The Bible doesn’t
actually tell us to avoid every appearance of evil.
First Thessalonians 5:22 says to avoid
evil, not the stuff that looks like it might be evil. We avoid the evil itself.
Yeah, the
translation from 400 years ago (King James) mis-translates yet another passage. The language today
is different than it was in 1611; the words mean different things nowadays. (This is why I cannot trust any teaching that relies on the KJV to support it.) This is one place where that change makes a difference.
Four hundred years
ago, “every appearance” was kind of like “every kind” of evil. Our instruction
is to avoid evil stuff. Avoid evil when it appears: avoid the appearance of
evil: avoid every appearance of the evil.
And that’s how EVERY
other
major English translation of the Bible presents this: “Reject every kind of
evil,” (NIV) or “Abstain from every form of evil” (NKJV and NASB). Even the
King James usually
translates this word “shape.” “Avoid every shape of evil.”
We’re called to
avoid evil. The call is not to avoid anything that looks like it might be
considered as evil by somebody. Don’t be fussing about stuff that might look
bad. Don’t be fussing about your reputation.
Jesus surely didn’t. He hung out with porn stars and filthy rich tax thieves and the most unacceptable people of his day. He went out of his way to connect with Zacchaeus the tax collector and all his tax-collector friends.
Jesus surely didn’t. He hung out with porn stars and filthy rich tax thieves and the most unacceptable people of his day. He went out of his way to connect with Zacchaeus the tax collector and all his tax-collector friends.
He wasn’t afraid to
have a rich hooker spend thousands of dollars worth of perfume that she massaged
into his bare feet, wiping them with her prostitute hair and kissing him all
over his feet. When she was done, he smelled very much like a hooker, and
he defended her actions!
Jesus avoided evil.
He never sinned. But he spent so much of his time with the sinners that offended
the “good Christians” of the day, that his reputation was “The Son of Man has
come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” Jesus had a reputation as a
party-goer.
The reputation that
Jesus had was that he was the favorite
guy of the people who were stuck in sin.
That’s our call: to
bring life to those people. These are
the people who need what we’re carrying!
Our call is NOT to avoid the
appearance of evil and hang around with the good people. Church kids surely don’t
need the grace that we’re carrying quite so much as the untouchable people who
are caught in their sin.
That’s why he said, “Go
ye, into all the world!” Because it’s all
the world that needs what we’re carrying.
