“A Young Man in Christ” #2: Truly human

From A Good Start by C. H. Spurgeon, Chapter 1 (“A Young Man in Christ”).

A man in Christ is a man, and, being a man, he is, therefore, imperfect.  I have heard a great deal of talk of perfect men, but I believe that a little examination with the microscope, or even without it, would have discovered a great many flaws in them, and probably more in those who thought themselves perfect than in others who have honestly confessed their imperfections.  There is not a Christian man who entire life might be read instead of the Bible.  His life would need notes, additions, and corrections ere it would exactly correspond with the perfect law of the Lord.  Ask him, “May I learn Christian principles entirely from your conduct?” and he would say, “I wish I could answer, ‘Yes.’  I am striving to make my conduct so, but I am afraid that, though I try to copy my Master, stroke by stroke, yet I have failed in some respects to reproduce the full spirit of the grand original.  I wish you could read me, and see the spirit of the New Testament in every little as well as in every great transaction of my life.  But,” he will add, “I make mistakes, and, what is more, I am sometimes off my guard, and allow the old nature that remaineth in me to come to the front.  I am not what I ought to be, nor what I want to be, nor, blessed be God, what I shall be.  You may, I trust, see something of Christ in me,” he will say, “but yet I am a man; and, being in this body, I am compassed with infirmities.”  Ought not you who may not happen to be Christians to recollect this when you are judging Christian men?  Be fair!  Be honest!  If a man receives not the gospel himself, at least let him treat those who do receive it with the candour which he would desire to be exercised towards himself.  A man in Christ is a man; do not expect him to be an angel.

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