Thursday, April 27, 2006

Abstain from the appearance of evil

First Thessalonians 5:22 “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

A few weeks ago, we were warned that our children should not go to their High School Prom. There was some validity to his concern, but when we disagreed, he quoted “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” reminding us of several sinful activities that often take place on prom night. (I will leave the prom argument to others for now…)

I have wondered about that verse for years, never really feeling like it is being used today as it was originally intended. (I have often used it wrongly myself) So, finally, I am really checking this verse out.

After a couple of weeks of reading through First Thessalonians (esp Chapter 5), looking at the overall context, and doing a word study, I feel pretty sure that we have missed it here. I started trying to type out what I think that I have learned…but then I found these two articles on the internet. While they may not be 100% correct (I really don’t know) I believe that they are definitely headed in the right direction. Together, these two articles seem to be the best interpretation of this verse and offers great advice on how it should be Biblically applied to our lives.

http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/1797
http://www.columbiaseminary.edu/coffeetalk/060.html

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