Be wise in what is good

For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. – Romans 16.19-20 

In the Internet Age (remember when it was referred to as the 'Information Superhighway'?) we have more information at hand than ever before. The ubiquitous smartphone can give us the answer to any question is seconds. All I have to do is pick up my phone, touch an icon, and say 'Who is the prime minister of Botswana?' and immediately a screen pops up with 'office vacant' and 'President: Ian Khama.' I also learned that the only prime minister of Botswana was Seretse Khama who served from 3/3/65-30/9/66.

Pretty impressive, huh?

So what do with all of that information? What do we pick? What do we learn?

Paul made it pretty simple. With all the options out there we ought to 'be wise in what is good, be simple concerning evil.'

I really like this advice. I may not always heed it, but I like it. There used be a story about how bank tellers are trained to recognise counterfeit notes, not by handling counterfeits, but by handling the real thing. The idea was that if they handled the real thing enough they would recognise the fakes. i don't know if that was true or not, but I still like the principle.

Let's not be so enamoured with knowing all about evil. Let's be concerned with knowing the good. If we are wise enough about the good we will surely recognise the evil. It will be clear because it will not be the good. We will recognise evil when we know the good. It is far to day the worldly wise today. The resources that make information so easily accessible also contain a great about of good at our finger tips.

For example pick up your smart phone and say (or type into your computer) 'What does John 3.16 say?' 

Let's use what we have for good, and maybe be a little more simple when it comes to evil.