2 Thessalonians 1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints… How could the question, Whether faith be a motive power, have ever been made the subject of controversy? For many a year, every day and every hour has strengthened my conviction that what a man believes, and what he does not believe, is either the lever or the bar to all that he does. If I believe what, by his pale cheek, as well as by word of mouth, the messenger announces — that sentence of death has been pronounced against me, and that tomorrow's dawn will shine upon my scaffold; if I believe the intelligent architect when he assures me that the beams which support the roof of my chamber must in a few hours give way; if I believe the smooth tongue which whispers that my friend is a villain — is it possible that these things should not prove to me a spur and a goad? Were faith, indeed, a mere imagination, and did it signify nothing but the presentation to the mind's eye, of so many possibilities and shadowy images of beauty, it might be otherwise. But faith is no such baseless picture drawn by the imagination. It is a piece of myself, and what we believe penetrates through secret and unexplored passages, into the deepest recesses of our being. It cannot be otherwise, therefore, than that a man's life is the reflex of his faith. If thou believest in the breath of another world, then that breath will become the soul of thy life. (Prof. Tholuck.) Parallel Verses KJV: When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. |
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