Can We Approve Wrong?
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:32
From Romans 1:18-32, Paul is making a convincing argument to support the thesis of this Book that the righteous are saved by faith. In order to talk about salvation by faith, he must first show that the world is lost. Here, he talks about the pagan world. And, to show us how bad things get by those who choose to leave God out of their lives, he shows us several of the behavioral characteristics of that kind of mind. Thus, the verse above.
We are encouraged in the Book of Ephesians to “reprove the works of darkness.” But, sometimes we become lax in our views of right and wrong and actually give our approval to things which are out of the character of God. We act as though we have no right or no voice against such things, and in our silence, we approve what is happening.
God’s people are called to be different. We are not called to be war-like to those around us, but we are called to make His ways known.
I remember once when I was just a very young teenage boy. I was on the bus going to a ball game somewhere in Louisiana and out of my mouth came a very profound nasty word. The bus driver did not holler and scream at me. He did not preach to me. He simply told me, “Son, you have something in your mouth you would not even hold in your hand.” Now, I am knocking on the door of sixty and those words have never left my head.
There are ways to disapprove of unrighteous things without knocking the props out from under people and at the same time, building respect for you.
All people were created good and somewhere inside all of us is a desire to be good. Sometimes it just takes a ray of God’s light shown through us to bring it out.
Be careful of that which you approve!