RPG Adults
NOT A HEART THAT IMAGINES EVIL (II)
TUESDAY, JUNE 29
Zechariah 8:16-17
1 Corinthians 13:5
“Charity…
thinketh no evil…”
NOT A HEART THAT IMAGINES EVIL (II)
What we need instead of a heart that imagines evil is a heart that is full of love: for “charity… thinketh no evil” (1 Cor 13:5). Such evil thoughts often come from hasty, proud, censorious judgments made against others; justified by assumptions and false conclusions; and manifested in complaints and criticisms. How can it be that a child of God harbours hatred in his heart, when hatred is as the sin of murder (1 John 3:15), and utterly abominable to the God of love?
The answer is that hatred has small beginnings. It begins with just a thought, a little unspoken criticism of another. A little thought in the back of your mind that so-and-so is no good; so-and-so really shouldn’t be doing this, or doing that. A thought that is never voiced; but slowly begins to gather around it other thoughts – other criticisms of the same person. Slowly an image of that person is built up in your mind; slowly you begin to indulge in speculation about that person’s motives; slowly you begin to invent scenarios where that person displays his “true colours.”
You begin to latch on to any evil gossip or rumour concerning that person, and add it to this growing body of “evidence” that this person is no good. You begin to hate that person, and justify that hatred based on this picture you have built up: nothing that person does can be seen in anything other than an evil light. Finally, when opportunity arises, you take the chance to destroy that person – again, justifying your actions.
It is a testament to the devil’s wicked subtlety that he can make us hate another human being, made in the image of God – even a Christian, bought by the precious blood of Christ – over nothing at all. Hatred can be built on the flimsiest of foundations. It all starts with a little thought of evil concerning another person. A little thought that we do not immediately cast out; a little thought that we make room for, and allow to stay. A little seed of bitterness that we do not cast out but allow to rest on a little patch of soil in our hearts, and by and by we water it by dwelling on it mentally until it has blossomed into a full-grown tree, bringing forth evil fruit.
THOUGHT: Imagination is not a realm without accountability.
PRAYER: Father, help me to think no evil!