2 Corinthians 3:6

2 Corinthians 3:6

Religious Thought and Life of the Age.

I. There is in our age a tendency to greater simplicity of creed. The divines of today would hesitate to lay down, even on cardinal points, strict and narrow lines of orthodoxy; and still more would they shrink from including in any confession of faith a number of other dogmas, which, whether received or not, are not to be regarded as an essential part of the gospel. The feeling is strong, and it is continually growing, that the foundations of Christian fellowship are to be laid in spiritual sympathy rather than in theological agreement, and that all doctrinal formularies should be made as brief and as general as is consistent with the assertion of the grand principles of the Evangelical system.

II. The second tendency to be noted is that towards a truer and broader humanity in our system. I use what may seem the somewhat ambiguous term "humanity" to signify in general the disposition to recognise that a theological system must consider the aspect in which it presents God to man, as well as the coherence of its theory with the Divine government.

The theology of the day does not pretend that the creature can have any claim on the Creator, but it sees what has too often been forgotten, that God must be true to Himself. Confessing the necessary limits to all human investigations, it yet feels that intellectual power has been given in vain, and that there can be no meaning in the gracious invitation of God Himself, "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord," if the gospel is not to be examined, and its teachings compared with those which God has given us through the conscience. The new tendency leads the preachers to deal with the false religions of the world as Paul dealt with the Athenians, when even their own errors and superstitions were used as stepping-stones up which they might be guided to the knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He had sent. In short, it deals with man as the object of the Divine love after whom God is seeking, and it endeavours, by appeals to the intellect, conscience, and affection, to win him for Christ. What is this but carrying into practice the great principle of the Apostle, who recognises the power of adaptation and tells us that he himself employed it. "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 129.

References: 2 Corinthians 3:6 . Plain Sermons by Contributors to " Tracts for the Times, " vol. iv., p. 161; J. Leckie, Sermons at Ibrox, p. 317; T. Lloyd, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 69; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., p. 395; vol. xxvi., p. 24; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 307; J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 360; H. Riley, Ibid., vol. xxxiii., p. 185; R. Bartlett, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 187. 2 Corinthians 3:6-11 . A. J. Parry, Phases of Truth, p. 30. 2 Corinthians 3:7 , 2 Corinthians 3:8 . Sermons on the Catechism, p. 173. 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 . Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 421; 3rd series, vol. ii. p. 107; Ibid., vol. ix., p. 121.