MacDonald: the inexorable expulsion of sin

Friday, February 23, 2018
    Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155
Meditation:
    If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
    —1 John 4:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If God said, “I forgive you,” to a man who hated his brother, and if (as is impossible) that voice of forgiveness should reach the man, what would it mean to him? How would the man interpret it? Would it not mean to him, “You may go on hating. I do not mind it. You have had great provocation, and are justified in your hate”? No doubt God takes what wrong there is, and what provocation there is, into the account; but the more provocation, the more excuse that can be urged for the hate, the more reason, if possible, that the hater should be delivered from the hell of his hate, that God’s child should be made the loving child that He meant him to be. The man would think, not that God loved the sinner, but that He forgave the sin, which God never does. Every sin meets its due fate—inexorable expulsion from the paradise of God’s Humanity.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “It Shall Not Be Forgiven”, in Unspoken Sermons [First Series], London: A. Strahan, 1867, p. 85 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:20; Matt. 6:12,14-15; Mark 11:25-26; Luke 17:3-4; 1 John 2:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to let loose of my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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