Life With Others Pt 7

If you would take your Bibles
and turn to the book of Romans once again, the book of Romans
chapter 12. Where we have been for a number
of weeks. You’ve got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend. When
I was down, you just stood there grinning. You’ve got a lot of
nerve to say you’ve got a helping hand to lend. You just want to
be on the side that’s winning. With those words, Bob Dylan introduced
to him a song for an entire generation. A song that titled positively
Fourth Street would become really in a sense the national anthem
of bitterness for multiple generations. If you’re familiar with the song
you will recall that he goes on to challenge his former friends
sincerity. When he says you have no faith
to lose and you know it. He goes on to mock the company
that they keep. I know the reason that you talk
behind my back. I used to be among the crowd
you’re in with. He questions their intentions
by saying how you say, how are you? Good luck, but you don’t
mean it. And ultimately, he mocks their lot in life and ends with
a note of utter disdain. When he says, I wish that for
just one time you could stand inside my shoes and just for
that one moment I could be you. Yes, I wish that for just one
time you could stand inside my shoes. You’d know what a drag
it is to see you. Now, for some of us, that’s just
humor, lighthearted, but for many, many uphold this as the
very song of revenge. Revenge is that attitude of heart
that begins in the heart that ultimately spills forth in some
deed or action that is meant to seek restitution, to get back
at someone for what they have done to us. And really, from
the earliest moments that we’ve walked this earth, the moment
that Adam fell in his sinfulness, That attitude began to flourish
in every heart. Self-seeking. Wanting to get
even with others, enmity, striking back at who they are and what
they’ve done. It begins even in the hearts
of little children, doesn’t it? When we hear they started it
or he did it first. In fact, religions have recognized
it and even put, in a sense, a rubber stamp upon this mindset,
calling it karma. Whether Hindu or Buddhists, the
idea is that a person’s actions will determine their fate. That
they will get what’s coming to them. What goes around, comes
around. My grandmother wasn’t a Hindu
or a Buddhist, but she knew this concept. She called it, though,
comeuppance, right? It was a punishment that you
were going to get. You were going to get what was
coming to you. You were going to get your just
desserts. And I don’t think that had anything
to do with dessert itself. You’re going to get what’s coming.
And we begin to cultivate a heart of retribution, we begin to almost
savor those moments of what we would say if we had another opportunity
or what we would do or we begin to wish that God himself would
dish out a little bit of this divine retribution. We begin
to salivate at the very thought that someone else is going to
get what’s coming. We find it in our novels. If
we read them, we find it in our movies. I remember one recommended
this movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, right? The movie entirely
dedicated to revenge. We see it in our games. I remember
years ago playing croquet, right? Innocent little game of croquet
until you begin to send your friend across the yard and then
it becomes a back and forth game really of revenge. It’s not surprising
that we see it in our sports where one team loses one year
and the following year it is a revenge tour. Right. We see it in the individual acts
that if one team slights another or breaks a rule we see another
retaliating kind. We even saw this in youth baseball
last year. Now in professional sports sometimes
it becomes so much a part of the culture we don’t even judge
it to be wrong. Where a pitcher intentionally
beans another batter. We just think that that’s part
of the game when all the while behind there is a. There is a story taking place
that has been going on for weeks if not months if not years. Revenge. We saw it in youth baseball last
year when a coach instructed his young player to bean another
player. It’s sad. We see it in our driving. Now it’s a national epidemic
called road rage where one person offends another and the next
thing you know you’ve got a fight literally taking place on the
highways. I’ve already indicated that it
shows up in our music and our movies. One set of lyrics I read this
past week makes Bob Dylan’s 50 year old song look tame. Carrie Underwood, who apparently,
you know, seems to be a nice person, somebody that you, you
know, might even walk into church. Says in one of her songs, you
don’t know that I dug my key into the side of his pretty little
souped up four wheel drive, carved my name into his leather seats,
took a Louisville slugger to both headlights, slashed the
hole in all four tires. It would be funny and to a degree
it’s almost amusing if it weren’t so true. If it weren’t so much
a part of who we are, if it wasn’t Such a big problem in our society. Such a big problem in those who
take workplace violence as the means to get their grudge settled. Who either damage property or
take lives in order to settle some kind of domestic dispute. God says we got to we got to
kill this attitude. God says we’ve got to do away
with it. It cannot be part of a Christian’s heart. It cannot
be part of the way that we deal with others. Romans 12, beginning in verse
nine, we’ve been for weeks now looking at the way that we treat
other people, the way that we respond to them. We saw in verses
9 through 10 the way that we are called upon to respond to
other believers without hypocrisy, a genuineness. We’re supposed
to mean what we say and do what we say that we’re going to do.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to
what is good. Be devoted to one another in
brotherly love. Give preference to one another
in honor But Paul goes on from there to deal with those who
are antagonistic. Not everybody is going to be
friendly like our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not everyone
is going to have our good at heart. There are going to be
those that are antagonistic towards us. And Paul says in verse 14
that we are to bless those who persecute us. Bless those who
mock us. Bless those who make fun of us.
Bless those who make our lives miserable with their words and
their deeds. Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and curse not. Last several Lord’s days, we
were focused on those who are downtrodden, downtrodden in spirit,
downtrodden financially, downtrodden emotionally, just downtrodden
people. There are all kinds. Paul says
that if you’re a Christian, that you are to rejoice with those
who rejoice and you’re to weep. Really get down and experience
the emotion that they’re experiencing, and we discovered that rejoicing
really is harder, isn’t it? And that’s why Paul said it first.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be
of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind. But
associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. But Paul comes, perhaps, to the
most difficult group of all to deal with. It’s easy to deal
with Christians. And to a degree, it’s even easy
to deal with those who are antagonistic. We know that it’s coming and
we can easily see that their evil is on full display. Certainly, it’s easy if we walk
in the grace of God to deal with the downtrodden, but to deal.
To deal with those who are contrary to us, who just seem to want
to fight with us, who just seem to want to be at odds, who seem
to want to do us nothing but wrong and nothing but harm. It’s
hard. It’s the hardest group of all. Pick up, if you would, in verse
17, where Paul writes, never pay
back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written,
Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry,
feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him
a drink. For in so doing, you will heap
burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. And so Paul comes in to this
Last section, this last group of people in Chapter 12 with
whom Christians will interact, it is inevitable that we will
come across people that hurt us and harm us. Beyond those
that are persecuting us for the sake of Christ, there are going
to be be in our lives troubled people who trouble us. They are
the contrary. And what Paul wants to do is
introduce what I believe are a series of principles, godly
principles for dealing with. What scripture calls enemies,
we may not judge them as such, but they have set themselves
up as our enemies. And we need we need some counsel
on how to respond, how to respond in a proper way To those who
have established themselves gained a foothold as our enemies. First. The first godly principle
in dealing with our enemies is the principle of retribution. The principle of retribution
that we are supposed to repay. But we’re not supposed to repay
for evil. The retribution is almost bound
up. We are supposed to respond to
others and you’ll hear me say at least once through this series
that the worst possible thing that you can do with someone
who is contrary is to have nothing to do with them. We are to be
intimate with even our enemies. We are to love them passionately.
We are to love them in a practical way. But the principle of retribution
is positively negative, if that makes sense. It is absolute that
when you give retribution, you can’t possibly do good in the
process of giving retribution. Let me see if I can explain it
this way. I used to do pre-marriage counseling more often than of
late, but In pre-marriage counseling, one of the questions I ask young
couples is, what is your policy? What is your view? What is your
belief about divorce? I’ve had more than one young
couple think, what a strange question to ask us at this juncture
of our relationship. We’re not even yet engaged. We’re
deeply in love. We’re not even yet engaged. And
you’re asking us about divorce. My reply has been, if you don’t
have a policy, if you don’t have an opinion on divorce now, divorce
will ever remain an option for you. Same thing is true with
retribution. If you don’t have a policy on
retribution, if you don’t absolutely commit beforehand, that I will
never, by God’s grace, return evil for evil, then retribution
will always remain an option for you. Look at what Paul says. Never pay back evil for evil
to anyone. It is the taking in kind. It is responding in kind. And when he says to anyone, he
means it. Christians, un-Christians, family,
Outside the family. Neighbor stranger worker employee
nothing nothing ever justifies the act of revenge and we have
to cultivate a personal policy against it. We have to decide
in our hearts and agree with God’s word that retribution returning
evil for evil is sin. And that by God’s grace, we would
never employ that means. That’s what Paul says. The idea ultimately is repeated,
as I said, in verse 19. But there he says it a little
differently. Never take your own revenge. Revenge is God’s
work. Retribution, returning evil for
evil is God’s business, not ours. Not the Christians. This particular
principle here is far more general. Vengeance talks about something
very specific. This retribution here is just
trading one for the other. Evil for evil. Matthew addressed
it in his gospel. You have heard it said that an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That was the national
policy. That if someone Did you harm
you had divine right to return them evil for evil or so they
believed. If you would turn to Luke’s gospel
Luke has a much more full answer there Luke chapter six. In this regard of whether an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Is fair. is a fair reply for a Christian. Look at verse 27. Where Jesus says, but I say to
you, love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray
for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek,
offer him the other also. And whoever takes away your coat,
do not withhold your shirt from him either. We spent, I think, five or six
years in Luke. Take a moment with me as I just
review essentially those six statements that Jesus makes.
The first thing that he says is that Christians are to treat
their enemies as those who are the objects of our kindest affection. Love your enemies, and by that
he doesn’t mean just cultivate a warm fuzzy in your heart for
them, he means practical deeds of love. The Jews had reduced, as we saw
last week, they had reduced their list of What was a their idea
rather of what was a neighbor to only those immediately adjacent
to them and only those who maintained the same view that they did.
Leviticus 1918 you shall not take vengeance nor bear grudge
against the sons of your people the Jews but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself and they took that to mean all we really
have to do is love those who are truly Jews. Jesus says the
reality is you need to love your enemies, practically love them.
Secondly, Christians are to treat their enemies as those who are
the recipients of our best deeds. Do good, he says, to those who
hate you return evil for evil, not in Jesus book, not according
to God’s standard. Cotton Mather, an early American
pastor, had his lifelong ambition was to be able to say that he
did not know of a single person in the world who had done him
an evil deed, but that he had done him a good one for it. In
other words, no sooner did he receive mistreatment from someone
else that he set about to correct that with an act of kindness. A lot of times we think of some
great things that we could We think of a lot of things that
we’d like to do. We put in place very few that
would rise to the standard that Jesus sets forth here, good to
those who hate you. Christians, thirdly, the third
statement that Jesus makes, bless those who curse you. We looked
at this last Lord’s Day. Christians are to treat our enemies
as those who are the subjects of our warmest words. We are
to pray for them and plead God’s grace and mercy upon them. What
better words could ever be uttered than to pray for our enemies
to ask God to intercede to not hold them accountable for the
sin against us. Isn’t that like Christ. The fourth
statement that Jesus makes pray for those who mistreat you. They
should be the heart of our sincerest entreaty. We should go before
God on their behalf with the same passion that we do for our
dearest Christian friends. The fifth one, the fifth statement
is really tough to take. Whoever hits you on the cheek,
offer him the other also. And it literally it’s not so
much the cheek. The word that’s used for there
as the jaw. And so this isn’t a slap so much
as it is a blow a punch in the jaw. Jesus says here that Christians
are to treat their enemies as those who are who benefit from
our applied restraint. We should never lash back not
physically not emotionally. And then finally, Jesus ends
that little section by saying, whoever takes away your coat,
do not withhold your shirt. They are to be those who enjoy
our unexpected surrender. We ought to shock the world in
the way that we respond to their unkindness. We ought to surprise
our enemies by our ability to show God’s love and grace to
them. Now, this is far easier done To those who are brothers
and sisters in Christ, there we know that there is accountability.
This is much harder to do when we think that nobody is watching
or we think that that God is indifferent to them as being
an unbeliever. Turn back, if you would, to Romans
12. Hall echoes this sentiment on
many occasions in his writings to the other churches, He Paul
knew that these churches, these fledgling churches that were
out and about were constantly battered. And beset by difficult
people. With evil hearts. And so to the
Thessalonians, he said, see that no one repays another with evil
for evil. First Thessalonians 515. You
see, it’s the leaders there that are mentioned. Paul had addressed
those who diligently labor among you and have charge over in the
Lord and give you instruction. It’s those that he’s talking
to. And he says, it’s your job, it’s your duty to keep careful
tabs on your people. Don’t allow this idea of revenge
to take root. Don’t allow people to go take
their own retribution as so many little vigilantes in the land.
What he points to here when he says no one, every member of
the church, nobody should be allowed to get away with this.
Nobody should be allowed to cultivate these ideas, these sentiments
of revenge and retribution. Not a one. The elders have to oversee this. They have to watch over their
folks and to plead with them if need be. Peter addressed it. Peter addressed it in his epistle,
his first epistle, he said to sum up. First Peter three, verse
eight, to sum up, all of you be harmonious. There’s your call
to unity. Be sympathetic. There’s our call
to mutual empathy with one another. Exactly what Paul has been urging.
Harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted and humble in spirit,
not returning evil for evil. You know, if we stop there, I
mean. We stop there, it would be incomplete because it goes
on and says or insult for insult. You see, a lot of times we won’t
we won’t actively engage in evil for evil. We won’t actively engage
in that kind of retribution. But if someone drops an insult
on us, we respond. In kind, right. So often we do,
you know your heart. Not returning evil for evil or
insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead for you are
called according to this purpose. You might inherit a blessing. You know, this concept is even
addressed in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs says, do not say. Don’t
think it, don’t say it with your mouth, don’t cultivate this attitude
in your heart. Do not say thus, I shall do to
him as he has done to me. Come up and write. I will render
to the man according to his work. See, we need God’s grace. We need God’s grace at work in
our hearts. That when we are wronged by other
people, when we think that some injustice has been done to us,
we have to refrain from the tendency to set ourselves up as judge
and jury and executioner. Charles Bridges, one of my heroes
of the faith, said, let wisdom and grace be set to work to extinguish
the fire from hell. before it gets to the head. Far
sweeter will be the recollection of injuries forgotten than revenge.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Don’t you know, I pray that you
do, of those moments where somebody has wronged you. I mean, really
wronged you. And by God’s grace, in that one
instance, we got it right. And we did not respond in kind.
We all know that we’ve blown it. We all know that we’ve committed
the other. But isn’t it indeed sweet to
know that in that instance, in that particular setting, that
situation, we did not respond like we wanted to. That God took
control of our heart and He changed our response. What Paul’s talking about here
in Romans 12, it doesn’t forbid the church from practicing discipline. It doesn’t forbid a brother from
going to a brother and calling someone to repentance. It doesn’t
forbid a rebuke. It doesn’t forbid any of those
things. It doesn’t forbid us from seeking
legal assistance. It doesn’t forbid us from suing.
As long as it’s not a brother in Christ. One pastor said it this way,
if a man has defamed my character, I not only may, but I ought to
use all fit means to have my reputation cleared, which is
so intimately connected with my usefulness and the credit
of Christianity. If somebody says something slanderous
about you, you have legal recourse. Paul is not forbidding that.
What he’s against here is the desire to respond in kind to
injure his character as he has injured yours. We respond with
the facts. We respond with the truth. See, even revenge gets a hold
of even those that are just gentle and polite. We would say that
they’re almost passive people. sweet hearted, kind, loving people
oftentimes become the tea kettle, don’t they? They simmer and they
seethe and they’ve never done anything about it. And when they
blow, they blow. God says it can’t be that way.
It can’t be that way that we have to apply the grace of God
to our heart. We have to have a policy on retribution. Are we ever going to do this? Or are we going to set aside
any thought, any opportunity to respond in kind? There’s a
second principle that. Paul lays forth for us here.
The second godly principle for dealing with enemies, not only
the principle of retribution there in verse 17, but the principle
of civility. I’ll tell you what I mean by
that as we go. The principle of civility. He says respect
what is right in the sight of all men. And this idea of respect it’s
a funny phrase and the commentators really wrestled with exactly
how to even translate it. Because in its core it means
to have a thought for have a regard ahead of time to take thought
for what it basically points to. is you might even say that
if you were going to go on a trip, you would take a forethought,
you would have a thought ahead of time and how to prepare what
to bring with you, so to speak. But in this case, he isn’t telling
us to prepare, provide or set aside anything but. An idea of what is right, what
is commonly held as what is right. And what he says, what respect
what is right in the sight of all men, he points to some great
standard that anybody could sign off on. That everybody would
agree to. I pastored in tiny little towns. And what I’ve so often recognized
is that in those tiny little towns, it often becomes ministry
by the lowest common denominator. Well, Even Christianity’s lowest
common denominator is so much higher than the idea of morality
for the world that for us that should be easy. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. I love the way one balanced it
when he said we are not to do our work to be seen of men. That’s
not what he’s talking about. But we are to be careful that
all our works are done So as to avoid anything that would
bring a reproach upon the gospel. Not only to avoid what is improper,
but to avoid the blame or suspicion of what is improper. We are to
live impeccable lives. We are to live above board. We
are to live unimpeachable, unindictable lives. When he says that we should
respect what is right in the sight of all men, That word translated
right there is translated elsewhere as good. It’s a simple word,
Kalos, and it can be translated right, good, proper, better,
honorable, fitting, fine. Beautiful, precious, what he
basically says here is that Christians should be. We should be at the
front of the line in doing what’s right. That anybody who sees
us, they may not like our Christianity. But they can look at us and say,
you know what, there goes a good guy. There goes a good man. There goes an upright woman. It’s kind of an echo of Proverbs
3.4. Proverbs 3.4 indicates that we
would find favor and good repute in the sight of God And man,
remember that second part, that’s that’s even sometimes harder
to do than. Finding good repute in the sight
of God, isn’t it? We take great comfort in the
fact that we stand before God in the righteousness of Christ,
we take so much comfort that sometimes we set aside our sanctification. But before the eyes of a watching
world, we have to take constant. Care that we are not transgressing
against that delicate standard that they hold. One pastor said, what is more
lovely than to live down reproach by by consistent godliness? What is more acceptable to God
or more edifying to the church? Scripture connects the favor
of God with the favor of men, as if the one was often the fruit
of another. You want to be pleasing in God’s
eyes. Seek to be pleasing, not perfect. Seek to be pleasing,
kind, good in the eyes of others. Paul hints at this same standard
on a number of different occasions. To the Thessalonians. He wrote,
make it your ambition. He basically says, here’s your
job description. I want you to work very hard.
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. We don’t need to
be in everybody else’s business. We don’t need to be the center
of attention all the time. Lead a quiet life. Attend to
your own business. We don’t need to be meddlesome.
We don’t need to set ourselves up as the neighborhood judge.
We don’t need to set ourselves up as the one that corrects all
problems and counsels all trouble. Jesus didn’t even obligate himself
to that. Make it your ambition to lead
a quiet life, attend your own business and work. Well, that
would solve everything, wouldn’t it? Work with your own hands,
just as we commanded you. Why? So that you will behave
properly toward outsiders. They’re watching. They have a
standard. And Paul says to some degree
it has to do with meddlesomeness, showmanship and work. Paul says. The best you can do
is go be a hard worker and stay out of other people’s business.
The outsiders there clearly points to unbelievers. To those that
are outside of the Christian community, but when he says that
we are to behave there, it means it’s the common word that we
use to walk. We are to walk. According to
their standard, we are to walk according to the common standard
of mankind. So often this what we would almost
call decent behavior in or the opposite, indecent behavior is
what really causes a division. It makes them to mock our Christianity. It makes them to cultivate hateful
views and creates a prejudice against. That which we profess
the gospel. Titus 210 Paul says the same
thing essentially that we are to not be pilfering but showing
all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our
Savior in every respect. We basically I mean this is such
an amazing word. It’s like you know decorating
the tree right. With the way that we live, we
are telling the unbelieving world, this gospel is a good thing.
This gospel is the gospel of salvation. Believe it. Place
your faith in Christ. That everything that we do points
the unbelieving world to that. A verse we just considered. 1 Thessalonians 5.15 under point
one. Paul said there, see that no
one repays another with evil for evil. But he goes on in that
verse. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but
always seek after that which is good for one another and for
all people. He says there’s this standard,
this standard of good. Paul says the same thing to the
Corinthians. We have regard for what is honorable. Not only in the sight of the
Lord, but in the sight of men. We have regard for what is honorable.
It has a good reputation. It’s noble, it’s good, it’s right. And everybody would agree to
it. No wonder Peter told the Gentiles, told the believers
there, to keep their behavior excellent among the Gentiles.
They’re watching. They’re watching everything that
we do. And every slight misstep, they’re
going to point up. Get this. In the section on Christian
ministry. Second Corinthians chapters three
through six, Paul zeroes in and while he’s pointing here specifically
to those in the gospel ministry, it really it touches us all. The standard is there for us
all. Second Corinthians 4 2, we have
renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness
nor adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation
of truth, get this, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience
in the sight of God. Wow. You know, because Grandpa
used to tell me Do as I say, don’t do as I do. Paul says,
do as I do. I am putting myself before you
as an example. Do you want to see what a good
man looks like, Paul says? Let me give you an example. Watch
how I walk. Watch how I live. But Paul goes
behind that and he says that we are to do the same thing.
We are to tell the watching world, watch me. I’m not afraid to have
you watch me. Several weeks ago, we talked
about what if everybody’s sin smelled like cigarette smoke
smells, right? Sometimes we get real self-righteous
about that whole issue. What about this? What if all
of us, from time to time, a van goes whizzing by me on the highway
and I see, how’s my driving? 1-800. What if we all had to
wear that bumper sticker? Right? Commending ourselves to
every man’s conscience in the sight of God. See. As children of God, as those
who seek to serve him, we desire to be humble and sincere. We’re
not trying to be arrogant in who we are before God. That God
says that he’s given us his grace and that we ought to be different,
we ought to live different, we ought to look different, we ought
to function different than the world functions. Hard work. Punctuality, the world
esteems that, doesn’t it? In fact, when you show up late,
you basically just told somebody, you know, I really don’t care
about your time, really don’t care about you for the truth
of it. Hard work, punctuality. Selflessness. Just a willingness to go and
to give of your time, to give of your whatever God has blessed
you with. To care. What about manners? Manners, especially in our society,
it’s just lost. It’s a lost art. We don’t even
know what’s right. We introduced a program 10 years
ago. Most people had never even heard
of ladies first. Simple deal in our home. Ladies
first. Manners. Politeness. Yes, please. No, sir. Thank you. Graciousness, wisdom. Just the ability to do the right
thing, a good goal with a good means to accomplish that goal.
That’s the standard to be helpful. The world recognizes that the
world sees that and says, yeah, this is right. When you show
up on time, that’s right. When you’re kind, when you’re
just not all about yourself, like the whole rest, you know
what? There’s something to that guy. It’s right. It’s good. See, there’s a there is a standard,
there’s a standard that the world holds to. And the beautiful thing
is. That that whole issue can be
a grand entry into the source of moral absolutes, there are
moral absolutes. You ask any one of them, if they
don’t believe in moral absolutes, go see if you can take a life. It’s the grand entrance into
that whole discussion of moral absolutes, a discovery of God’s
law, the standard of right and wrong written in their hearts. They know what’s right. Deep
down, they know what’s right and wrong. And if they see a
Christian transgressing that, If they see a Christian going
against the basics, it undermines our testimony of the gospel,
doesn’t it? One pastor said they are carefully
to avoid acting in a way which might necessarily sharpen their
dislike and strengthen their prejudice in reference to Christianity
and to Christians. And to give plausibility to their
misrepresentations of both. In other words, they’d say, as
we’ve so often heard, haven’t we? You’re a hypocrite. You’re
a hypocrite and your religion is a sham. There should be nothing
mean, nothing suspicious about the character and conduct of
a Christian. His strict integrity, his honorable principle, his
open, straightforward course, his complete freedom from everything
like assumption, trick, imposture, his sincere kindness, his disinterested
public spirit should be so conspicuous. That men may be ashamed who falsely
accuse his good behavior in Christ. What a great testimony that would
be, wouldn’t it? To be those who live in such
a way that even the most evil, the most Christ-hating sinner
would look at us and go, I don’t know. I don’t know about his
church. I don’t know about his religion.
But there goes a good guy. Let’s pray for that grace. Our merciful King, we know that
we are before a troubled, troubled world.