Luke 11:45-54
The passage before us is an example of our Lord Jesus Christ’s faithful dealing with the souls of men. We see Him without fear or favour rebuking the sins of the Jewish expounders of God’s law. That false charity which calls it “unkind” to say that any one is in error, finds no encouragement in the language used by our Lord. He calls things by their right names. He knew that acute diseases need severe remedies. He would have us know that the truest friend to our souls, is not the man who is always “speaking smooth things,” and agreeing with everything we say, but the man who tells us the most truth.
We learn, firstly, from our Lord’s words, how great is the sin of professing to teach others what we do not practice ourselves. He says to the lawyers, “Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, while ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” They required others to observe wearisome ceremonies in religion which they themselves neglected. They had the impudence to lay yokes upon the consciences of other men, and yet to grant exemptions from these yokes for themselves. In a word, they had one set of measures and weights for their hearers, and another set for their own souls.