The 40 Day TBC Life Devotion

“Abhor what is evil” (Romans 12:9, ESV).

One of the best ways to understand and apply the biblical words, “good” and “evil” is to move beyond understanding them as moral thermostats and see them in the truest sense of the Greek words, which are better translated, “beneficial” and “detrimental”. Paul is writing to the church in Rome and his instruction is to, “Hate what is detrimental (evil)”.
 
The Greek word for “evil” is “poneros” and quick look at a Greek Lexicon or an online resource like www.blueletterbible.org lets us know that the biblical usage of “poneros” includes these varied translations: full of labors, annoyances, and hardships. It includes being pressed and harassed, having toils, annoyances, perils, and anything having a bad nature or condition. It includes diseases, blindness, and of course, how we usually understand the word--things that are ethically wicked.

Tying this phrase to yesterday’s phrase, “Let love be genuine”, we can understand that our love for people will cause us to hate detrimental things that come into their lives. We hate it when our TBC family goes through tough times, hardships, financial and family strain, and all kinds of sicknesses. We hate it when our friends at family go through moral slides, when they make bad decisions, and when they fall away from walking with God. We hate it when bad things happen to the people we love.

It may go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway—Hating what is evil means that we are never the detrimental (evil) thing that comes into someone’s life. If your presence and your personality consistently damage and discourage those you encounter, then something is seriously wrong. We are called to be a blessing—not a burden—and certainly not a bully.

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction” –Blaise Pascal

How would you apply this verse to your closest relationships? How can you practice this verse the next time we gather at TBC?

Dave Samples