Abstain from all Evil

Brennon Mannings quote "The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." 

I have been thinking about this quote in terms of 1 Thessalonians 5:22, Abstain from every form of evil." (ESV).  To start we can break down this verse into the Greek; let's do that by looking at the key words. Abstain and Evil. In the Greek, Abstain is ἀπέχομαι apéchomai, it means to hold ones self off, to refrain from. This same translation is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 where Paul commands believers to abstain from sexual immorality. In other words if an action violates Scriptural commands or principals, believers should avoid it. The word evil, πονηρός ponērós bad, of a bad nature or condition

• in a physical sense: diseased or blind
• in an ethical sense: evil wicked, bad

As I look at this breakdown of what Paul is saying, I can't help but wonder why we have so many people claiming Christ Jesus as their savior and yet living like the world. Do they not realize that this hurts our witness? John 17:14-15 tells us that we are to live in the world, but we are not to be of the world. In other words, we are to be present in this world, but we are not to value what the world values. Yet daily we see our fellow Christians living like the world. As believers, we should be set apart from the world. This is the meaning of being holy and living a holy, righteous life—to be set apart. We are not to engage in the sinful activities the world promotes, nor are we to retain the insipid, corrupt mind that the world creates. Rather, we are to conform ourselves, and our minds, to that of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2). This is a daily activity and commitment.

When I think about this commitment that we are supposed to daily make, I am reminded of the rich man that wanted to follow Jesus. Yet he couldn't leave behind the riches of this world to follow Jesus. Christ is calling us to give away our sin-sickness and to follow him. Yet there are so many that can't do this, they can't leave their carnality, instead they think that salvation is a license to continue to live however they want. What these sin-sick Christians don't realize is the world doesn't see their goodness; they don't see their walk with Christ, they see the sin, the hypocriticalness of what their lives are preaching. 

There is an old saying "You may be the only Jesus some people see." How can you be "Jesus" when you are living like Satan has a grip on your life? Sadly, you can't. You can't claim Christ while you are sleeping with someone you aren't married to, you can't claim Christ while you are enslaved to drugs, are practicing a false religion, while you are a denying that He even exists, you can't claim Christ while you are purposely living your life in contradiction to what God deems as right and holy. A true Christian obeys God because of what God has done for him in Christ. We obey him out of gratitude for what He has done for us. We obey him because we love Him, and we love Him because he first loved us and died for us on the cross. 

There is an old saying "Just because you were born in a bakery, doesn't make you a bagel." Just because you are in church every Sunday, just because you pray, just because you get your name ticked off a box weekly doesn't make you a Christian, if you are walking out the doors and living your life however, you want to despite what the Scripture tells you. Matthew 7:21 tell us "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (ESV) Proverbs 28:9 tells us "If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." (ESV) Isaiah 1:15 says "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen..." The prophet is telling the people, "Because of your sin, you beg God and He is not listening." When will you give up your sinful lives? 

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from l listening to the truth and wander off into myths." This is sadly the reality of many Christians today. They go to church, but it's a social club, they aren't there to really learn what God is saying to them or they decide to cherry pick what they want to live by and leave the meat of the Gospel behind because it doesn't jive well with how they want to live. 

To those Christians I ask, when will you start taking your lives seriously? When will you start presenting your lives as living sacrifices to God? 

The Bible is a faultless authority not only for what we believe but for how we also should behave. Paul called upon the Christians at Philippi and us to "be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. (Philippians 2:15-16). God's word helps us choose what is morally acceptable and reject what is a form of evil. Psalm 119:9 asks: "How can a young man keep his way pure?" The answer, "By guarding it according to Your word..." The Psalmist goes on to write "I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)