Sermon Date: 2009/1/25

Sermon 1/25/09
SCRIPTURE READING: Romans 14:13-19
SERMON: Do not let your goodness be damaged as evil.
讲道题目: 不可叫你的善被毀謗為惡
Paul said, “Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.” (Romans 14:16) What does this mean? Paul was explaining the eating rules to the brothers and sisters in Rome. What he meant was this. If you insist on the things you think is right without taking into consideration the principle of love, and do things your way, you will be seen by others as doing evil, and you are putting a stumbling block to make your brother fall. Paul was not suggesting that his Christian brothers and sisters lower their moral standards in order to win a cheap popularity. He understood thoroughly Jesus’ admonition in Luke 6:26. “Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” The point Paul is making is simply this: a Christian’s goodness may caricature his religion and do Christ great harm. When goodness is spoken of as evil, outsiders will be prone to say, “Well, if that’s what Christianity means, we don’t want to be involved in it.”
When is our goodness spoken of as evil?
I. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is proud of itself. That is, when righteousness becomes self-righteousness; when we think that all is well in our moral life; that we are splendid examples for others to emulate; and that if only everybody was as good as we are, we would be perfect in our community or church.
(1)It is always a peril in the moral life that each conquest over evil will make us more satisfied with ourselves. As humility, our greatest virtue, arises from our sense of sin and unworthiness, so self-righteousness, our greatest defect, comes from our sense of goodness. “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)
(2)When we pride ourselves on our goodness, it is very likely that we are confusing sin with vice—adultery, drunkenness, theft, and such obvious evils. But according to Jesus the worst sins are not of this type at all, but are sins of the spirit, such as envy, pride, selfishness, resentment, and hatred. It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than a prig.
(3)Self-righteousness inevitably leads to censoriousness. It sits in judgment over others, as the Pharisees over the adulteress woman, forgetting that we are all sinners in the eyes of God and that only God can compute our comparative merits.
II. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is mainly negative.
(1)In Hebrew ethics much of the emphasis was altogether too predominantly “Thou shall not.” A man was good if he refrained from doing such and such a number of wrong things. The fact that he may not have had any positive virtue was largely overlooked. It was enough that was not a transgressor.
(2)To Jesus goodness was positive in character. He summed up the law and the prophets in two great commandments. “Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 37-39) In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite were no good because they did nothing. In the final judgment, said Jesus, those who will be cast into outer darkness will be those who have committed the sin of doing nothing positive.
III. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is strained. That is, when it is a sweaty, un-natural, great effort kind performance.
(1)There are people who set themselves up to the joyless task of achieving goodness by super human effort and salvation by works of righteousness. They do not understand that true moral growth, like physical stature, does not come by anxious thought and strain, but by an inward surrender and receptivity to the grace of God.
(2)Jesus’ goodness did not come out of lots of sweating. It came logically and easily from a great resource within his soul. He was good without trying to be good.
IV. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is served in a pint by pint measure. Then it becomes the mere performance of defined duty and not the expression of divine grace. There is something lacking in goodness that never rises above the obligations imposed upon us. It is a legalistic, rigid, and stingy thing.
(1)The Pharisees represented this kind of damaged morality. They were faithful to duty but never went beyond the call of duty. They were faithful to the letter of the law but did not understand that real goodness does not appear until the law has been transcended. Jesus said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(2)Christian morality is an extravagant eclipse of the demands of law and reason and duty. It is never a calculated arithmetic. It is something which overflows and outruns reasonable expectations and legal contracts. Jesus asked his followers, “What do you do more than others?” Others will go the one mile demanded, but you should go two miles. Others will forgive a man once, thrice, or even seven times, but you should forgive him seventy times seven. Others will obey the call of duty, but you should take up your cross and follow me. The one who was excessive in his goodness and went beyond the call of duty.
(3)I think it is clear why Jesus seemed to prefer the company of sinners to that of the “saints” of his day. The “saints” were dutiful, calculating, and cautious. The sinners were not only indulgent in badness but had their moments when they were indulgent in goodness. People of characters like that are not only more interesting than narrow minded souls but they are actually more lovable. And there is more hope for such scamps than for the “saints”

Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For in Jesus Christ we have the challenge of divine goodness. In him we have the only valid motive for morality: we are to be good because God is good. In him we have the grace which can make us “more than conquerors” ((Romans 8:37) Apart from his mercy we can do nothing, and even our best achievements in virtue will be seen as soiled and ragged works of our human frailty.
Amen
Sermon Synopsis
Paul said, “Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.” What he meant was this. If you insist on the things you think is right without taking into consideration the principle of love, and do things your way, you will be seen by others as doing evil, and you are putting a stumbling block to make your brother fall.
I. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is proud of itself.
(1) As humility, our greatest virtue, arises from our sense of sin and unworthiness, so self-righteousness, our greatest defect, comes from our sense of goodness.
(2) When we pride ourselves on our goodness, it is very likely that we are confusing sin with vice
(3) Self-righteousness inevitably leads to censoriousness.
II. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is mainly negative.
(1) In Hebrew ethics much of the emphasis was altogether too predominantly “Thou shall not.”
(2) To Jesus goodness was positive in character.
III. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is strained.
(1) There are people who set themselves up to the joyless task of achieving goodness by super human effort and salvation by works of righteousness.
(2) Jesus’ goodness did not come out of lots of sweating.
IV. Goodness is spoken of as evil when it is served in a pint by pint measure.
(1) The Pharisees were faithful to duty but never went beyond the call of duty.
(2) Christian morality is an extravagant eclipse of the demands of law and reason and duty.
(3) I think it is clear why Jesus seemed to prefer the company of sinners to that of the “saints” of his day.
In Christ we have the grace which can make us “more than conquerors” ((Romans 8:37) Apart from God’s mercy we can do nothing, and even our best achievements in virtue will be seen as soiled and ragged works of our human frailty
讲道大纲
保罗说，"不可叫你的善被人毁谤"。他的意思是这样解释的：你以为善的事，不理会爱心的原则，自以为是的去做，很容易被人视为恶，这样便会叫人跌倒。
I. 当人骄傲地行善时，善就被视为恶了。
（1） 谦卑是最好的品德，自义是最坏的性格。
（2） 当我们把自己的善看成好品格时，我们是把坏习惯与灵性的罪混为一谈。
（3） 自义的人常常查禁别人。
II. 当人只做消极的事时，善就被视为恶了。
（1） 在希伯来人的伦理观，他们要守甚麽是不可做的事情。
（2） 耶稣的善，是一个积极的品格。
III. 当人要满身大汗才行出善来时，善就被视为恶了。
（1） 许多人痛苦地勉强自己靠禁戒行为称义，谁不知好品德是靠释放和鼓励得来的。
（2） 耶稣的善不是强迫出来的行为。
IV. 当人要斤斤计较的行善时，善就被视为恶了。
（1） 法利赛人谨守岗位却从来不肯做超过岗位以外的事。
（2） 基督徒的善，是昂贵的，它令律法，学问，和岗位显得暗然失色。
（3） 这就是为甚麽耶稣喜欢与罪人同伍，而不喜欢与那些"圣人"同伍的原因。
在基督耶稣里，我们有恩典和怜悯，我们可以"得胜有馀"（罗8：37）地行善。因为离了神的怜悯，我们的善，就只能被毁谤成为恶罢了。