The further duty beyond abstinence which the text enjoins is
inadequately represented by our version, 'but rather reprove them.' For
the word rendered in our version 'reprove' is the same which our Lord
employed when He spoke of the mission of the Comforter as being to
'convince (or convict) the world of sin.' And it does not merely mean
'reprove,' but so to reprove as to produce the conviction which is the
object of the reproof.
This task is laid on the shoulders of all professing Christians. A
_silent_ abstinence is not enough. No doubt, the best way, in some
circumstances, to convict the darkness is to shine. Our holiness will
convict sin of its ugliness. Our light will reveal the gloom. The
presentation of a Christian life is the Christian man's mightiest weapon
in his conflict with the world's evil. But that is not all. And if
Christian people think that they have done all their duty, in regard to
clamant and common iniquities, by simply abstaining from them and
presenting a nobler example, they have yet to learn one very important
chapter of their duty. A dumb Church is a dying Church, and it ought to
be; for Christ has sent us here in order, amongst other things, that we
may bring Christian principles to bear upon the actions of the
community; and not be afraid to speak when we are called upon by
conscience to do so.
Now I am not going to dwell upon this matter, but I want just to point
out to you how, in the context here, there are two or three very
important principles glanced at which bear upon it. And one of them is
this, that one reason for speaking out is the very fact that the evils
are so evil that a man is ashamed to speak about them. Did you ever
notice this context, in which the Apostle, in the next verse to my text,
gives the reason for his commandment to 'reprove' thus--'_For_ it is a
shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret'?
Did you ever hear of a fantastic tenderness for morality so very
sensitive that it is not at all shocked when the immoral things are
_done_, but glows with virtuous indignation when a Christian man speaks
out about them? There are plenty of people nowadays who tell us that it
is 'indelicate' and 'indecent' and 'improper,' and I do not know how
much else, for a Christian teacher or minister to say a word about
certain moral scandals. But they do not say anything about the
immorality and the indelicacy and the indecency of doing them. Let us
have done with that hypocrisy, brethren. I am arguing for no disregard
for proprieties; I want all fitting reticence observed, and I do not
wish indiscriminate rebukes to be flung at foul things; but it is too
much to require that, by reason of the very inky cloud of filth that
they fling up like cuttlefish, they should escape censure. Let us
remember Paul's exhortation, and reprove _because_ the things are too
bad to be spoken about.
Further, note in the context the thought that the conviction of the
darkness comes from the flashing upon it of the light. 'All things when
they are reproved are made manifest by the light.' Which, being
translated into other words, is this:--Be strong in your brave protest,
because it only needs that the thing should be seen as it is, and called
by its right name, in order to be condemned.
The Assyrians had a belief that if ever, by any chance, a demon saw
himself in a mirror, he was frightened at his own ugliness and
incontinently fled. And if Christian people would only hold up the
mirror of Christian principle to the hosts of evil things that afflict
our city and our country, they would vanish like ghosts at sunrise. They
cannot stand the light, therefore let us cast the light upon them.
And do not forget the other final principle here, which is imperfectly
represented by our translation. We ought to read, 'Whatever is made
manifest is light.' Yes. In the physical world when light falls upon a
thing, you see it because there is on it a surface of light. And in the
moral world the intention of all this conviction is that the thing
disclosed to be darkness should, in the very disclosure, cease to be
dark, should forsake its nature and be transformed into light. Such
transformation is not always the case. Alas! There are evil deeds on
which the light falls, and it does nothing. But the purpose in all cases
should be, and the issue in many will be, that the merciful conviction
by the light will be followed by the conversion of darkness into light.
And so, dear brethren, I bring this text to your hearts, and lay it upon
your consciences. We may not all be called upon to speak; we are all
called upon to _be_. You can shine, and by shining show how dark the
darkness is. The obligation is laid upon us all; the commandment still
comes to every Christian which was given to the old prophet, 'Declare
unto My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their
sin.' A quaint old writer says that the presence of a saint 'hinders the
devil of elbow room to do his tricks.' We can all rebuke sin by our
righteousness, and by our shining reveal the darkness to itself. We do
not walk as children of the light unless we keep ourselves from all
connivance with works of darkness, and by all means at our disposal
reprove and convict them. 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate,
and touch no unclean thing, saith the Lord.'