“I see men as trees, walking. After that He [Jesus] put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”
(Mk. 8:24-25)
If the story of the blind man’s healing found in the above text teaches us anything practical it most certainly teaches Jesus would have us see men as they actually are, not with a distorted magnification. It is essential we see the saints in scriptures as people like us. If we do not, the consequence will be an impotent Christian life. Their spiritual achievements will be unattainable to our way of thinking: their prayers, endurance, deeds, etc.
Search the scriptures: you will never find saints allowing others to think more highly of them than reality warranted. Paul and Barnabas said to those who would make gods of them, “We also are men of like passions with you” (Acts 14:15). James echoes the same when speaking of the feats of Elijah, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are” (Ja. 5:17). It’s possible to learn more from a life than a doctrine. Their lives were doctrine in shoe leather.
True, some characters of the Bible were men and women of stature, but they would have frowned upon anyone making a statue of them. Even those who excelled over their brethren had holes in their armor; and they would be the first to admit to this fact! Their recorded, condensed lives should be an encouragement to each of us. As the Greek saying went, “An ocean of meaning in a drop of speech.” The short account of their lives can take us a long way.
“No man is without a divinely-appointed task, and a divinely-bestowed strength adequate for its fulfillment.”
(Ruskin)
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