Wise in What is Good

September 24, 2023 homily on Romans 16:17-27 by Pastor Galen

“Be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil” (Romans 16:19b).

Suits

The Television series Suits tells the fictitious story of a guy named Mike Ross who uses his photographic memory to talk his way into a job as an associate working for a successful New York attorney by the name of Harvey Specter. The thing is that Mike, as brilliant as he is, is a college dropout who never attended law school—although, he did pass the LSAT multiple times as an illegal proxy. Suits focuses on Harvey and Mike winning lawsuits and closing cases, while at the same time trying to keep Mike’s lack of a law degree a secret. (Don’t worry, I’m not giving away any spoilers—all of that is in the first episode!)

Mike lives in constant fear that he will be found out as a fraud. And yet Mike’s intentions are far from malicious. In fact, Mike pretends to be a lawyer because he wants to help people. In every case that he handles, Mike Ross tries to do what’s honest, true and just, and what’s best for his clients, as opposed to many of the legitimate lawyers in the firm who are just in it for themselves, and are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, even if that means using deception or turning on their own partners and clients.

Suits raises some interesting and thought-provoking questions about honesty and integrity, loyalty and justice. Questions such as, Is it ever OK to do the wrong thing for the right reason? What’s more important: truth, or loyalty? And, how far would you go to protect the ones you love?

The Church at Rome

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome was written to address division in the church. But we find out here in chapter 16 that the divisions may have been exacerbated by people who were using deceptive means to further their own agendas.

As we learned last week, the church had been founded by Jewish Christians, but Gentiles (or non-Jewish Christians) had assumed the leadership roles in the church when all of the Jewish people were expelled from Rome by the emperor. Now that the Jewish Christians have been able to return, there have been heated disagreements about whether or not the church in Rome should bring back the Jewish customs and traditions that had been abandoned by the Gentile leaders during the Jewish believers’ absence. 

On the one hand, there were Jewish Christians who thought that every Christian needed to adopt the Kosher dietary laws and Sabbath restrictions of the Jewish people in order to truly be followers of Christ. On the other hand, were the Gentiles who pushed back, no doubt criticizing their fellow believers for holding on to what they felt were archaic cultural practices. Paul urges the Christians in Rome to strive together towards unity, reminding them that in the end the Kingdom of God is not about food and drink or their own individual cultures and customs, but that we are all one in Christ. 

But now here in Romans chapter 16, as Paul draws this letter to a close, he urges the church in Rome to be on the lookout for those who intentionally try to cause division and lead others astray. Paul says to the Romans,

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who create dissensions and hindrances, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded (Romans 16:17-18).

All along, Paul has been urging the believers to give each other the benefit of the doubt, to agree to disagree and to concede on those issues that don’t really matter in the long run. Paul wants the church to extend grace towards one another, and be as welcoming and inclusive as possible. But he cautions them that if there are some among their ranks who are intentionally using deception to cause division, those persons should be avoided and excluded, “for such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded” (Romans 16:18).

Be Wise in what is Good, and Innocent in what is Evil

Now, the term “simple-minded” in the NRSV or the “naive” in the NIV translation may sound condescending to us. But we should note that in the very next verse, after commending the Roman Christians for their obedience to Christ, Paul urges them to “be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil” (Romans 16:19). This word “guileless” can also be translated “simple” (as in the KJV), or “innocent” (as in the NIV).  Paul is not blaming the ones who are deceived, but rather he places the blame squarely on those who are practicing the deception for the sake of causing division in the Church. But he does encourage us to “be wise in what is good.”

It’s worth noting here that Paul does not urge the Christians in Rome to familiarize themselves with every lie and deception that is out there so that they can guard themselves against every false doctrine. He doesn’t tell them to study up on the teachings of all of the heretical preachers so that they can recognize false teachers. Rather, he wants them to be so familiar with the true Gospel, the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ, that they will be able to ignore the lies of the false teachers who, in this case, are trying to cause dissension and division among them. 

This is not unlike a bank teller, who learns to distinguish real and counterfeit bills, not by studying every single counterfeit piece of money in the world, but rather by becoming so familiar with the look, feel, and smell of real money that when a counterfeit bill comes along the teller instinctively knows it is not the real thing. 

And so Paul urges us to “Be wise in what is good and guileless [innocent, simple, without deception] in what is evil” (Romans 16:19b).

Loyalty or Deception?

This takes us back to Suits, and the many moral and ethical questions raised in the show. It can be tempting for us to watch shows like this, and search for heroes that we can aspire to be like. (The average American watches four hours of TV a day, so often the characters on TV become the people we aspire to be like even more than our friends and family members and coworkers!)

Now, no one watching Suits would come away thinking that it is a good idea to pretend to be a lawyer if you haven’t been to law school. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I won’t tell you what happens to Mike Ross, but the show does not paint a rosy picture for anyone who may be tempted to “try this at home.”

But the show does a good job of making the viewer empathize with Mike Ross, and with several of the other characters who practice deception, because they have one key attribute that seems to be valued among all others: loyalty. Time and time again, the central characters, who I would suggest are the heroes of the show, refer to each other as “family,” and they will do anything possible to protect their “family” and the “firm,”  even if it means hurting those outside of their circle. 

We see this in many TV shows and movies. The villains are those who are looking out only for themselves and will even turn on those closest to them if they need to in order to protect themselves, whereas the heroes do whatever it takes to protect the ones they love. And so we come away thinking that we must choose between loyalty and integrity. 

Loyalty And Integrity

But I think that Paul would argue here that we need both. Deception will always bring about division because it creates a barrier between those who know the truth and those who don’t. The more we lie, the more we have to lie in order to keep the truth a secret, and the downward cycle continues.

Paul knows what it’s like to be part of a close network of friends and colleagues. Earlier in chapter 16, Paul mentions quite a few friends and colleagues who have been in the trenches with him, working to spread the Gospel. Some of them had risked their lives for him, or been imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel. The list includes women and men, Jews and Gentiles, people of various ages and stages of life. He mentions that many of them have supported his ministry financially. Paul knows that this close-knit community of believers will do whatever it takes to further and advance the mission. But he also knows that when a family gets that close, it can be tempting to cross boundary lines to protect each other, even if that means using deception to do it. 

This makes me wonder if perhaps the people Paul is talking about here in Romans 16:17-20, who  “deceive the hearts of the simple-minded” were people who started off with good intentions. Perhaps they believed strongly in the mission and vision of their organization. But as they felt their power starting to slip away, or as they saw some of the cultural practices and traditions that they held near and dear beginning to slip away, they began to “close ranks,” and began figuring out who they needed to get on their side in order to make sure that their way of doing things was preserved. And in so doing, they began to slip further and further into deceptive practices. 

Paul wants us to remember that the Gospel is everything. The Good News of Jesus Christ is worthy of giving our time and energy, our talents, our very lives. As we saw in Romans 12, we are in fact called to present our bodies as living sacrifices. But the sacrifice of our lives is to be holy and acceptable to God. The way we live, and even the way we advance the cause of the Gospel matters. We must be people of both loyalty, and integrity.

The Only Wise God

If we really want to know what it looks like to live a life of both integrity and loyalty, we cannot look to any TV show character or even person in our lives as our ultimate example. We have to look to Jesus. No one else in this world can provide that model and template for us. All of the biblical heroes had their flaws. We can learn from their mistakes, but we can only seek to pattern our lives after them as they sought to follow Christ.

And so Paul ends his letter to the Romans with a blessing over the Christians in Rome and on us, and one more exhortation to look to Jesus, who provided a perfect model to the world of both loyalty and integrity. Jesus never spread a falsehood, and never turned his back on God or his followers. In him, we see the perfect blend of mercy and grace, truthfulness, and faithfulness.

And so, Paul says, 

Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the [nations] might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Our God is the only wise God. And so let us become wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil by focusing our hearts and minds on our good and perfect Savior, Jesus Christ—the ultimate manifestation of the only wise God. Let us learn what true loyalty and integrity look like by looking only to Jesus so that we can recognize and avoid whatever falsehoods threaten to divide us from one another.  May Jesus be our mentor, our guide, and our friend. 

Amen.