Editorial March 30, 1940 Issue

Character Building by the Plumb Line

Duncan Sinclair

"And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more" (Amos 7:8). Before Amos' time, Moses had given a "plumbline" to the children of Israel by which they should build their lives. This plumb line was the moral law embodied in the Ten Commandments. If they should be faithful to these Commandments, if they should allow themselves to be ruled by them, then their lives would be rightly governed and happiness be their portion.

Isaiah sounds a note similar to that of Amos. The prophet writes (Isaiah 28:17), "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." The message may be set in poetic imagery, but it is nevertheless perfectly plain. There must be an invariable moral standard: righteousness must be according to law, judgment must be according to law; then whatever is false, or would cover up a falsity, will be swept away even as by a flood. Moses, Amos, and Isaiah alike cried aloud in the name of Almighty God for righteousness among the people—righteousness the result of obedience to moral law. It is wonderful to think that these prophets of Israel, amid the unspiritual thinking and living of their day, saw so clearly the tribulation that must result from such thinking and living, and gave the remedy with the certainty of absolute conviction, the remedy of obedience to moral law.

Better than all others, Christ Jesus knew that the wages of sin—unspiritual thinking—is death, knew also the necessity of steadfast obedience to moral law in character building. Not a jot or tittle did he take from that law in his teaching; rather did he supplement it with what the world now acclaims the greatest factor in the formation of righteous character—love for God and man. Himself the finest character in human history, Jesus' life conformed perfectly to the moral law, and likewise to the spiritual law of Love. He set these steadily before him: they were as a plumb line to him, from which he never allowed himself to deviate. The result was a life characterized by unparalleled righteousness, unparalleled goodness; by judgment that was always sound, by wisdom that was ever divine.

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