A good man is willing to know the worst of himself, and particularly under affliction, desires to be told wherefore God contends with him and what God designs in correcting him.
Matthew HenryRead
None are sent empty away from Christ but those who come to him full of themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
To receive spiritual fulfillment from Christ, one must let go of their own ego and self-importance.
This quote suggests that individuals who approach Christ with a sense of entitlement or excessive self-satisfaction will not find the spiritual nourishment they seek. It emphasizes the importance of humility and the willingness to empty oneself of pride and self-centeredness in order to truly receive and experience the grace and teachings of Christ.
Themes
ChristHumilityEgoSpiritualitySelflessness
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about humility and faith, one might reference this quote to illustrate the importance of letting go of one's ego.
More from Matthew Henry
All quotes βThere is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them.
Matthew HenryRead
To wait on God is to live a life of desire toward Him, delight in Him, dependence on Him, and devotedness to Him.
Matthew HenryRead
Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints.
Matthew HenryRead
What God requires of us he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love, creates them by the power of his grace going along with his word, that he may have all the praise.
Matthew HenryRead
No attribute of God is more dreadful to sinners than His holiness.
Matthew HenryRead
Similar quotes
Man has been driven out of the paradise in which he could trust his instincts.
Konrad LorenzRead
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
Flannery O'ConnorRead
Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.
Thomas SzaszRead
Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.
Oscar RomeroRead
In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Eric HofferRead
My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.
Emile M. CioranRead