Jonathan Edwards #21
Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
“Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?”
These words of Christ immediately came to my mind when I read this resolution. It is a question of character, of where the heart resides that this resolution is pressing us to. Let me give you some background on what caused this divine outburst. Jesus had just laid hands on a woman, healing her of an infirmity and the ruler of the synagogue tried to call Christ out because it was on a Sabbath. Jesus replied, “Hypocrite!”
I think that Edwards’ resolution is holding us to not be like that particular Jewish ruler. The last thing God want’s us to do is justly be irritated about someone for a sinful action and then turn around and commit the same. What foolishness on our part if we were to do such a thing.
Witnessing certain things and the consequences of that action or attitude can actually become edifying to us and, like all things, be used in the end to glorify God and promote His truth. We can use those examples and say to ourselves as Edwards had “resolved to not do such and such a thing as that other individual has done.” Let us be separate from culture, from the sins of the world for we are to despise such things and desire holiness.
