The chief priests and Pharisees were troubled about Christ. It was not so much the question whether he preached the truth and obeyed God that worried them, for, in a pinch, they could have winked at a little weakness along these lines; but his doing and preaching might create troublesome consequences. "What do we?" they said one to another, after the raising of Lazarus--"for this man doeth many signs. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." So out of pure policy they decided to avoid trouble by killing him. (John 11:47-53.) Now, the Pharisees were men, and human nature is human nature. A man might to-day be tempted to repudiate or neglect, or entirely to explain away, certain parts of God's word because it might have a bad effect. To fairly and squarely present one passage might cause some folks to think that, after all, the "sanctificationists," or some other "ists" or "ites," had a grain of truth; or another passage might leave the impression that there is something in "election" and "predestination," or that a Christian cannot fall from grace. A man might be afraid to duly emphasize some features of the word because the sectarians make much of them; or he might look ahead and calculate that, if he lets a certain statement of God's word go at its face value he cannot abide its logical issue--all of which is essentially the same motive as that which led the Pharisees to suppress the Christ. We must leave results to God. Instead of asking, "Is it expedient?" let us ask first, "Is it right and true?" Did God say or command it? Of all people, Christians should be the least trammeled by what others may think or say or do. Having no human creed to uphold; having [41] a divine right to all the truth of God's word in its fullness, it no longer matters whether any one else believes and teaches what I teach or not, or whom it offends or confirms, as long as God said it.

[TAG 41-42]