| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 9 |
Page 4 |
In our Lord’s picture of the last judgment, too, those who are set on the left hand are condemned, not for evil wrought by them, not for wicked deeds they had done, but because they came not to the help of the Lord in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, providing for the needy, visiting the sick. They are condemned for not doing.
We need to think carefully of our own lives in the light of this teaching. It is not enough that we are honest, truthful, upright, diligent in business and faithful in our religious duties; are we doing or are we neglecting the duties of love which wait for us at every turn? We are to be judged by the things we leave undone quite as much as by the things we do which we ought not to have done. Many people imagine that they are very good because they have not done certain openly wicked things; but one may be able to hold up his hands, and say, “My hands are unstained by any guilt.” And ye the heaviest curse may hang over him, because he has not done the things he ought to have done. The word sin means missing the mark; whenever we fail to come up to the full measure of love’s duty, we have sinned.
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