Between Stupid and Wicked

Between Stupid and Wicked

Over the last couple of weeks I watched a PBS documentary about the death machine created during the Second World War by the Nazis. The SS units of the Reich refined the process at Auschwitz so that thousands could be murdered and disposed of each week. The evil that conceived and executed the plan to obliterate the Jews was breathtakingly diabolical. Oppression, thievery, and murder were married to technology and system, producing mass murder and suffering on a global scale. That’s wicked!  

Then I thought of the teenagers I read about who get together for a Friday night party, raided the liquor cabinet, and in their intoxication, drove a car and killed somebody. That’s stupid! Both are sin, but yet they are different.

I have not personally known many wicked sinners, but I have known many who walk outside of the will of God through ignorance, short-sightedness, or deception. I am one of those people from time to time. Both ways of sinning are an offense to God. Both have serious consequences. But, they are met quite differently. Those who sin stupidly need to be loved, instructed, and pointed to a better way. Those who are wicked must be met with resistance, sacrifice, and Truth!

John speaks of these two kinds of sin when he writes to us: "If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him." (1 John 5:16-18, NIV)

When we observe a fellow disciple making sinful choices, just being stupid, we need not wage a war against them. Instead we pray earnestly that the Spirit will reveal to them the error of their ways. But, where wickedness is causing another to exploit, abuse, or bring death - we go beyond prayer, becoming active to stop the evil from spreading.

Wickedness is defeated in me by Christ and the Cross, the power of the Devil broken by daily surrender to the will of God. I do not kill, hate, or abuse others. But, I am sometimes willful, sometimes fail to love, sometimes choose poorly; in a sinful kind of way. In these moments, I need an Advocate who goes to the Father on my behalf and Who comes alongside of me to remind me that I can and must choose to live a holy life.

Oh, how thankful I am for the gentleness of the Spirit who whispers insistently, “Jerry, that’s not right, you can do better!”  We who would live like our Savior must learn to respond readily to the Spirit’s leading, to recognize His convicting voice and to turn from our willfully stupid sins! If we do not, we risk slipping deeper into sinfulness until we cross that line from stupid to wicked.

Be an encourager of other disciples. Look for ways to call them higher in Christ. Connect with those whose walk is wise and whole. Are you making sinful choices that are robbing you of spiritual vitality? Are you allowing little compromises to creep into your life that dim the light of Christ in you?

Here’s a word from the Word that urges us to leave the stupid sins behind. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (Hebrews 10:22-28, NIV)