ORIENTING OUR WISDOM

Rom. 16:19 ... "I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil."

      Knowledge is a wonderful thing and greatly to be desired. The tens of thousands of schools and the billions of dollars spent to operate them are evidence of the value we place upon education, the effort to plant knowledge in the minds of our youth. We admire those who store up great amounts of knowledge in their minds, and honor them with awards of many kinds. When an activity or situation promises a degree of acquiring knowledge to those who participate in it, we are usually willing to sanction it on that grounds if no other. There is a possibility, however, that benefits do not always result from knowledge. In the novel The Long Ships by Gunnar Bengtsson there is the story of a renegade priest named Willibald. For many years he sacrificed his comfort and risked his life to try to convert the heathen Vikings of Scandinavia to Christ. Then he came upon a copy of Ovid's The Art of Love, which he read with the most intense interest. What he learned  reshaped his mind and changed the course of his life. The knowledge he derived from that book, so scandalous that Caesar banished Ovid for publishing it, put the priest to thinking about things he had never thought of before. His appearance as a priest became no more than a guise for preying upon innocent women who put their trust in him as a man of God.

      This world is a mosaic of good and evil. We are challenged day by day to seek out the good and try to incorporate it into our lives. At the same time we must try to avoid the evil and exclude its influence from our lives. There is great reward in gaining knowledge of what is good, and there is often much misery that comes with the knowledge of what is evil. Jesus said in Jno. 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Although He probably spoke mainly of the truth revealed by God that leads one to salvation and liberation from the bondage of sin, Jesus' statement also applies to the knowledge of truth in the general sense. The knowledge of what is true and good is a powerful force to motivate us to live by truth and fashion our lives by goodness. In Rom. 16:19 the inspired apostle expresses his desire that those who read his words will make it their goal to become knowledgeable of what is good and then develop that knowledge into wisdom that will guide their lives in the proper course. We should want to know no more about evil than what is necessary to identify it, realize its disastrous ends, and be able to avoid it.

      In the second part of the exhortation the apostle holds forth the hope that his readers will be "innocent in what is evil." In some versions this phrase is translated "simple concerning evil." The word "simple," however, does not convey the meaning of "easy" or "uncomplicated" (and hence "uninformed") that we now attach to it. The word in the original Greek is akeraios, which means "untainted." It was the term used of metal to denote that it was unmixed with an alloy, and of wine and milk to certify they had not been diluted with water. It therefore signifies something that is absolutely uncontaminated and pure. The knowledge of evil which goes beyond what is necessary to resist and defeat it will, in time, corrupt the soul that acquires it. Thus we are advised in I Ths. 5:22 to "abstain from every form of evil." It seems we all have a natural curiosity about things that are evil. They have a strong, enticing, seducing force to them. (For example, if a movie is banned because of unsavory content, people feel a great urge to see it as soon as it is available somewhere.) It is far better to deny yourself the inclination to learn every alluring detail of evil and spare yourself the devastating power of its deception and consequent corruption.

SELFISHNESS, TEMPTATION'S OPPORTUNITY

Rom. 15:1-2 ... "We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification."

      A very strong case can be made for the affirmation that selfishness is at the base of every sin. The first recorded temptation is that of Satan beguiling Eve in Gen. 3:5 to eat of the forbidden tree: "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The woman's appetite was whetted to gain something desirable for herself, namely, insight and wisdom comparable to God's. She was encouraged to seek for herself what was only within the province of God. And so it has been ever since with sin and the temptation to commit sin. The urge to gain something for one's self is the opportunity for temptation, and the concession to get it constitutes the temptation.

      It was the work of Christ to restore to man what was lost by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. To make His efforts effective in human life requires that a person learn to break free from the bondage of selfishness. Jesus stated in Mat. 16:24 that "if anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." The disciple of Christ must conquer the basic urge of our unregenerate nature to seek his own good first at every turn in life. One must develop the overriding policy of putting the interests of the Lord first in his life. The Christian's attitude must be that of Php. 3:7-8, "Whatsoever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ." Also, in this Christian requisite of self-denial, one must learn to consider other people, especially fellow disciples, before oneself. In Php. 2:3-4 the standard is set: "With humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."

      Rom. 15:1-2 centers on this fundamental principle that Christians must purge themselves of selfishness and benevolently consider the state of being of others, at least those who are also in Christ. The consciences of some brethren are more sensitive than those of others because their knowledge and understanding are not as advanced. To apply one's greater knowledge in a way that will cause a weaker disciple to be offended is a glaring case of selfishness. In the reference to eating meat in Rom 14:15 the admonition is given, "Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died." Rather than demand "our rights" to practice something, which the Lord left to our consciences to decide, without regard to the impact it might have on weaker brethren is the epitome of selfishness and amounts to sin. Too many Christians ignore the view of brethren in certain matters, saying when challenged, "Well, it is THEIR problem if they object to what I do, not mine!" How insensitive and destitute of brotherly love is such an attitude! The verse following our text reminds us that "even Christ did not please Himself." In like manner, those who would follow Christ must not put pleasing themselves before the spiritual welfare of their fellow disciples, even when they consider that their choices are matters of opinion rather than matters of faith. Our goal should always be to seek that which is "good to his edification" for those in our fellowship whose faith and consciences are yet untrained and weak. Such a considerate, unselfish approach will work to build up weak faith and tender consciences to the height of knowledge and understanding where they can see clearly the reality of things. Otherwise, weak brethren are often offended to the point where their Christianity collapses under a weight of disappointment and confusion so that they desert their place in the family of God.