That Evil Dude
Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12
There are a lot of words that are used loosely. For example, I will often say, “I hate you,” to my wife. Now to be clear, I love my wife, and she knows this. I always use that phrase with her when she helps me understand some brutal truth that I ignored or proved her point where I must admit she is right. When she hears me say it, she either laughs or has a huge smile because it lets her know that I appreciate her knowledge about not only things but also me. It is our comfort in communicating with each other. Having said all this, I am a bit more cautious to say this to others because not everyone interprets it as my wife does. We all should have a level of awareness as to how our words matter. A mentor of mine always challenged me to go beyond just what someone says. He asked me to also ensure I heard what was said and then understood its intent. This is to preface what the next word that I want to dive into: evil.
When we say the word ‘evil,’ there are two things that we typically focus on. One is acts and the others are people. Most people would be able to discern when an act is evil or not. However, we all have different criteria when evaluating when people are evil. My intent is not to say their view is wrong. My goal is to put in context how critical as Christians we should be when using such words about individuals. Why? Because who many Christians would think of as ‘an evil dude’ happened to be one of the greatest Christians of all. That person was Paul, who once murdered other Christians without regard for their lives until his journey to Damascus. Now we can split hairs about the whole picture of his life and be cute about saying his ‘actions’ were evil. However, we must come to the realization about our judgments of others. Prior to Damascus, what would we say about Paul? What can we learn about our condemnation of others through the lessons of Paul? Speaking personally, I am relieved that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, and because of Him, no one is beyond God’s redemptive power. Furthermore, since He is the creator of all things, no one should be considered ‘evil.’
We are to focus on God’s redemptive power above those things that may lead us to believe one is evil. We know that evil exists in the world, and I would never deny that. However, scripture, while it has pointed to ‘evil people,’ discusses far more about people having evil spirits and in most of those instances during the times of Jesus. The obvious question/elephant in the room says, “Kent, what about non-Christians? Certainly, there are evil people amongst them.” As I reflected, my thought came to this. While my life is firmly entrenched on following Christ and I was raised in the church, I once believed that I could not be good enough to be a follower of Christ. Does not being good enough to be a follower of Christ because of my past sins make me evil? We get caught up in condemnation of others, and I really need to emphasize this. This needs to stop. Paul said:
“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
Does this sound like anyone is beyond redemption?
God loves us so much, and like a good father, He is also forgiving! We only need to look at our own flaws to understand how prevalent both of those things are in our lives. The goal is not to compare whose sins or flaws are beyond redemption. The goal is to remember we serve a good God that is not only forgiving but also an example for how we are to respond to others. This does not mean not to question. It does mean to do so as God would with not only His love but also His seeing the potential in one of His creations just as He saw in not only us but also one man on the road to Damascus. Let us not forget this. Where can you replace your own level of judgment with God’s love? What words of condemnation can we replace with words of encouragement? My prayer is that we can see others as God saw ‘one evil dude.’ Amen.