The Danger of Censoriousness
Ag much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” — Rom. xii. 18.
HE Revised Version renders this, “As
much as in you lieth.” It seems a trivial transposition; but it alters the whole sense of the passage; it makes Paul say, “Peace before all things!” I feel sure that was not the idea. I am convinced that the Authorised Version has here the best of it. Paul does not mean that we are to pay for peace any price within our power. What he says is, “So far as you can make peace by sinking your personal enmity, do it! — As much as lieth in you, live peaceably!” ‘As much as lieth in you” means: So far as the quarrel rests on temper, on private spite, on human jealousy. Paul would never ask you to compound with sin for the sake of unity, even though it were in your power. But, on the other hand, even in raising our voice against a sin, he would have us carefully consider whether there is any personal motive for our indignation. I have known men lash themselves into fury against an act committed by Mr. A. who were mildly complacent toward the same act committed by Mr. B. I have known members of kirk-sessions who have violently opposed, this year, a scheme which they advocated last year; the reason was that this year the scheme was brought forward by a man whom they did not like. You may be quite right in your cause when you are quite wrong in your advocacy. Paul says: In any moment of heat or passion, search your heart with candles! See if your anger be only on the ground of principle! Examine if in your heart there is no root of personal bitterness! Try to put yourself in the place of a third party — one who is neither yourself nor the man whom you blame, but a spectator, a looker-on! Try how the object of your indignation would look, viewed by this impartial witness! Expel from your heart as much of the anger as comes from private enmity! Let it have no part in the storm; throw it overboard like Jonah! It is right to be disquieted on the sea of wrong; but take care that your disquiet comes from the sea — take heed that it rises not from some personal hatred which is sleeping in the hold of the ship, and without which you would feel a deadly calm!
Lord, break down every inner wall that sets me at variance with my brother! I dare not ask for the breaking of every outer wall. If I hold a rampart of truth, I cannot desert that rampart for the sake of peace; it would be peace without honour. But break down my inner wall! Let me, in every war, desert the rampart of self! Let me lose sight of my own shadow! Let me keep my eye on the impersonal! Let me strike no enemy but the sin! If I have received wrong, teach me to say to my heart, “Should I feel it as much if it were done to another”! And if I must answer No, if I find that the storm comes not from the sea but from Jonah, help me to cast him out into the waters, O Lord! My heart is never so deceptive as when it blames a wrong. Often it seems to me that I am breaking Nebuchadnezzar’s image when I am only breaking my brother’s window. Often I think I am contending for the truth when I am merely contending for the triumph. Often I debar my neighbour from the forbidden tree merely lest his leaves should be greener than my own. Often J point out my comrade’s withered flower only that men may see I have companions in my sin. My heart is most apt to be evil in its advocacy of the good; illuminate my heart, O Lord!