Southern
Christian University
James
A. Turner
Romans
#5
Please
read all the references. They will help you to get a fuller understanding
I
believe that when our time was up the last time, we were in the tenth chapter
of the book of Romans and I think down to verse thirteen. "Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32)." This has been a much-misused passage of
scripture. Some just remove it from the
text and then teach entirely different from what is given here. Many preachers
have quoted Romans 10:13 and left the
impression that all a person has to do to be saved is just say, “O Lord I know
that I am a sinner and I repent. O Lord save me.” But notice what is involved
in calling on the name of the Lord. "How then shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed”?
Think of the thousands of people that are being deceived by television
preachers who conclude their lessons by calling upon unsaved people to say this
little prayer with me, “Lord Jesus come into my heart and save me.”
How
terrible it is for preachers to lead astray innocent people! But of course, those unsaved people have some
responsibility. They have Bibles, and
they ought to be reading and studying their Bibles for themselves. But there are very few people in our American
society today that do much of that, including, I am afraid, many church
members. Many of them do very little
study any longer. But in order for a
person to call upon the name of the Lord in such a way as to be saved, he must
hear those basic facts of the gospel. He
must hear about the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And then he must obey those facts in a form. You remember that Ananias said to Saul of
Tarsus, "And now, why tarriest,
thou? Arise and be baptized and wash
away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16)." The full sense of calling on the name of the
Lord means taking those steps of obedience to obey the Lord.
Verses
fourteen through seventeen,
"How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they
have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they
preach, except they be sent? Even as it
is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good
things!” But they did not all harken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, “Lord, who hath believed our report so belief cometh of hearing, and hearing
by the word of Christ." So a
person cannot have Bible believing faith without hearing. “So
belief cometh of hearing, and
hearing by the word of Christ. Verse eighteen "But
I say, did they not hear? Yea, verily,
their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the
world. But I say, did Israel not know?
First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no
nation. (the Gentiles). With
a nation void of understanding (the Gentiles) will I anger you.
And Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me
not; (the Gentiles) I became
manifest unto them that asked not of me.
But as to Israel he saith, all day long have I spread out
my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."
It
is bad to be disobedient just on the basis of not having faith, but John 3:18,
reads "He that believeth not on
me is condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the only
begotten Son of God." I
believe it is John 6:36 where faith itself is
spoken of as a work. Jesus says, “This is the work of God that you believe
on him that sent me.” A
gainsaying people would be a people speaking against the commandments of
God. The people of Israel,
as a people, became so rebellious that they spoke against the prophets that
were sent to them, and killed a lot of them.
Of course, when they spoke against the prophets, the messengers that God
sent to them, they were speaking against God.
Chapter Eleven,
"I say, then, did God cast off his
people." Here he is talking about the Jewish people,
and his answer is, "God
forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of
Benjamin." Do you remember that the first king, King
Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin?
Verses two through four, “God did not cast off his people which he
foreknew, or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? How he
pleaded with God against Israel. “Lord, they have killed
thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they
seek my life. But what saith the answer
of God unto him? I have left for myself
seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Now, a passage
like this, I am afraid that many times in Bible classes at church, that they
just run over them very quickly. But
there is much more to it and we need to turn back and get the whole story from
the Old Testament. I wish we had plenty
of time where we could turn back and go into detail about this. Please turn, some time soon, and read
chapters seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen of I Kings to get the full story.
James
says, “Confess
your faults one to another and pray one for another that we may be healed for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Then he
said, “Elijah
was a man of like passions as we are and he prayed that it might not rain. And it rained not for three years and six
months. And he prayed again, and the
heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit,” (James 5:16-18)
Do you think we would avail if we were to pray, “Lord, don't let it rain for
three years and six months?” I think
not, but the prophet, Elijah, had a good reason for praying that prayer, and
God answered his prayer. It was during
the time of the old wicked King Ahab of the northern kingdom. Elijah was a prophet to the northern kingdom,
and Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was in the business of killing the prophets of the
Lord, and Obadiah had hidden a hundred of the prophets of the Lord in two caves
and fed them with bread and water to keep them from being killed. And so Elijah prayed this prayer that there
might be a test on Mount Carmel to determine whether Jehovah was God or whether Baal
was God.
God
sent Elijah to the brook, Cherith, where the ravens brought him bread in the
morning and bread in the evening. He
drank water from the brook until the brook went dry, then God sent him to the
widow of Zarephath to take care of him (I Kings 17:8-16;
Luke 4:25-26). After three years, he returned back to the land of Israel and appeared to that good man Obadiah who had hid the
prophets, and was feeding them with bread and water. So as recorded in I Kings 17:1
Elijah went to King Ahab, and said, "As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth before whom I
stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these three years, but according to my
work." So that brought on a great drought, and they
were in danger of even loosing all of the animals. After three years, Elijah went back, chapter
eighteen, and appeared to that good man, Obadiah, and told him to “Go and tell your lord,
Behold, Elijah is here.” Obadiah at first was afraid, but Elijah
convinced him that he would be in the land.
When King Ahab saw Elijah, he accused him of being the troubler of
Israel because of the famine, and Elijah responded, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have,
and your father's house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of
Jehovah and thou hast followed the Baals."
Then
Elijah challenged Ahab for a showdown on Mount Carmel. Take the four
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and let them build an altar and call upon
the name of their god. They were to put a bullock on each altar, and
whoever's God came down and consumed the sacrifice, he would be God. When it came time for Elijah to build his
altar, he had them to pour pots of water on the bullock, and on the wood on the
altar, and a ditch around the altar. And
he called upon God to come down and accept the sacrifice. And God consumed the sacrifice with fire, and
also the water around the altar. And, of
course, the people said, Jehovah is God.
And Elijah said, “Take
the prophets, all the prophets of Baal, and kill them,” and they did. And, I guess, Elijah, like us, was
expecting the people of Israel to turn in a great way, but they did not turn in any
great way. And Jezebel got after him.
She sent a message to him that his life would be like the life of one of those
prophets of Baal that he had killed by this time tomorrow. So Elijah ran from Jezebel, and he went to
Beersheba and left his servant there, and then he went a day's journey on into
the wilderness out of the land of Israel; and he sat down under a juniper tree
and wanted the Lord to take his life.
Elijah
went to sleep, and an angel of the Lord woke him up and had a cake baking on
coals and a cruise of water and the angel said, “ Arise and eat.” Elijah ate and
went to sleep again, and the angel woke him up again, and he ate again. The angel told him he needed the food, and he
went forty days and forty nights unto Mount Horeb. And while he
was at Mount Horeb, the Lord appeared to him. He was in a cave, and the Lord said to him, “What doest thou here
Elijah? Elijah said, I have been very
zealous for Jehovah, but the children of Israel have forsaken thy
covenant. They have thrown down your
altars and have slain your prophets, and I am the only one left, and they seek
my life to take it away.” Well, God demonstrated before Elijah with the
wind that ripped the rocks of the mountains, but God was not in the wind, then
an earthquake, and then a fire. After
that God spoke to him in a still, small voice and wanted to know again why he
was there. Elijah responded like he had
already responded. He sincerely thought
that he was the only one left!
God
gave Elijah a new mission. On his way, according to the instruction given here
in the latter part of chapter nineteen, he was to appoint Hazael to be king over
the adjoining country of Syria, and he was to appoint Jehu to be king over the
northern kingdom of Israel and Elisha to be prophet in his stead. Now, all that Elijah did was to appoint
Elisha in his stead. There is still a
longer story about the appointing of those other two. But what did this amount to? Hazael of Syria would make war against Israel, and in that war a lot of the people that worshiped
Baal would be killed. And Jehu was to be
king over Israel, and he first went and cut off all the descendants of
Ahab, including his wife Jezebel. He had
the eunuchs to throw her out of an up stairs window, and then the dogs ate her,
I believe, all of her but her hands.
And
then Jehu made out like he was a great Baal worshiper and called all the worshipers
of Baal together. They were going to
have a big Baal worship. Jehu gave
instructions, to eighty men that he had to kill them. They put vestments on them, so that they
would not kill any except the Baal worshipers.
And then at the right time he gave command for them to kill all of
them. And so there is a long story
behind this. But even after that, there
were seven thousand people who had not bowed their knees to Baal, and we need
to think about this Old Testament account.
We are so prone, maybe in a little small congregation and it about dead,
and we decide nobody is trying to do anything, and I am the only one left, and
they are talking about me! Do you ever
think like that? We need to stay out
from under Elijah's juniper tree or broom tree, as other versions read.
Elijah’s attitude was, “Lord, just take me on.
I am no better than my Fathers.” There are a number of other chapters, about
the appointment of those other two and what they did. (II Kings 2:1-18,
4:1 to 5:14, 8; 7-15,
and chapters nine and ten of II Kings).
Verse
five, "Even
so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election
of grace." He is saying that there
is a remnant of the Jewish people, and I would guess that that remnant even
today might be larger than we think.
According to our thinking, I think we pretty well have the idea that
there are no Jews that are Christians.
But if we knew all the facts, we might see things very differently. Verse 6, "But if it is by grace, it is no more of
works: Otherwise grace is no more grace." Now, he
is talking about works of merit. When a
man works hard during the week, he doesn't have to turn his back to take his
paycheck. It is not grace if he has
worked real hard and earned it, but there is no such thing as a man earning his
salvation. "No man is saved
apart from the grace of God," but as
we have already discussed, a person can get himself out of the bounds of God's
love, mercy, and grace.
"What then?
That which Israel seeketh for, that he
obtained not, but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened.” The election, that obtained it would, be all of those
who believed in Christ. According to the account given in (Acts 2:41,
2:46-47, 4:4, 5:14-16,
6:1, 6:7-8) there
must have been at least twenty thousand Jews who believed during those early
days of the church. “And
the rest were hardened,” and again that
hardening was already taking place when
Barnabas and Saul went on that missionary journey into Gentile territory (Acts chapters thirteen and fourteen). Verse eight, "According as it is written, God gave
them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they
should not hear. Unto this very day, (Now, notice it
says) God
gave them a spirit of stupor.” Well, we
discussed that in chapter nine. When
people are stubborn and rebellious to no end, God is ready for them to have a
spirit of stupor. Or as stated in II
Thessalonians 2:10
God is willing for them “to
believe a lie and be damned, who believe not the truth but have pleasure in
unrighteousness." So God was willing for them to have “a spirit of stupor,” but it was because of their unbelief and
rebellion.
Verse
eleven,
"I say then, did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall
salvation is come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy." From the
thirteenth chapter of the book of Acts, you remember how Paul and Barnabas had
gone to the Jewish synagogue at Antioch and how they asked them to speak the next Sabbath
day. But the next Sabbath day, it looked
like, almost all of the Gentile people turned out to hear them. And the Jews were moved with jealousy and
began to contradict Paul and Barnabas and the word and blasphemed. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out against
them. They said, “it was necessary that
the word of God should first be preached to you, but seeing you thrust it from
you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles.” The Gentiles were glad. Men judge themselves unworthy of eternal life
by refusing to believe the gospel.
Verse
twelve,
"Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches
of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" In other words
if they come back to a point of faith, they will be a part of the new Israel of
God. The new Israel of God is composed
of Jews and Gentiles who believe and obey Christ (Romans 2:28-29; Philippians 3:1-7). "But I speak to you that are Gentiles,
inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy
them that are my flesh, and may save some of them. For if the casting away of them is the
reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from
the dead?" But as long as they go
the way of unbelief, they are spiritually dead.
They are separated from God, but if they come back to a point of faith,
then God will receive them, and that will be life from the dead. They will be reconciled to God again.
Verse
sixteen "And
if the first fruit is holy, so is the lump." Well, the Jews were the first
fruits even under the great commission of Christ (James 1:18). And so he is
saying they made up that first holy body.
"And
if the first fruit is holy, so is the lump.
And if the root is holy, so are the branches, but if some of the
branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive. (Gentiles) wast grafted in among them, and is become
partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over
the branches. But if thou glory, it is
not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee." I am confident
it would be harder to graft a wild olive branch into a good olive tree, than it
would to graft one fruit bearing olive tree into another fruit bearing olive
tree. I believe maybe it is possible for
real good grafters to graft pecans on a hickory tree. But it would be a very unusual to find a
grafter with enough skill to do that.
But it is easy for a good grafter to take a seedling pecan tree, and
graft another kind of pecan on it, Stuart, paper shell, or whatever he wants on
that seedling.
Verse
nineteen, "Thou
wilt say then, branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well by
their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare
thee.” So he is saying to the Gentiles,
and we are Gentiles, do not get the idea that you are so much better than the
Jews that God just broke them off so you could be grafted in. If you Gentiles turn away and become
unbelievers, he will cast you off like he cast those rebellious Jews off.
Verse twenty-two, "Behold then the goodness
and the severity of God." Now, there are both sides to God. And, I think that, I mentioned when we
studied from the eighth chapter of Romans, how some just want to dwell entirely
on the love of God. And the love of God,
surely, is very, very great, but God is also a God of justice, and his wrath is
kindled by rebellion, and we need to remember that. There is the goodness and there is the
severity of God. "Toward them that
fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness. (conditional) If thou continue in his goodness." What
does it mean to continue in his goodness?
Continue to read and study his word, and try to live in accordance with
it, that is the way to continue in his goodness. "Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they continue not in their
unbelief, shall be grafted in: For God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wast cut off out of that which is
by nature a wild olive tree and was grafted in contrary to nature into a good
olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be
grafted into their own olive tree? For I
would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your
own conceits; that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in." In the gospel of Luke (21:24), Luke speaks of
the fullness of the Gentiles.
Verse twenty-six, "and so all Israel shall be saved." All Israel here would be talking about those faithful people of
the Jewish people and of the Gentile people.
"And
so all Israel shall be saved; even as
it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliver (Christ) and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: And this is my covenant unto them. When I
shall take away their sins." Please remember that one of the primary
differences between the Old Testament law and the New Testament law, when sins
are forgiven unto the New Testament law, they are remembered no more, but they
never were completely forgiven under the Old Testament law. "And this is my covenant unto them, when I
shall take away their sins. As touching
the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: But as touching the election, they are
beloved for the father's sakes. For the
gifts and the calling of God are not to be repented of." In short, God
has planned that all of those Jews who believe on him are going to be among his
saved people, and that is going to stand.
"For
as ye in times past were disobedient to God." Think of the
latter part of the first chapter of Romans about that, and how God gave them up
“to their
vile passion”.
Verse
thirty, "For
as ye in times past were disobedient to God, but have now obtained mercy by
their disobedience. For God hath shut up
all unto disobedience that he might have mercy upon all." Do you remember Romans 3:23,
where he is talking about Jews and Gentiles, that “all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.” "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out!" We need to recognize
in a good full sense that there are things that God has planned, and things
that God has done, which are beyond our ability to understand. "How unsearchable are his judgments and his
ways past finding out!
Verse thirty-four “For who hath known the
mind of the Lord?" Well, nobody has, except as revealed by the Holy
Spirit going back to (I Corinthians 2:10-13). "Are who hath been his counselor?" In other words
who has given God advice? Nobody was
capable of giving God advice. "Or who hath first
given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" You
know as far as one man toward another, you may see a man in a tight and loan
him money, or whatever he needs, and expect him to get in better shape down
yonder and recompense you again. But God
has never been in need. He possesses all
things (Psalms 24:1). "For of him, and
through him, and unto him are all things." All creation, everything
belongs to the Lord. We do
not actually own anything. God is just allowing us to be stewards of his
possessions for a little while (Luke 12:13-21;
I Timothy 6:6-10; Job 1:11-12,
1:20-22; Ecclesiastes 5:13-17). "Of him, through
him, and unto him, are all things; to him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen." In these first eleven chapters,
Paul has continued with a continuous theme about the relationship of the Old
Testament law to the New Testament law, and that no one can be saved by the
works of the law; and the only way of salvation is through faith in the blood
of Christ and obedience to Christ.
Chapter Twelve
All
right. Now, he has finished that
theme. And chapter twelve begins with
things, and the rest of the book, that have to do with everyday Christian
living. Chapter twelve, a favorite
chapter of many, is surely a great chapter,
"I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual
service." Under the law, in
the main, they offered up dead sacrifices, didn't they? But under the New Testament, the children of
God are to be living sacrifices to God. When we think about a living sacrifice,
we think of doing those things that God has instructed us to do. "Which is your spiritual
service. And be not fashioned according
to this world. or be not
conformed to this world (King James Version)." It is
easy to be fashioned or conformed to the way of the world, to conform to those
peers around us. "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God." All right doing must
stem from the heart, and all wrongdoing also first begins in the heart.
Proverbs 4:23
reads, "Keep thy heart with all
diligence for out of it are the issues of life." Jesus said, “Not
that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which proceedeth out
of the mouth, this defileth the man, (Matthew 15:12). All of the
actions of a man first originate in the heart. If man never has malice and
hatred in his heart, he is not going to up and commit murder, and a person who
has not been lusting is not going to commit adultery. So we need to think on right things, and we
need to read things that are worth reading.
We also need to read that which is worth reading, the word of God. It is not the right thing for us to do, to
sit and read magazines, etc. more than we read the Bible. We need to read that
which will edify and build us up, and the same thing should be true in regard
to watching television. A man cannot
keep his mind in the gutter and live right.
So that transformation takes place by the renewing of our mind.
In
verses three through eight, he is emphasizing first that a person ought not to
think more highly than he ought to think, but that he is to think soberly about
in what area he can best serve the Lord, and then try to give attention to
really serving the Lord in that area. We
are all different, with different abilities, and we need to think seriously
about the abilities and experiences that we have; and in those areas where we
are somewhat peculiarly qualified to serve, we need to really serve in those
areas as much as we can. Look at it
carefully and see if that's not the sense of these verses. "For
I say, through the grace that was given unto me." He is talking about God's grace toward him to
make him an apostle to the Gentiles. "For I say, through the grace that
was given to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think."
There is always a danger of some of us doing a little of that, thinking
of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. But the other extreme of that is for man just
to say, “well, I am a nobody and I can not do anything.” The one talent man
(Matthew 25) was not condemned because he had only one talent, but because he
did not use that talent. So we are to think soberly. "But
so to think as to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man a
measure of faith, for even as we have many members in one body." Do you remember how Paul went into details in
the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians about how the body of Christ should be
like the human body, every member cooperating and working together for the good
of the whole body? "For even as we have many members in
one body, and all the members have not the same office: So
we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one to
another." We are to be our
brother's keeper, we are “severally members one to another. And
having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether
prophecy, let us prophecy."
It does look like from that statement that there must have been some
few, in the church at Rome, that
already had miraculous gifts. They could
have received those miraculous gifts by the laying on of the apostles' hands,
somewhere else, and then gone to Rome. But remember in the first chapter, how Paul
emphasized one of the reasons why he wanted to go to Rome
was to give them some miraculous gifts to the end that they might be
established. "Whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the
proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or
he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with
liberality; he that ruleth with dilegence; he that showeth mercy with
cheerfulness" Prophecy was a miraculous gift, which enabled them (I
Corinthians 14:5) to teach. Please remember
that the New Testament had not been completed, and there is no indication that
any church had a number of the books of the New Testament compiled in one
volume. Ministry is not talking about preachers, but those who minister to the
needs of others. Whether it is in times
of sickness, or in times of need, or whatever, there are those who are
peculiarly qualified to take care of the needs of people and encourage
them. Some of the rest of us are not
very good at that, and it looks like to me this passage is saying, consider
what you can do well and try to really do well in that area. Now,
this does not mean that one person is to teach and another is to minister or
serve the needs of others, and another is to give, and another to rule, and
another to show mercy. But it is referring to how each person is to utilize
those special abilities that he has.
We
know that Paul laid down the rule that “upon
the first day of the week let each one of you lay by himself in store as God
hath prospered him (I Corinthians 16:1-2). So on the first day of the week, all of us
are under the responsibility of giving as we have been prospered, but there are
some people that have real ability, business sense, whereby they can make a lot
of money. Some have peculiar ability to
know what to do and when to do, and almost everything they put their hands to
turns out well. And then that may be one
of the best ways that they can serve is by really give themselves to
investments whereby they make a lot of money, and use that money then to preach
the gospel, and other things that we are to do.
But his peculiar ability does not relieve any of the rest of us of the
responsibility of giving as we have been prospered. But for some one of the best ways they can
serve the Lord is in that area of using their ability to make money and then
using that money properly. “He that giveth, let him do it with
liberality.” Let him be glad that
he has been prospered and be glad to give.
"Let he that ruleth,
with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness."
Again,
all of us are under responsibility to show mercy. James said, in James 2:13
“For judgment is with out mercy to
him that hath showed no mercy; mercy glorieth against judgment. This is a passage that all of us need to keep
in mind. We will do well if we could
keep in mind the sense of it. "For judgment is without mercy to him
that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy glorieth against judgment." Not any of us want to be judged on the basis
of justice, do we? All of us would be
condemned if we are judged on the basis of just strict justice. All of us need mercy! And this passage is saying that in order to
receive mercy, we must learn to show mercy.
“Mercy glorieth against
judgment.” And so here when he
says that he that sheweth mercy, do it with cheerfulness, does not relieve the
rest of us. But there are those who have
peculiar ability of showing mercy. It
may be that even Paul himself was not quite as merciful toward John Mark as he
should have been. But I guess on the
other hand it was good for John Mark to have Barnabas who was ready to show
mercy and to have Paul who was a little strict.
Probably both of them had to do for his well-being.
Verse
nine, "Let love be without
hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil;
cleave to that which is good." So
let love be sincere, and real, and hate the wrong, and cleave to the good. If
we hate evil we will turn away from evil. Proverbs 16:17 reads, "The highway of the upright is to
depart from evil." And
remember that I Thessalonians 5:22
reads, “abstain from every form of
evil or shun even the
appearance of evil.” One of the
great dangers is for people to try to see how close they can get to evil
without doing evil themselves. We are to
stay away. We are to hate that way, and
depart from it, and cleave to that which is good.
Verse
ten, "In the love of the
brethren, be tenderly, affection one to another: In
honour preferring one another."
In short, if we love our brethren, as we ought, we are ready to put
aside those things that do not matter in order to please and help our
brethren. We will give them first
place. "In
diligence, be not slothful." Again, we are to be good workers for the
Lord. A man who is lazy cannot serve the
Lord properly. "Fervent in spirit; serving the
Lord. Rejoicing in hope; patient in
tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer." This is a parallel to the passage in I
Thessalonians five, where he says “continue
steadfastly in prayer.” Well, our
brethren in the main have said, that we should always be in a prayerful spirit
or attitude, but I think if we just think about Acts 2:42,
and “they continue steadfastly, in
the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in prayer.” I think that passage pretty well interprets
what these passages mean. They observed
the Lord's Supper, every time they were supposed to on the first day of each
week. In other words prayer, as I have
already emphasized, is to be an everyday part of Christian living. Some use prayer as somewhat as an emergency
device. "Communicating
to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality." The word “communicating” means sharing or
giving to the necessities of the saints.
"Given to hospitality,” means
that matter of taking into your home, or whatever needs to be done for people,
including strangers (III John 5-8). I
think today that some have the idea that anytime we invite a few of our closest
friends over and have fellowship with them, and then expect them to invite us
over, that that is hospitality. Well,
that is all right, but that is not the kind of hospitality that this passage is
talking about or the statement in Hebrews 13:2,
" Forget not to show love unto
strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unaware (Genesis 18:1-10,
19:1-4)." "Bless them that persecute you; and curse
not." There is no place for
returning curse for curse or reviling for reviling, (I Peter 3:8-9)
but we are to bless them that persecute us.
Verse
fifteen, "Rejoice with them
that rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Sometimes I think we do a better job with the
latter part of verse fifteen than we do with the first part. What do you think? But we can be much happier if we learn to
rejoice with all others around us when they have occasions to rejoice. "Be
of the same mind one toward another. Set
not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly." I think I remember hearing, the late Brother
A. M. Burton of Nashville, Tennessee,
speak at Alabama Christian
College. Brother Burton established
an insurance company when he was a young man, and the company did well. He became a rich man, and he got to thinking
about this passage, as I remember him telling, and he and his wife decided that
they would especially try to reach people, that were poor, the down trodden,
and those in need, and they were very successful in doing so. He was doing some good thinking, was he
not? “Set
not your mind on high things, but condescend the things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits." Anytime a man is wise in his own conceits, he
is going the way of a foolish man.
Verse
seventeen, "Render to no man
evil for evil." Now, that
does not come naturally, does it? That
is just a little bit contrary to human nature.
"Take thought for things
honourable in the sight of all men." Do you remember from I Corinthians 8:21
that sometimes it takes more effort to do things honorable in the sight of man
than it does in the sight of God. And so
we are to do that which has approval, you know, as being honest and upright
before men. "If it be possible as much as in you lieth, be at peace
with all men." Now, when we
exhaust all possibilities, we may not be able to be at peace with some because
some pretty much stay on the war path, but we are to do our part. And just think in the area of marriage, if
each spouse would do everything possible to keep peace, divorce would almost
vanish. Avenge not yourselves
beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God.
For it is written, vengeance belongeth unto me." In other words anytime we try to take
vengeance, we are getting out of proper place.
We are trying to take on God's responsibility, that belongs to him. And, you know, that is pretty hard for us to
get fully in mind that we have no right to take vengeance on anyone, and that
includes all members of the family. Sometimes one member will “push the button”
of another member, and then a tongue lashing battle occurs, but that is wrong.
It violates Romans 12:19-20 even though it is
in the family. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he
thirst, give him drink:
For in so doing shalt thou heap coals of fire upon his head." The first part of verse twenty is a quotation
from Proverbs 25:21. “For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head”
simply means that when you return good for evil, if there is any humanity left
in that fellow, it is going to help to change him, it will help to turn him
around. It may take awhile, but if there
is any good thing left in him, after awhile he is going to have a change of
heart. And, of course, it does not mean
taking vengeance, he has already told us not to do that. "Be not
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." We overcome evil with good when we turn
around and do something good for that person that has tried to do harm to
us.