Common Sense and Nonsense

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (Titus 2:1-13 ESV).

Common sense has never been universally common, but it sure seems less common than at any time I can remember. As I survey the current scene, it appears to me that we have gone from common sense to nonsense. The following are actual events.

 A six-year-old boy in Lexington NC was suspended for a day, banned from attending an ice cream party and sent home. His crime? Sexual harassment. He kissed a female classmate on the cheek.
 A six-year-old boy, in California, was red-carded for playing tag during recess. The explanation? Tag involves touching and that is clearly groping and foreplay.
 A sixty-two year old grandma in Cincinnati committed an act of random kindness by feeding money into parking meters to save a motorist she never met from getting a ticket. She was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of official business. She was arraigned and released on $1500.00 bail.

You have heard of these kinds of reports before. The question is, “Why?” Why do these things seem so commonplace? I believe it because we have lost our moral compass. True right and wrong are in line with God's plum line. Once right and wrong were set in stone. Even when the standard had drifted into a man made mandate, right was still right, wrong was still wrong and everyone knew where the line was. That’s not the case any longer. We have replaced right and wrong with legal and illegal, divine morality with political correctness. The consequences have been devastating.

In our desire to perform acceptably and avoid litigation, we no longer have reasonable judgment by reasoning individuals. We pursue rules and correctness. We have abandoned personal responsibility and have become moral cowards. As someone has so well said, it takes guts to make decisions that stray from the black and white of rigid written rules into the gray of judgment calls, as in the above reports. We've lost courage, real courage. We're cowards who hide behind correctness, conformity and comfort. Without a moral compass, we don't know where we are and we don't know which way to turn. We need a moral compass so we can be "sensible." There is a Greek word in the New Testament that means, "sane, sensible, self controlled." It is the word of our text this morning. Titus says old men should have it ("self-control"), older women should use it ("teach"), and younger women ("live wisely”), younger men ("live wisely"), and everybody else ("self control") needs it! How’s your common sense today? There is a right and wrong plainly revealed in the Scripture. Apply it with the grace of God in your life and restore your moral compass.