Hate Evil, Do Good

 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good. Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters. And give each other more honor than you give yourself. (Romans 12:9-10)

Sometimes it is way too easy to put on our 'public happy face' in the presence of what we know are unkind or evil actions, going about life as though all things within our life were wonderful all of the time, all the while struggling on the inside to just keep it together. The 'public happy face' fools no one, especially God. The more ingenuine we are with each other, the longer it will take for us to realize the healing we need so desperately require as a society. Real love for one another doesn't require the 'public happy face' to be worn. In fact, real love displayed means we are 'real' with each other - even when life is a bit messy, or our 'perfection' isn't quite measuring up that day, and evil seems to be gaining ground around us. 

Two very important instructions are given to us in this passage: 1) Hate what is evil; and 2) Do only what is good. Those are pretty tall orders, but when we begin to shun the evil things that bring discord and angst into our lives, we begin to move toward what brings depth, purpose, and purity. We might not realize the power of evil around us, but we can trust God to help us overcome its pull within our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit residing within us. Loving one another in the manner God desires requires us being genuine, even when all we see around us seems a bit 'messy' and less than 'perfect'. 

The prophet Amos what the first to record this instruction: "Seek good, not evil, that you may live." (Amos 5:15) We will sow discord and live ingenuine lives when we allow justice to be perverted and evil to abound. Evil actually requires the mask because the mask is how it entices us into 'relationship' with it. Hate evil - move away from it with all haste. Nothing good comes when evil is allowed to abound. Genuine people, living life as a community of believers can stand against evil of all kinds. Sometimes it feels like we are going against the mainstream of behavior in our world, but that is why it is so important to have genuine relationships where we can find strength and renewal, allowing God to do the work of transforming us into a mighty army of warriors for good and not evil. Just sayin!

Good, Gooder, Goodest

Have you ever known someone with all the book learning in the world, but they simply lacked good common sense? Doesn't it amaze you sometimes how much we can amass in "knowledge" and still lack the "skill" to do some of the stuff we need to do? Simply put, common sense is the "sound" practical judgment that is independent of any of the specialized knowledge we might amass through training. In some fields of human psychology, they might say this is the "native" intelligence that someone possesses. My "native" intelligence differs from yours. You may excel in baking and cooking, creating all manner of new and delightful cuisine in your kitchen. I have a way of seeing things in a new light - using what we have to create new uses for that item. For example, if you buy a cup of coffee on a road trip and later decide to have some cherries as you travel along, that little hole in the top of the plastic lid of the cup is the perfect size to discard your cherry pits into! Knowledge doesn't have to be lofty - some of the best knowledge is practical, down to earth, and useful to all who can benefit from it.

Be good to your servant, God; be as good as your Word. Train me in good common sense; I'm thoroughly committed to living your way. Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place, but now I'm in step with your Word. You are good, and the source of good; train me in your goodness. (Psalm 119:65-68)

Getting the Word "into" us is great! We cannot live without it. Yet, it is not in the "amount" of intake that we are made wise! It is in the "asking" for the intake to be made "good common sense" that wisdom begins to take form - when the "intake" becomes practical for us, the outflow will reveal much wisdom. What we need is for "soundness" in our judgment - to see things from a practical, day-to-day perspective, in such a way that we are making wise choices. We try to make this Christian walk kind of "ethereal" instead of very "practical" and down to earth. The fact is that God deals in the "practical", not in the ethereal! He deals with us right here on earth - complete with all the 'earthly' stuff we have to figure out and maneuver through! Ethereal things are really kind of "airy", "fluffy", and hard to nail down. I say it is like trying to nail glue to the wall! God wants us to fully grasp his truths, learn to walk with them as guidance for our daily decisions, and to make better decisions because we understand what it is we are doing with what it is that God has given us. You might have heard the saying, "That person is so heavenly-minded they are absolutely no earthly good!" This points out that we can get so "deep" that we lose the ability to make God's Word practical in our lives. Depth isn't that same as amassing knowledge - depth comes when character matches the knowledge.

Practical truth is learned from experience - we put into practice what we are learning. We actually USE what we are taking in. Ethereal truth is good - practical truth is applicable! We allow God to help us understand how it is put into practice - impacting our decisions / choices. When we say we have "learned" truth through experience, we are probably referring to the idea of having put good judgment into action in some life circumstance. For example, we might be feeling a little "goaded" into speaking some unkind words in the midst of a little heated discussion - when we are reminded of the idea of returning good for evil as is outlined in many passages in scripture, and we might stop short of speaking those words. What happened is that we are making "learning" practical. God's goal in us studying the Word is that it might be made "practical" to us. If you hadn't guessed, practical is from the root from which we derive our word "practice". Therefore, practical truth is practiced truth! If you have ever been in a sport, or played an instrument, you know one of the most important parts of becoming "proficient" in your sport or instrument is in the "practice". It takes hours of practice to throw a good pitch, or to play a chorus without one flaw. It takes just as long for us to become "practiced" in God's Word. We want "instant" - but God says it comes in the consistency, not in the "instant-cy"! (I know that is not a word - I made it up!)

Not sure what you might be "practicing" today, but if you are consistently allowing God's Word to impact your experience, you are practicing the right stuff! The sweetness of the Word comes in the practicality of it when it is applied! Gotta love it! Just sayin!