Seek
Peace
Do
Good Before All
In a Brief Survey
of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans
Based on sermons
preached in PCC Worship Services, July 2003 to Sep 2005
Part 68a of 83
“Recompense to no man evil
for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it be
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:17-18).
Christ
laid His life down for His Church comprising the full number of the elect of
God. But in God’s wisdom, these must be redeemed and nurtured in local Christian congregations, or true
branches of Christ’s Church Visible Universal.
What
does a faithful Christian congregation look like? Some of us, looking at the
arrangement of a worship hall, may imagine that it looks like a huge bus with
the congregation seated in front-facing rows, being driven by pastor appointed
by Christ. But is this the right mental image of what the church local should
be?
Well,
no! If we have understood the apostle Paul correctly, the church should be more
like a large family dwelling in a little village whose members take care of one
another.
In a
sense, the apostle is seeking, in the section of His great letter that we are
studying, to teach us how we may dwell happily together in this village.
We
have seen that we must love sincerely, seek to do good to one another; and
cultivate a warm brotherly affection with each other (v. 9-10).
We
should be on fire to serve the Lord in all areas of our lives. We must not be
slow and lazy in our attitude, but rather fervent in spirit (v. 11).
We must rejoice in hope believing that God is doing all
things well for the good of his children, and patiently endure all pressurising
situations (v. 12).
Similarly,
we must learn to share with one another the things that God has blessed us
with, and we practice sincere hospitality towards our visitors and to one
another (v. 13).
We must not give in to the temptation to do evil to those
who persecute us. We must, rather, bless and curse not (v. 14).
We should cultivate sympathy in sorrow and joy so that we
can rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep (v. 15).
We must also strive to have the same mind one toward
another (v. 16).
But now we have come to Paul’s final counsel on this
subject before he reiterates something which he has already spoken about,
namely that we should bless those who persecute us (v. 19-21, cf. v. 14).
This final counsel is in verse 17-18—
17
Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all
men. 18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men.
Now, we had already considered the first part of verse 17
when we studied verse 14, and so we will pass by it. It will be a good
exercise, though, to consider by ourselves how the two parts of verse 17 are
related.
But for now, for the purpose of our present study, let us
consider the two clearly related instructions, “Provide things honest in the sight of all men” and “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you,
live peaceably with all men.”
1. Provide Things Honest
a. What is it to “provide things honest”?
Well, literally, the Greek literally says “foresee good.” Or see to it that
good emerges; or in other words, take care to make sure that you do what is
good.
Now,
the word ‘good’ in the Scriptures can mean absolute good or it can be relative good.
That is, it can mean “good in the sight of God” or “good in the sight of men.”
When
we say that “there is none that doeth good” (Rom 3:12), we are speaking about
‘absolute good.’ No mere man can do any good in the sight of God, for all our
righteousness are as filthy rags in His sight. There is none righteous, no not
one; there is none that doeth good, no not one. This is the reason why we can
only have a relationship with God by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ—who alone is righteous and does good.
None
of us can do ‘absolute good.’ So when the apostle says, “provide things honest” or take care to make sure that you do good,
he is not speaking about absolute good. He is speaking about relative good.
In
fact, this is very clear when we read the rest of the sentence. “Provide things honest in the sight of all men.”
We are to take care to do good in the sight of all men.
b. Notice what Paul is saying. He is telling us
that whatever we do, we must do it not only in the sight of God, but also in
the sight of men!
God
sees our hearts, but men can only see our actions. So we must not say that so
long as our heart is right, we can do things anyhow.
We
are not to entertain the attitude that “so long as my conscience is clear
before God, I don’t care what others say.”
We
must care because we are to live as witnesses for Christ! The apostle Paul
himself made it a philosophy of life to be right in the sight of God and also
in the sight of men. Look at Acts 24:16. Here Paul says:
“And
herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).
It
was not enough for Paul that his conscience should be void of offence toward
God. It must also be void of offence toward men.
How
to have a conscience void of offence towards men? By doing all things in a way
that will not give rise to questions in the eyes of all men.
Let
me put it this way: we all know what a guilty conscience is. When do we get a
guilty conscience? We get a guilty conscience, when we sense that we have done
something wrong, whether in the sight of God, or in the sight of man.
For
example, if you start replaying a movie you watched earlier during the worship
service, you will have a guilty conscience though no one knows what is going on
in your mind. You will get a guilty conscience towards God when you sense that
you have sinned in the sight of God.
On
the other hand, if you spoke to someone rudely in a moment of frustration, you
may get a guilty conscience towards the person, because you sense that you have
done wrong in the sight of the person.
Well,
if your conscience does not accuse you in both of these situations, you have a
seared conscience. You are backsliding, and you ought to deal with your sin.
But if you have a guilty conscience, what must you do. You will have no peace
until you do something about it. What should you do?
Well, if you perceive that you have offended God, you
must go to the Lord to seek His fatherly forgiveness. But if you perceive that
you have offended someone (whether or not you think you have actually done
wrong), then you must go to the person to seek his forgiveness, or at least to
seek clarification. Unless and until you do so, your conscience will give you
no peace.
Now,
this is why we must exercise ourselves always to have a conscience void of
offence not only towards God, but towards man as well.
Paul
is, in our text, instructing us to have a conscience void of offence towards
men, by striving always to conduct ourselves in such a way as not to give occasions
for questions and doubts to arise in the heart of those who observe us. This is
what is mean by providing things honest in the sight of all men.
How
to do so? Well, let me give you three examples that should illustrate what you
could do.
· First, to provide things
honest in the sight of all men, you must try not to provoke in others a wrong
impression by your conduct.
I
remember once following a ministerial friend who had fallen on hard times as he
went about his supplementary job of debt collection. We were going to a pub to collect the debt
from a certain debtor. When we reached the pub, the pastor parked his car quite
a distance from it. Then he began to look around in a rather suspicious way. I
wondered what he was doing.
Well, he explained that we must not be seen in this place
or rumours would spread abroad and it would be very hard to wash away the
stain. You see, there was nothing wrong with what he was doing, but we had to
make sure that no one sees us there and misunderstand what we were doing. So if
we saw someone who recognized us, we would have had to go up to explain what we
were doing there!
We must be right not only in the sight of God, but also
in the sight of men!
· Secondly, to provide things
honest in the sight of all men, the deacons in this church has adopted a
procedure for counting the collection every Sabbath. Now, our deacons are, of
course, honest men. We know that they will not pocket a single cent. And yet,
after they have collected the amount, they make sure that it is counted in the
presence of at least two witnesses, and then they report every single cent that
is collected.
Why do they do so? Why can’t they just put the amount
into the bank and that settles it? Well, the procedure of witnessing and
reporting is in place because they understand that they must do all things
right in the sight of all men. They
must not allow room for doubt because they bear the name of Christ as His
servants.
They
must do all things not only right in the sight of God, but also in the sight of
all men.
· But
third, as an example of providing things honest in the sight of all men, think
about some of our brethren are careful to make sure our elders know when they
are unable to attend a worship service or meeting. There is no law obliging
them to do so, but they do anyway. Why?
Well,
I suspect it is not just common courtesy, but a desire to provide all things
honest, or right in the sight of all men. They understand that the elders are
accountable for them and the brethren are also concerned about them, so they
seek to give an account to them without being asked.
c. There are, as we can imagine, many other
scenarios in which we may put to practice what the apostle is enjoining us to
do. But isn’t it pandering to the fear of men and seeking to please men when we
take care not to offend any or to pre-empt any possibility of being misjudged?
Well,
admittedly, there is a fine line between pleasing men and seeking to do what is
right and honourable in the sight of men. But the reality is that this line is
crossed only when we please men at the expense of pleasing God. There is
nothing wrong with seeking to please men per
se. The fact is that God would have us not only to love Him, but also to
love our neighbours. Therefore, we must seek to be right not only in the sight
of God, but also in the sight of all men. Indeed, those who fail to care about
what men think often destroy their own witness for God and therefore blaspheme
His holy name.
The
apostle says “Provide things honest in
the sight of all men.” The word
‘provide’ is a strong word in the Greek (προνοέω, pronoeō). “See to it,” he is saying. Or “study, and
anticipate.”
We must not be apathetic. We must not say, “I don’t
care!” We must care! It is important to anticipate what others will think about
our actions or non-actions.
We must strive to present ourselves as being right not
only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men.
Do not say, though I am wrong in the sight of men, I am
right in the sight of God! No, no; if you think you are right in the sight of
God, but wrong in the sight of men, you are overall wrong!
When you are right in the sight of God, even your enemies
should admit that you are right even though they may not agree with you.
Therefore, if you are the only one who thinks you are right in your action, or
if the only ones who think you are right are those who are afraid to offend
you, then you know that you are probably wrong!
Let us for the sake of bearing well the name of Christ
before men seek to provide all things honest in the sight of all men.
And not only so, but let us strive to live peaceably with
all men.
…to be Continued Next Issue
—JJ Lim