Romans 1:9
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
One missed statement that Paul makes is when he said, whom I serve with my spirit. He was talking about serving God. Paul said that he not only served God with his time and life, but he also served Him with His spirit. In other words, Paul was saying that your spirit is as important in what you do as is doing right. He was saying that doing right is good, but doing right with the right spirit is best.
Life has a way of affecting our spirit, and if we are not careful, we will find ourselves serving God with the wrong spirit. Some are serving God with a bitter spirit because of what others have done towards them. Some are serving God with an angry spirit because of their hatred toward sin. Some serve God with a careless spirit because they are just doing right because they feel that they have to do it. Some serve God with a complaining spirit, complaining about everything and everyone.
My friend, your spirit does matter to God. God would not have allowed Paul to put this statement in His Word if your spirit did not matter to Him. People should see God’s servants serving Him and standing for truth with a right spirit. Let me share three observations about the importance of doing right and standing for right with a right spirit.
First, I would rather do right with the wrong spirit than do wrong with a good spirit. Now, I am not saying that having a wrong spirit is right, but I would much rather be doing right even when my spirit is bad than do wrong. I would rather stand for the King James Bible with the wrong spirit than stand against it with the right spirit. I would rather fight for soul winning with the wrong spirit than let souls go to Hell with a good spirit. I would rather fight against compromise with a wrong spirit than be a compromiser with a good spirit. Doing right is paramount, and doing wrong is always wrong; however, if I had to choose between doing right with a wrong spirit and doing wrong with a right spirit, I would choose to do right every time.
Second, doing right with the right spirit is the best way to stand for truth. You don't have to be angry to stand for truth. Yes, you should be angry against sin, but you don't have to destroy the sinner as you stand against sin. You must remember that our battle is not against people, but against Satan and sin. I can stand for the inspiration and the preservation of the King James Bible without having to destroy people in the meantime. You see, it is just as wrong to attack someone who is doing right in a wrong spirit as it is for me to do wrong and have a right spirit. Being right in action and spirit is always better. Never forget that the right spirit will help the right actions to have a greater impact on others for God.
Third, another’s wrong spirit as they do right does not give you a right to do wrong. Just because someone has a bad spirit about how they do right does not give you a right to compromise. It is never right to compromise! If another’s actions give me a right to do wrong, then everyone has a right to do wrong because everyone has had someone do something against them. If Christ did right despite the betraying actions of Judas and others, we can do right with a right spirit despite others having wronged us.
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