(Stalker). Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., vii. 129. Keswick Week (1908), 190 (Lees).
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Outward, Inward, Christward.
In diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. — Rom. zii. II.
The position that the portion of Holy Scripture from which these words are taken occupies, gives to the words special signifi- cance. In the Epistle to the Eomans they come as presenting the practical aspect of that truth which in the first eleven chapters the Apostle sets forth in all the depth and breadth and height of the great mystery of godliness.
In the first eleven chapters of the Epistle he seeks to justify the ways of God to man. It is a vindication of the righteousness of God seen through man's failures ; and so he traces the fall of man from his original righteousness, the corruption of the world, the debasement of its idolatries, the seeming failure of God's purpose, even of the law that was given by Moses, and in the election of God's people Israel. He does not flinch from facing any one of the great problems of God's government of the world — its anomalies, its disappointments, its frustrations of the grace of God ; the creature made subject to vanity, man losing the image of God in which he was created ; Israel outcast and rejected — but he shows through all these ruins the increasing purpose of the Divine mercy as well as of the Divine righteousness. The ways of God are inscrutable and past finding out, but they are the ways of a boundless compassion and of a perfect justice. So it will be seen at last (that is the conclusion to which he comes) that the purpose of God shall not fail ; that evil shall not triumph over good ; that love and not hatred is the law of God's universe ; that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
Then the Apostle passes from that high mystery of doctrine
to the practical aspect of the Christian life. Good is to prevail
in man's life, in the life of each individual Christian whom God
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276 OUTWARD, INWARD, CHRISTWARD
has called ; and in spite of the problems' which beset the intellect, it is to be a life of holiness and peace and purity. Justification by faith ia not to lead to an Antinomian carelessness about obedience, and righteousness, and truth, and purity, and honesty ; it does not set aside the law, yea it establishes the law.
The text is a short summary of the Christian life. That life has three relationships : to the world around us, to our own heart within us, to Christ above us ; and here there is a word for each. " In diligence not slothful " — that is the duty we owe to the world ; " fervent in spirit " — that is the duty we owe to ourselves ; " serving the Lord " — that is what we owe to Christ. We might paraphrase the text : " Do good diligently ; be good enthusiastically ; and let all service, outward and inward, be for the Lord."
Outward.
" In diligence not slothful."
The language of the Authorized Version is " Not slothful in
business " ; and it comes to most of us as an exhortation to be
industrious in our earthly callings. It is the word for a prosperous
banker, an enterprising merchant, a tradesman who tries to make
the most of his capital or his labour, a labouring man whose task
is humble, but who has to earn his bread by the sweat of his
brow, and seeks to gain a fair day's wages for a fair day's labour.
Well, doubtless, that lies within the scope and compass of the
text ; but if our thoughts are limited to that interpretation of it,
we take altogether a poor, unsatisfying estimate of what the
Apostle means, we lose more than one-half at least of the instruction
and guidance it may give us. For the business of which the
Apostle speaks is not the thing which a man does, but the temper,
the motive, the character which accompany the doing of it. It is
the temper of activity, of earnestness, and of thoroughness which
a man may carry into his outward work.
^ The Authorized Version receives much credit for the melody of its words, but perhaps less than it deserves for their accuracy. Here the word " business " is taken in the modern sense of trade,
ROMANS XII. II 'i'j'j
and when it is found that that is not the meaning of the Greek, the Authorized Version is credited with a mistranslation. But in the sixteenth century " business " was used in the sense of " busy- ness," that is, activity or dihgence in whatever one is engaged in — just the meaning of the Greek word.
The word translated " business " in the Authorized Version is the same in the original as the word " diligence " in the eighth verse of the chapter: "He that ruleth, with diligence." So here: "Not slothful as regards diligence." The term indicates, not the kind of work to be done, but simply the manner of doing it. It does not point to men's ordinary worldly callings and occupations, as distinguished from their spiritual exercises or spiritual frames. It is not the Apostle's present object to harmonize, and reconcile, and blend the two in one. The ex- pression " business " characterizes, not the work but the worker, not the action but the agent. The real meaning is, that in respect of diligence, or activity, in the matter to which this whole passage refers, you are to be not slothful. It is very much the wise man's maxim : " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with"^ thy might" (Eccles. ix. 10).