Racist alt-right Nazis marched. Media, political partisans, and evangelical churches condemn the evil of the marcher’s ideology. The fuel for the condemnation is the hateful and angry subjects in the photos from the march. The fuel for the condemnation is the outrageous murder of an anti-alt-right protester in Virginia. And the condemnation experienced even more combustion by the always inflammatory president when asked about the events by reporters looking to blame him because of their own partisan narrative. I am not going rehash any descriptions or pictures of that now infamous protest but I will say anyone who attended an event hosted by White Nationalist has no ground to claim they were only there to protect the history of memorials. Hate hides in their heart. Any attack on the worth or nature of fellow humans is against God. If you attack or demean the humanity of any person, then you are attacking the very image of God that rests on each person.
8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. James 3:8-9 ESV
Jesus pulls no punches about our evil. Mind the words that come out of our mouths. Mind the thoughts that dwell in our hearts.
34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34 ESV
The words spoken on social media and the words spoken to family and friends about what one hates is just the surface of what dwells deep inside one’s core. This hate is evil. Mankind is evil. Both Jesus and James call words evil because the words flow from the source, our hearts, concluding in men and women sinning against God himself.
What I want to focus on is the unity and the positive words of the President Obama in what is now the most liked tweet ever tweeted. “No one is born hating another person”. With the implication being that society, culture, families, and individuals, teach hate and evil.
It is true. People where taught to enslave and belittle other people created in the image of God. The KKK is an organization that must teach its members how to act and how to live. The president’s words and truth are wonderful. I thank him for speaking them. But his words taken alone will resolve the issue. Taken alone his tweet will not be a sound formula to fix the problem. Hate is always discovered by the next generation because the world, the media, and both presidents will fail to recognize and deal with the root of the problem.
The hearts of men and women are evil. All men and women are sinners. Hear Jesus again if you think yourself righteous.
34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34 ESV
Examine your heart. Is your conscience clear to lead people to give up the hate in their hearts? Think yourself a good person? I can with certainty say no we are not. Look at the comparison that Jesus makes between ourselves and God.
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9-11 ESV
The prophets recognized our evil.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 NIV
The apostles recognized our evil.
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:9-18 ESV
The question I ask now. Answer the key question if one wants to see hate removed from the hearts of men and women. Do you recognize the source of our evil words? Do you see the anger, hate, and lashing out rooted in the heart, in our soul, of our rebellion against the Creator? If so then repent of the evil in your own heart.
The anti-white supremacy protesters that showed up to oppose the evil of racism should pray that the racist would repent and that the source of the evil, their hearts, would be made alive. Christians should pray for the nation and the people they know who harbor hate in their hearts. Christians should pray that they themselves would let go of hate and stop harboring evil desires. Repentance and Jesus are the solution. Teaching and laws serve only to control people and will not fix the heart that is evil and broken.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans 3:21-24
If you enjoyed this then click the like button, leave a comment, or ask a question! More here: Evil is nothing new in the Church so how do you know you have found the right teachers?
