The Weakest Christian That I Know

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual restore him gently.  But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”  Gal 6:1

Though you may know an abundance of people to be guilty of some gross sins with which you cannot charge yourself, yet you may justly condemn yourself as the weakest Christian that you know; and that for the following reasons:

First, because you know more of the folly of your own heart than you do of other people’s and you cannot be sure that others are guilty of such folly.  So, since you know more of the folly, the baseness, the pride, the deceitfulness and negligence of your own heart than you do of anyone else’s, you have just reason to consider yourself the weakest Christian that you know, because you know more of the greatness of your failings.

Secondly, the seriousness of your weakness arises chiefly from the greatness of God’s goodness to your, from the particular graces and blessings, the favors, the light, the instruction which you have received from Him.  Every person knows more of the aggravations of his own weakness than he does of other people’s and consequently may look upon himself to be the weakest Christian that he knows.  How good God has been to others, what light and instruction he has given to them what blessings and graces they have received from Him, how often he has touched their hearts with holy inspiration, you cannot tell.  But all this you know of yourself; therefore, you know greater aggravations of your weakness, and are able to charge yourself with greater ingratitude than you can charge other people.  This is the reason why the greatest saints have in all ages condemned themselves as the weakest of Christians.

In order, therefore, to know our weakness you must consider your own particular circumstances:  your health, your sickness, your youth or age, your occupation, the amount of your education, the degrees of light and instruction which you have received, the good men which you have conversed with, the holy people it has been your privilege to associate with, the good books that you have read, the multitude of divine blessings, graces, and favors that you have received, the good motions of grace that you have resisted, the impulses toward good that you have frustrated, the resolutions of amendment that you have broken, the checks of the Spirit that you have disregarded.  Only you know how seldom you pray through, how infrequently you pray yourself happy, how often your prayers are not answered.  No one else knows as you do how dry and lean you are for long periods of time, how that many times the Bible seems to be a closed book to you, how that so few times you are melted and made mellow and made tender by the Spirit.  So little of the fruit of the Spirit, so little spiritual progress, so much hardness of heart, such slow response of the Spirit of God!  Perhaps the person of whom you are so critical would have been so much better than your are, had he been altogether in your circumstances, and received all the same favors and graces from God that you have.

This a very humbling reflection for any of us and very proper for those people to make who measure their virtues by comparing the outward course of their lives with that of other people.  Also for those who are inclined to be critical of others.

“May Grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness….  When I am weak then am I strong.”  II Cor. 12:9, 10

“Out of weakness they were made strong.”  Heb. 11:34

“God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the…mighty.” I Cor. 1:27

-L. J. Reckard