Galatians 6:2 Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. But it will be objected, "Are we not commanded to abhor that which is evil, and to cleave to that which is good?" Certainly; but are we anywhere commanded to abhor sinners because we abhor sin? What is it to abhor evil? Is it the sudden disgust which arises, which ought to be momentary, and which is designed to put us upon our guard, and to inspire us with self-defensory power, till we have time to lay our course more deliberately? Every man ought at the first impulse of the evil to feel repugnance at it; but that is not the higher kind of abhorrence of evil. It is an inspiration of a lower kind. He hates evil most who hates it so that he will annihilate it. There is animal hatred, and there is Divine hatred. Two men hate malaria. One says, "I will not settle here; I will pack up my things, and clear out." The other says, "I hate it; but I am going to work to morrow morning, with my whole force, to drain that marsh." He goes to work and digs a ditch through it, risking his health, and removes the stagnant water. Who hated the malaria most, the one who ran away from it, or the one who cured it? Is not a cure a witness of dislike more than neglect? A mother hates the disease that is in her child; but does she abandon the child, saying, "I hate morbid conditions of every kind," and let the child die, as a testimony to her dislike of violations of natural law? Is it not a better testimony to her hatred of disease, that night and day she lingers over the little sufferer till she brings it back to good health? Is not that a better way of hating disease than the other would be? That is the true hatred of sin which kills it by kindness. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.WEB: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. |
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