111. MAR 12:17. OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GOD AND MEN

Mar_12:17. Our Obligations to God and Men

By Dr. Payson, Pastor of the Second Church, Portland, U. S.

"Render to C’e6sar the things that are C’e6sar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."’97Mar_12:17

Notice, the plot of the Pharisees to ensnare the Redeemer; the plot was artfully laid, and its execution artfully conducted; but in vain did human craftiness attempt, to circumvent Divine wisdom Instead of directly replying to their question, our Saviour called for a piece of money, and asked whose image and superscription: bore. They said, C’e6sar’s. Render, then, said he, to C’e6sar, &c. The spirit of the passage requires us to regard the rights of all beings as sacred, and to give to them ah what is theirs. This important practical truth we now propose to consider. In attempting to do this, I shall show,

I. What is due to God, and

II. What it due to man from each of us.

I. What is due to God.

Or what are the things, the property of God, which our Saviour here requires us to render to him. The question may be answered very briefly in one word, and hat word is all; for it is very easy to show, that all things are, in the most perfect sense, the property of God. He is the Creator of all. "The earth is the Lord’s," &c. Of course we, and all that we possess, are God’s property. More particularly,

1. Our souls with all their faculties are the property of God.

He is the Father of our spirits, who gave them all their faculties, and endowed them with immortality. Is it asked, what is implied in giving our souls to God? I answer, when we employ all their faculties in his service, in performing the work he has assigned us. When our understandings are diligently employed in discovering his will, when our memories retain it, our hearts love it, our wills submit to it, and the whole inner man obeys it.

2. Our bodies are the property of God.

He is also the Former of our bodies. Hence we are exhorted to glorify God with our bodies which are his. This is done, when we employ our members as instruments of righteousness unto holiness.

3. Our time is God’s property.

During every moment of our existence, we are the property of God. To his service, therefore, every moment of our time ought to be consecrated.

4. All our knowledge and literary acquisitions are God’s property.

They are acquired by us in the use of hat time, and of those faculties which are his, and of course he may justly claim hem as his own. He compares our faculties and his other gifts, to a sum of money intrusted by a master to his servants, &c. And in the parable of the talents he shows us what will be the doom of those who do not cultivate their faculties, or who do not consecrate to him the fruits of that cultivation.

5. Our temporal possessions are God’s property.

Men are not the owners, but merely stewards, to whose care the Lord of all things has intrusted a portion of his property, to be employed agreeably to his directions. Hence wo should employ them, in supplying our own wants, as is really necessary to support and happiness, or as is consistent with the rules of temperance and the demands of benevolence.

6. Our influence is God’s property.

All our influence over others, results either from our natural faculties, our knowledge, or our wealth, all of which have been shown to be the property of God.

He then who withholds from God any of these things, or any part of them, does not comply with the precept in our text. I proceed to show,

II. What things are due from us to Men.

The question, what God requires us to give to men, and to which they have, therefore, a right,’97a right founded in his revealed will,’97I now propose to answer.

1. All men, without exception, have a right to our love.

That we should love them as we love ourselves, and that as we have opportunity we should do to them, as we should wish them, in a change of situation, to do to us. Our enemies are not to be excepted. Every man, who dies without having done all the world all the good which it was in his power to do, dies in debt to the world, or to the world’s Creator.

2. To all whom God has made our superiors, we owe obedience, submission, and respect.

As subjects we are bound to obey, honor, and pray for our rulers. As children we are to obey and honor our parents. Servants are required to be obedient to their masters with all reverence. The aged have a claim to respect.

3. To our inferiors we owe kindness, gentleness, and condescension.

Parents, provoke not your children to wrath. Masters, forbear threatenings. Let all condescend to men of low estate. The poor and afflicted have special claims upon our sympathy and pecuniary relief.

4. Those of us who are members of Christ’s visible church, owe to each other the performance of all the duties which result from our connection.

We are bound to watch over our professing brethren, to admonish when necessary and in all things seek the peace and welfare of the church. To do good to all men, specially to those who are of the household of faith.

5. There are some things which we owe our families and connections.

As husbands and wives. As parents. As heads of families. &c., &c. For he who neglects his own household has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

IMPROVEMENT

1. How great, how inconceivable is the debt which we have contracted both to God and to men! Well may God accuse as of robbing and defrauding him. Though we forget God’s rights, he will not. He knows how to claim and to receive what is his. He has death ready to arrest us. He has an eternal prison from whence there is no escape, &c.

2. We may learn our need of an interest in the Saviour and the impossibility of being saved without him. We evidently cannot discharge our past debts. In Christ is there help. He becomes surety for all who believe in him, &c., takes upon himself the debt, which they can never discharge, and thus sets their souls at liberty. This is the way, the only way of salvation.

And do not reason, conscience, and a regard to our own happiness, combine with Scripture in urging us to accept the offers of this divine Benefactor, and, constrained by his love, to live henceforth to him, and not to ourselves?

Autor: JABEZ BURNS