Today's Scripture Reading (December 13, 2024): Leviticus 2
I have to admit that I am struggling with the concept of evil. What exactly does it mean to be evil? Sometimes, it seems that anyone who disagrees with us is considered evil. I know that within the circle of pastors I find myself, there are some with whom I'm afraid I have to disagree. I also admit that some of the pastors with whom I find myself disagreeing refuse to speak to me; maybe I am not worth the waste of breath. Is that because I am evil? Or perhaps because they are evil?
Over the past few years, anyone who seems to hold an opposing political opinion is considered evil. But are they really? Maybe some of them are, but the vast majority of them might be better described as simply disagreeing with us on some critical Issues. I consider myself a fiscal conservative. I don't like the idea of debt. I don't like debt in our personal lives, and I don't like it in our public politics. All political parties seem to know how to spend money, but I have yet to meet a politician who can pay it back. When I look at the money we are spending servicing our debt, I can't help but think of all the great things we could do if we weren't in such debt. The COVID-19 pandemic stretched the debt of our culture far beyond what it had been before, but it would have been less devastating if we hadn't been in such debt trouble before the pandemic arrived.
Maybe you disagree with me. Perhaps you like debt and believe that our economy, especially right now, requires us to go further into debt. I might think that you are wrong, just as you might think I am wrong, but I don't believe that either of us is genuinely evil. We must be able to say someone is wrong without resorting to the idea that the other is evil. There are evil men. I will stay away from modern politics and point to people like Adolf Hitler, who did wicked things, but this is at the extreme end of our politics.
On the other hand, maybe we are all evil. Paul reminds us that "There is no one righteous, not even one … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23). All of us have fallen short of the righteousness that God desires from us. Maybe that means that we are all, in some way, evil. As I remarked earlier, this is my struggle. Either we are all evil, or we need to reserve the word evil to indicate the worst of the worst and not those who simply disagree with us.
Evil, however you define it, exists because there is sin in our lives. And in Israel, sin was symbolized by leaven or yeast. Jesus used the concept of yeast as a warning for his disciples. "Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod" (Mark 8:15). Paul continued the concept in his writing.
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
The Law also picks up on this theme. If you bring your grain offering in baked form, that is fine. However, it needs to be baked at home in your oven because devotion to God always begins at home. And it must not include yeast, a reminder that sin will carry us toward evil if we let it.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 3
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