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reminds the whole household that he is Master is usually far from being so. The man
most easy to be entreated is usually the strong man. The man who can bear with the
scruples and foibles of others is usually one who himself is so far above such scruples
that he can afford to stoop without fear of the charge of compromise. A good example of
this is found in Acts 15:, 16: From Gal. 2: 3, as well as from Acts 15:, we realize
that the key to the conflict was the circumcision of the Gentile believer. Paul fought, and
from his fight on this very point, came away from Jerusalem in triumph. In Acts 16:,
the very next chapter, we read that he circumcised Timothy. This act might have been
the evidence of compromise in a smaller man, who would have been afraid of being
misunderstood and would have entrenched himself in apparent consistency. But Paul's
attitude is neither that of base compromise nor unbending, blind, external, consistency: it
was the attitude of a man concerned not with petty triumphs but with eternal truth.
Whether resistance to the imposition of circumcision in Acts 15: be demand for the
truth's sake, or yielding to it be demanded for the same truth's sake, as recorded in
Acts 16:, Paul had grace enough to put truth before apparent consistency, and for truth's
sake was prepared to appear to throw away the hard-won victory of the preceding
chapter.
This apostle, in all his strength, neither censures nor ridicules the weaker brother. He
protects him; he even allows the "other man's conscience" (I Cor. 10: 26-29) to be the
deciding factor. Paul's scrupulous fear of evil appearance, therefore, was not the result of
the fear of man, nor of slavish adherence to mere appearance, but of willingness, for
love's sake, to give up and to yield; to be constricted where he might have been at large,
so that the name of Christ should not be blasphemed; so that the weak brother should not
be stumbled; so that all things might be done to the glory of God.
How splendid it is to say, "I refuse to be turned aside from the faith before me; I do
all to the glory of God". How much more difficult, yet how much more Christ-like it is,
still to press on to the one mark, "the glory of God", and at the same time to be able to
respect the scruples of the weak, and endure without irritation the bigotry of the narrow
minded. Yet nothing less than this is before us, as it was before the Apostle.
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink" (and one must remember the arguments of
chapters 8:-10: on this vexed question) "or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,
give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many,
that they may be saved" (I Cor. 10: 31-33).
The many references to the Apostle's refusal to receive support during his ministry,
because circumstances suggested that it would be misinterpreted, are doubtless known to
the reader. If not, they should all be discovered and read, for the sake of the illumination
they throw on this particular feature of the Apostle's portrait, without which some of his
actions would be inexplicable. May we all rise above the petty scruples that are
prompted by fear, yet, for love's sake, observe many from which we could be free were
we willing to disregard the weaker believer.