The carnal person fears man, not God. The strong Christian fears God, not man. The weak Christian fears man too much, and God too little.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the differing fears and priorities of individuals regarding their relationship with God and humans.
John Flavel's quote emphasizes the spiritual journey of a person in relation to faith and fear. It categorizes individuals based on their focus: the carnal person is preoccupied with the opinions and actions of others, fearing man over God; the strong Christian recognizes God's supremacy and fears Him above all else; while the weak Christian struggles with misplaced priorities, being overly concerned about human judgment and neglecting the awe and fear due to God. This encourages self-reflection on what governs one's actions and beliefs.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of prioritizing God in our lives.
All the tears of a penitent sinner, should he shed as many as there have fallen drops of rain, since the creation, to this day, cannot wash away one sin. The everLasting burnings in hell, cannot purify the flaming conscience, from the least sin.
All the dark, intricate, puzzling providences at which we were sometimes so offended...we shall [one day] see to be to us, as the difficult passage through the wilderness was to Israel, "the right way to the city of habitation".
Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless, but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye.
Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God has from time to time broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find the readiest course to be rid of our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately upon them.
It is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straights, to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them in all the states and through all the stages of their lives.
Providence so orders the case, that faith and prayer come between our wants and supplies, and the goodness of God may be the more magnified in our eyes thereby.
The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors.
In my country, we're sufficiently consumed by the concept of happiness that the right to its pursuit is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. But what is happiness?
Reverence for life is more than solicitude or sensitivity for life. It is a sense of the whole, a capacity for inspired response, a respect for the intricate universe of individual life. It is the supreme awareness of awareness itself.
It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke - that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.
After all, what was the whole wide world but a place for people to yearn for their heart's impossible desires, for those desires to become entrenched in defiance of logic, plausibility, and even the passage of time, as eternal as polished marble.
Yes, hope is a strange thing. Peace at last. But at what price?
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