66. THE WEAK BROTHER OF 1 COR. VIII. ROM. XIV

Rom. xii. 1--xv. 7.

Practical duties.

A | xii. 1-8. Ecclesiastical.

B xii. 9-21. Social.

C | xiii. 1-7. Civil.

B xiii. 8-14. Social.

A | xiv. 1-xv. 7. Ecclesiastical.

From this it will be seen that our verse (Rom. xiv. 15) forms part of our Ecclesiastical obligations, A (xiv. 1-xv. 7) and may be thus expanded:

A (Rom. xiv. 1--xv. 7), Ecclesiastical duties.

A D¹ | xiv. 1. Reception of the weak.

E¹ | xiv. 2-23. Our self-denial.

D² | xv. 1, 2. Our bearing with the weak.

E² | xv. 3, 4. Christ's self-denial.

D³ | xv. 5-7. Our mutual reception of one another.

The scope of this member is at once clearly seen. And the place occupied by our passage is discerned. It is in the member E¹, and the subject of it is Our exercise of self-denial.

"If on account of thy meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer according to love. Do not grieve him, do not separate (or put away) with thy meat him for whom Christ died."

It will be seen that the word "Destroy not" is altogether out of harmony with the whole scope of the chapter. Moreover, we have in verse 20 the correlative word to the one we suggest: viz., καταλύω (kataluō), to throw down. The difference between apoluō and kataluō is at once seen. Apoluō is to throw out; kataluō is to throw down.¹

"For meat do not throw down or upset the work of God" (v. 20). What work of God? "God's building"

¹ See Matt. xxiv. 2. Mark xiii. 2. Luke xxi. 6. Acts v. 38, 39, etc.

VII. NO TWO SCRIPTURES REPUGNANT

(I Cor. iii. 9). This is corrupted and *defiled* when we build any thing on to the one foundation. It is *thrown down* and injured to that extent, when we *throw out*, or put away, any weak brother whom God has built upon that foundation.

Thus we see that these two passages, which seem to be repugnant to many passages which are perfectly clear, are capable of an explanation which not only sets them in harmony with all the others, but shows that the explanation is in harmony with the full context and structure of both passages.

The word is not "*Do not destroy*"; but it is "*Do not put away*," or "*Do not separate*."

VIII. THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY IN THE STUDY OF THE WORDS OF SCRIPTURE.

This canon will be conceded by all as one of the first magnitude. Accuracy is everywhere demanded, and in every department of life, and in every branch of service.

How many calamities and disasters have occurred from a want of accuracy. The want of accuracy in understanding a word of command led to the disastrous cavalry charge at Balaclava. Want of accuracy or the misunderstanding of a word in a correspondence has led to the separation of close friends or the miscarriage of important business.

Inaccuracy is no less disastrous in the reading and study of the Word of God.

It is said of a poorly-informed preacher in southern Illinois, that he took his text from Luke xiv. 4, and read it out "And he took him, and held him, and let him go." The preacher was trying to explain the difficulty thus created, when a daring interrupter called out, "My Bible says, 'He healed him, and let him go.'" As may be imagined, the proposed exegesis was brought to a sudden close.

But there are many popular difficulties of which this is a typical example; and which might all be ended as suddenly, if a similar remark were made.

How long shall we hear of the Fall as having been brought about by the eating of an apple? And how soon would the fiction vanish if we would exclaim, "My Bible doesn't say apple."

How long shall we hear about Jonah's being swallowed by the whale? when we could stop it by simply saying "My Bible doesn't say whale." Jonah i. 17 says, "The LORD had prepared a great fish."

1 The Lord Jesus used the word ἐγὰρ (kētos) in Matt. xii. 40. It is a pity that any ground was given to the cry of the Infidel and the Higher Critics by translating it "whale" in the A.V. But it is unpardonable of the H.V. to perpetuate it, when it puts in the margin "Gr. sea-monster," though the words of Jonah i. 17, "a great fish," were ready to their hand. Why not have put "sea monster" or "great fish" in the Text?

How long are we to hear about the sin of the children of Israel by command of God, as borrowing without intention of returning the property of the Egyptians (Exod. iii. 22; xi. 2; xii. 35, 36)? Our A.V. seems to say this, and has thus provided material for scoffers. The R.V. rightly translates the Hebrew שָׁאָר (shā'al), to ask: and out of one hundred and sixty-eight occurrences it is only six times rendered in the A.V. borrow; while in all the other one hundred and sixty-two passages it is rendered ask, beg, require, or some similar word. (See Ps. ii. 8, "Ask of me," etc.: this, surely, cannot mean "Borrow of me"?)

The same want of accuracy in reading the sacred text has led to the mistakes of artists as well as of theologians. For angels are always represented as women instead of men; and in the piercing of the Lord the heart is always represented as being on the right side instead of on the left.

Similar are the mistakes of interpreters.

"Ye do ALWAY resist the Holy Ghost" (Acts vii. 51) is quoted to prove that men can successfully withstand the Spirit, instead of stumbling at His words.

While "Ye WILL NOT come unto me" (lit., "will not to come": John v. 40) is quoted to prove that men will to come; and this, in spite of Phil. ii. 13.

And in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, the injunction to lay by in store, that there be "no collection," is used to support the modern practice of having a collection at every service.

The Lord's Supper, in spite of its being so called, and being instituted as part of a meal, is ordered by all Romanizers to be taken in the morning, fasting.

"Blood and Fire," which is a description of the judgment of the great Day of the LORD (Joel ii. 30), is adopted as the symbol of salvation by His grace.

Instead of hearing what the Spirit saith to the churches we are commanded by man to hear what the Church says to us; and to heed "the voice of the Church."

The same want of accuracy leads those who set themselves up as "Higher" Critics to forget that it is the Word of God which is to be their critic, or judge. (Heb. iv. 12, "discerner." Gr. critic or judge. Compare John xii. 48, and see Number in Scripture, p. 70.)