This text shows us the foolishness of being satisfied with the state of any, if they are ONLY SINCERE!
Today there are thousands who say, "We have nothing to do with the opinion of others. They may be right, they may be wrong; but if they are sincere we hope they will be saved even as we."
This is entirely contradictory to the Bible! There is no scripture that says anyone was ever accepted of God, if he were only sincere in maintaining his own views!
The priests of Baal were "sincere" when they cut themselves with knives till the blood gushed out. It did not prevent Elijah commanding them to be treated as wicked idolaters.
Manasseh, king of Judah, was "sincere" when he burned his children in the fire to Moloch!
The apostle Paul was "sincere" when he made havoc of the Church; but when his eyes were opened, he mourned over this special wickedness.
On such principles the Druidical sacrifices, the systematic murders of the Thugs, and the fires of Smithfield, might each be defended! Once such notions are allowed as "truth," we may as well throw away our Bibles.
"Sincerity is not Christ, and therefore sincerity cannot put away sin." A religion that takes away from Christ, or one that adds anything to Christ, or that puts "sincerity" in the place of Christ, all are dangerous, and to be avoided as contrary to the test of Scripture.
Out of Christ, there is no salvation at all. It is not atheism I fear so much as pantheism! Not the system that says, "Nothing is true," but the system which says, "Everything is true!" Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Mahomet, the Indian Brahmins, the African Devil-worshipers, Arus, Pelagius, Ignatius, Socinus, the Koran, Hindu Vedas, Swedenborg, Mormons—are all these to be listened to, and none denounced as lies?
What a system that is so scrupulous concerning the feelings of others, that one must not say they are "wrong"! That system should be emphatically denounced. It sacrifices Truth upon the altar of a pretense of charity! Beware of it!
Has the Lord God spoken to us in the Bible, or has He not? Has He shown the way of salvation plainly, or has He not? From peace that is bought at the expense of truth may the Lord deliver us!
The greatest charity is to tell the greatest truth; the least is to be complacently indifferent to seeing a man drinking slow poison, and not tell him.
The great gulf between the holy God and sinful man is so great that it requires a mighty Helper to bridge it—a mighty Savior to nullify it. IF the Lord Jesus Christ were not very God, of very God, He never could accomplish it.
Never forget that the same apostle Paul who wrote that "Charity never fails," says also, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema." 1 Cor. 16:2222If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22).
If our liberality and charity are wider than the Bible, they are worth nothing!