. vi., p. 272.Luke 19:40 . Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 83; E. Maclean, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 5.