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About Jesus Steve Sweetman When
Doing Good Becomes Doing Evil The
apostle Peter lived in a time and place where in the name of all things
good, bad things were being done to him and his fellow believers.
In the midst of attempting to survive through these bad things,
Peter told his readers to "live such good lives among the pagans
that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good
deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us". (1 Peter 2:12)
Again, Peter's instructions might have been hard to take back
then. Doing good while
others are doing evil to you doesn't come easily to any of us. In
1 Peter 2:14 Peter says something else about doing good and doing evil.
He says that government exists "to punish those who do evil
and to commend those who do good".
Our
society, like the Roman society in Peter's day, defines matters of good
and evil differently than Christians.
What is seen as good to Christians isn't necessarily seen as good
to an anti-Christ culture. Christians
define good and evil from a fixed Biblical standpoint.
Our culture defines good and evil from a fluid humanistic
standpoint. Matters of good
and evil vary from place to place, time to time, and person to person.
These differing definitions cause conflict. Part
of doing good in a Biblical sense is speaking out for what we know to be
Biblical truth, as the first generation Christians did.
Standing up for truth is good.
In fact it's our Biblical mandate. The apostle Paul taught us to
speak this truth, albeit in the most loving way possible. (Ephesians
4:15) There
are a number of issues today where the world defines good and evil
differently than Christians, abortion and gay marriage being two such
issues. The time has come
when our refusal to follow society's lead on these and other issues is
seen as intolerant, bigoted, and evil.
Refusing to perform a same sex wedding ceremony may seem
Biblically good to us, but our anti-Christ culture sees it as evil.
So, as Peter clearly stated, we should be aware of the fact that
government will punish those who they define as doing evil.
That places Christians in a painful predicament.
When our doing good becomes doing evil in the eyes of society, as
it is fast becoming the case, we must follow Peter's instructions.
We don't chicken out and hide our heads in the sands of ignorant
bliss. We boldly stand up
for the Biblical truth. We
love those who oppose us. We
accept the consequences of our refusal to participate.
We understand that the resulting suffering is a calling from God,
so we're thankful to follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour. (1
Peter 2:21) None
of us likes thinking about these things. I
would rather be raptured away to heaven before any hint of this stuff
reaches our doorstep, but it's a bit late for that now.
It's already at our door, fumbling around with the door handle.
There's no use ignoring it and pretending it's not there.
Ignoring the reality of the world around us is not only
unscriptural, it's spiritual suicide.
We won't be able to hide behind our blissful ignorance when the
anti-Christ culture crashes through the Christian cocoon some of us are
hiding in. Take Peter's
words seriously and prepare yourself for the coming conflict.
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