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‘And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided Him. And He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.’
Luk_16:14-15
Success and prosperity was the standard that the Pharisees knew that they should be tried by, and to that they appealed without misgiving. They sneered at Jesus Who hinted at the possibility of there being any other, any higher one. And yet there is a higher one. God’s standard was what Jesus was looking to; a very different standard indeed. God looks to the state of the soul.
Now, why are these two standards inconsistent with one another? For that they are, Jesus Himself seems to take for granted. ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Consider what success in this world involves.
I. Health and strength.—It implies that a man must have at least an average share of health and strength. Life is a battle. The winner of that battle is the successful man.
II. Intellectual ability.—And not only physical strength and health, but intellectual ability too, is an essential to success in this life. I sometimes look with dismay on those who have to engage in the conflict of life, whose abilities are at all below the average.
III. Unscrupulous in the use of means.—If no man can hope to succeed without health and strength, and without latent and intellectual power, so I am afraid no man can hope for that sort of prosperity which ranks highest among men who is not somewhat unscrupulous in his use of means. It is melancholy to hear men of real honour and principle lament the methods they resort to in the practice of their calling.
Thank God it is not always so, and it need not, and it ought not to be so. Jesus explains how it all comes about. God’s standard is other than men’s. Does God care for all this show and parade, the success that we esteem of such paramount importance. ‘God knoweth the hearts,’ says Jesus. If we consider it, that is and must be a terrible sentence to many a prosperous man who stands eminently justified before men! ‘God knoweth the hearts.’ That must be the one comfort of many a poor, humble Christian man and woman whose life has seemed to be a failure.
Rev. Canon Jessopp.