The Letter to the Romans: Message #6 – Chapter 12 – Spiritual Gifts and Life in the Body of Christ

I’m no better at any of this than you are. These are things that we bring back to mind to one another. There is no more important passage to be familiar with in Scripture. The worst thing you could do with what is being said here tonight is to demand it of another human being. That’s not what this is for. This is an exhortation to bring us back and cause us to remember. It is not for you to say, “Listen here. We’re not of the same mind, and Gene said we’re supposed to be the same. Bye. Why aren’t you giving in to me?” I picked over all the guys here, didn’t I? These are the rules here, saints. None of us is going to live up to this. Certainly not all the time, but it’s an admonishment that brings us back.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a large ship. I was on a very large ship once, in a horrible storm. I don’t even know if they have these things on ships anymore, but I assume they do. Something called a gyroscope—do they still, can they still, are those things still in existence? It’s a wheel that turns round and round very fast and keeps a ship on course. And I could stand there and watch a giant wave, incredible waves, hit the side of that boat, and it would just go like that, and then it would come right back. Hit and just come right back. That gyroscope was bringing it back. This is gyroscope territory. These are things that we cannot hold in our minds. We cannot hold these things in our minds. We come back, and we’ve got them again and again.

Alright, verse 17. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Now, let me explain what that means. If you have no other concept of right or wrong or ethics, then ask yourself, how would the world look on this? Now, if you’re one of those pessimistic people who think that the world’s going to hell and that everything’s getting worse and worse and worse, my own personal opinion is it couldn’t get any worse than it started out. The first person who was like unto us was Cain and Abel, and Cain killed Abel. Now that was the beginning of this race. It started with murder and has kept up with murder, and we’re just bad, folks; that’s what we are. So, you would say, well, you know, the world condones anything. That’s not true. The world doesn’t even condone adultery. Hollywood does, but Centerville, Iowa, doesn’t. The teachers on my faculty didn’t. I mean, they might have all been committing adultery, but when it got out in the open that someone on the staff was committing adultery, there was a standard there. You may be taking drugs, and somebody else may be taking drugs, but society condemns drug taking, and it condemns murder. It condemns ugliness and viciousness.

It doesn’t even respect cursing, but everybody curses. That may be true, but if you go around and check people out, they will feel more comfortable living and working in an atmosphere where it wasn’t going on. Even the heathen…the heathen have a sense of that which is right and wrong. Society still has standards, even if it doesn’t live up to them. There are things that are unethical. There are still rules in businesses about how you treat lower-level and higher-level employees. Brother, if you can’t figure out anything else in the Christian life, ask yourself, is this acceptable in the society of the world? And if you will be honest with yourself and not play games, it’s a good measure to go by. Why? Does society condone—this society in Chicago, Illinois—does it condone drunkenness? We’ve got little guys running around here in cars with little blue uniforms on, big old sirens up on top that say, We don’t condone drunkenness. Do we condone adultery? Go ask a divorce lawyer if society condones adultery. It does not condone adultery. You don’t have to ask if society condones drugs. You know it doesn’t condone drugs. Does it condone conspiracy? In the workplace, we’ve got laws that will protect employees from employers mistreating them. It’s interesting that there’s still a standard in the world.

And if you can’t figure anything else to do, then do that which is acceptable in the sight of all men. That will put you under a pretty heavy standard. Be at peace with everybody you can be, and let God repay us; it’s not up to you to repay. I know that sounds very simple, but I believe every one of us has a tendency to want to inflict pain. Is that not true? When you’ve been hurt, do you not also want to hurt? Is it not something that causes us all to have to get down on our knees and say, “Lord, please forgive me and help me”? Be my help. I don’t want to really inflict pain on this person. Anytime you raise your voice and holler at somebody, there’s an element of vengeance in it. Does that make any sense to you?