Christian Virtues by Max A Forsythe
There is a worldly book that I want to purchase when the price becomes more affordable, and that is The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett. His work, which celebrates the moral foundations of the American enterprise, is only the latest printing in an age long search for ordering our public lives. Perhaps Aesop's Fables is the earliest secular publication which sought to pass along morals to stories collected to train up the younger members of society. At some point in time Solomon gathered together the best of the world's general revelation and arranged it according to the ordering of the Spirit.
An early American, Ben Franklin, spoke proverbially from the pages of his Poor Richard's Almanac, and in so doing inspired the hard working founders of finance, husbandry, business, industry and government. A current imitator of Mormon persuasion has even been granted access to Public Television to celebrate the seven habits of successful people. I even afflicted my English class with a reading of Franklin's advice and required a short paragraph report from each student this fall. Also, some years ago I had to do some secular family budgeting with a group of people and I created a fake checking account for a month to teach methods of financial management. In my scenario, there were even weekly checks to good old 1st Church to set a proper example. Entertainment expenses were grossly high I thought, and groceries and payments were absurd by my standards. I'll bet you can guess what practically every student in the class cut out! The essential lesson of honoring our God by tithing the income received was seen as an outrageous affront to proper money management by several people. And the entertainment, clothing and travel percentages were whined about as being far too low! Well did I appreciate the irony in Ben Franklin's introduction to his Almanac when he observed that the crowd who listened to Father Abraham quote Poor Richard hurried to forget the hard won advice as quickly as they also ignored the contemporary pastoral advice from their weekly pulpit.
I say all of this so that you understand my hesitation to begin another series that I understood the need for at least a year and a half ago. Isn't it providential that the changing of focus in our study of Romans demands that this area of life finally be addressed. As we saw in the first part of this chapter last week, Paul encourages his readers to become living sacrifices as they work diligently to please the God of heaven who has shown us so great a mercy in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And this has to be the very first and continuous point in all of our instruction in Christian virtues, otherwise we should just move into a glass house or a crystal cathedral where crowds can gather to hear pontifications on living well and wisely by human standards! I do not believe that the unconverted person can even attempt to order their lives by secular or even sacred advice. That is why good theology is always an absolute necessity to help us mirror the greater glory and honor of our Father in heaven. In other words, you just can't fake the Christian life! About a year ago, the people who make Head & Shoulders shampoo had to radically redesign their bottles because some impostor had gone to the trouble to duplicate their old bottles and labels but filled the inside with a cheap imitative recipe. There were complaints about the sad state of that famous brand and to save their good name and reputation, very many cases of the fake product were redeemed by hard earned currency. Yes, in the Christian life there are also very many imitators who would put on the label and the advertising but despise the necessity of a changed heart, mind and soul.
This is why Paul begins this whole section as he does with the admonition that "Love must be sincere". As Calvin observes there is no room for hypocrisy in the true Christian. Hate and abhor are probably an overstatement of our proper response to evil, Calvin insists that the textus Erasmus translation here is faulty and a heartfelt "turning" from evil is the better focus so that we may better cling to what is good. In our fellowship and our studies together, we ought always to focus on this turning away because, whenever we choose to honor God by obeying His word He is indeed glorified before a watching world.
Now, I will not say that it doesn't matter what you choose to do to honor God instead of clinging to evil, but putting that which is wicked away is the best and first step. In the sixties, some conservative Christians understood our passage in Psalm 139 last week to mean that human life begins with the folding over of the cells before the fetus is attached to the wall of the mother's womb. In their literal understanding of that passage, they felt free to practice some types of birth control within that very restricted time period. Today, the majority of conservative Christians believe that life begins at the moment of conception and anyone who would seek to hold to the belief that I just mentioned would be anathema to the pro-life cause. You see from this example that not everyone would agree on how to honor our Lord in this seminal matter which is so heightened emotionally in our day. Please understand it is still a very serious business to destroy a life that is known to exist and the French abortion pill should be kept out of this country as long as is possible for that very reason. But just as the very topic of "family planning" is controversial so are many other choices that mere humans must make in putting evil aside. Even the newly converted Roe of Roe v Wade has not concluded that every abortion is wrong.
When I argue with people and they mention the necessity of the health of the mother, and rape as being reasonable reasons to abort, I insist that when a young lady is raped that the first thing she should do when she is free from her rapist is to get to the nearest medical facility to be treated with a spermicide even as her wounds and emotions are being healed. We may not always agree with each other about our individual responses to putting sin behind and learning how to live the Christian life. It is for this reason that Paul encourages us to "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love" and to "honor one another above" ourselves.
In the last few years, I think I have learned a few things about brotherly love in action as the three most familiar brothers I know have begun the difficult task of developing a business partnership. The hardest task in that relationship as well as in our Christian relationships is to put the good of the other before your own good. In our Christian relationships, Paul insists that we should "never be lacking in zeal" as we serve our Lord. He then goes on in verses twelve to nineteen to specifically tell us how our daily service is to be ordered.
* Be joyful in hope.
* Be faithful in prayer.
* Practice hospitality.
* Rejoice with those who rejoice.
* Live in harmony with one another.
* Be willing to associate with the lowly.
* Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
* Live at peace with everyone.
* Be patient in affliction.
* Share with God's people who are in need.
* Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
* Mourn with those who mourn.
* Do not be proud.
* Do not be conceited.
* Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
* Do not take revenge.
This is quite a list if you pause to consider each admonition. And the working out of these instructions would take considerable study and practice and each person would have to tailor the instruction to their place and position in society.
Now before we close, there are two qualifications to this list that would encourage us to leave some matters to the Lord and in one case, if necessary to protect ourselves. Let us consider the last matter first by looking close at verse eighteen. There are words here of instruction for nations as well as for individuals. "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." From this and in related passages we can develop a doctrine of a just war. We can also see here that if we are assaulted or insulted beyond reasonable limits we have a minimal freedom to step into a court of law. But the aggressive use of force or legal means must be seen as beyond the pale of decent behavior. The other matter here is the injunction to leave room for God's wrath and instead of seeking revenge we are to feed and assist our enemies whenever possible. As we look at the world around us today, the peace that we enjoy is partially based upon our friendly reaction to those powers we defeated in World War Two. While there are some economic tensions, both Japan and Germany are on better terms with us than many other nations around the globe. And we accomplished that relationship by practicing at the international level the admonition in verse twenty-one. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." So let us put on the righteousness of our God and seek the good of those who oppose us so that His greater glory may be better known.
Amen.