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Over against this insidious propaganda that fills the columns of certain periodicals, we
must place with the utmost resolution the words of Holy Scripture, remembering that
Heb. 13: 4 is not "Pauline", but "given by inspiration of God". And however the evils
that are advocated may be glossed under the titles "Free love", "Liberty of the Sexes",
&100:, it still stands written: "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." We are still
in sight of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, and there we have already seen is "God,
the Judge of all". And of that city it is written:--
"The fearful, and unwatching, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers,
and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstones: which is the second death . . . . . And there shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defileth . . . . . but they which are written in the Lamb's book of
life" (Rev. 21: 8, 27).
"The church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven" (Heb. 12: 23).
"Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12: 29).
For certain purposes we speak of some sins as social sins. Some acts are crimes, some
as civil offences, but for the believer (as in the case of David) murder and adultery
become sins against heaven and against God (Psa. 51: 4). This but anticipates the
kingdom of God on earth, when God's will shall then be law as it is in heaven.
We drew attention just now to Deut. 4: with its twofold sin, and we have seen that
marriage and its travesty are brought before us in Heb. 13: Where is idolatry? Were the
Hebrews warned against that sin? And were they in any danger of falling into it? The
answer is that idolatry is mentioned, and the Hebrews were in danger of committing it.
"Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye
have" (Heb. 13: 5).
"Without covetousness" is aphilarguros = "not loving silver". We have, therefore,
philadelphia, philoxenia, and philarguros in sequence, with true married love implied in
verse 3. True service turns on love, and love out of place or spent on the wrong object
is at the bottom of all evil. "The love of money (philarguria) is a root of all evil"
(I Tim. 6: 10).
"Men shall be lovers of their own selves . . .
philautoi.
Covetous . . .
philarguroi.
Haters of good men . . .
aphilagathoi.
Lovers of pleasures . . .
philedonoi.
Rather than lovers of God" (II Tim. 3: 2-4). . .
philotheioi.
This catalogue of the evils that shall characterize the "last days" or the "perilous
times" begins and ends with false love, and has at its centre lack of love for the good.
Now this covetousness under the form of pleonexia ("the wish to have more") is
condemned as "idolatry" (Eph. 5: 5; Col. 3: 5). The corrective for "the wish to have
more" and for "covetousness" and "the love of money" is the conscious presence of the
Lord:--