I find getting lost to be easy for me. I am very good at it. It isn’t being lost that I have trouble with. I have trouble with finding my way. If someone wants directions, I will use Google or have them talk with my wife. I will have to find them directions from another source. To help people find their way, they don’t need my great ability to be lost. They need someone who knows the way!

Paul declares in Romans 16 that he wants the Romans to be wise in what is good and innocent of evil. He declares that they will not be better ministers by being more lost. Paul challenges them to be the best ministers they can be by being wise in what is good AND innocent in what is evil. In other words, help the lost by being able to show them how to be found.

If we desire to be useful to God and reach those we love, we must be able to share with them life, not death. We must share with them how to find hope, not how to lose it. We do that by knowing well what it means to do and be truly good. We also do that by becoming more and more personally innocent of evil. God is not saying that if we have made mistakes in the past then we should try to act as if we never made them. God wants us, instead, to simply pay attention to what God has taught us on our personal road to redemption. Those lessons teach us (along with God’s Word) what it means to be wise in what is good. Then, as we fill our mind with the things of the Spirit rather than the flesh we become more and more innocent of evil. This combination is what God uses to bless us and the others in our lives.

May you be excellent in what is good. Be innocent of evil.

Something to think about,

Pastor John