It may be very well to do this and that for good fellowship; but it will never do to lose the friendship of God in order to keep on good terms with men.
Interpretation
Prioritizing one's relationship with God is more important than maintaining good relationships with people at the expense of that connection.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of divine friendship over human relationships. It suggests that while it's good to maintain harmony and fellowship with others, one should never compromise their spiritual connection or integrity to please people. True loyalty to God should take precedence over the transient approval of others, highlighting the depth and permanence of divine friendship as essential to one's moral and spiritual life.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a sermon to emphasize the importance of faith over societal acceptance.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.
My brained warned me, but my heart didn't want to take its advice.
When you are suffering, you become more understanding about yourself, but also about other people's sufferings too. That's the first step to understand somebody is to understand their sufferings. So then love follows.
I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make my marriage vows mean what they say. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.
Empathy has the power to bring together people who would otherwise never meet. It has the power to teach us and to reach us in moments of isolation when we think nobody understands.
I don't have any children, so I've decided to claim all the future freedom-fighters and hell-raisers as my kin.
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