I’ve read this verse many times, but this morning I’m feeling uneasy after reading it again. I’ve been in many parts of many cities that were primarily dedicated to sin. Certain blocks of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, for example, or the Combat Zone in Boston, or lower Fourth in Sioux City before it was rehabilitated. And I know that there are a lot of things that go on in my own town now that are a long way from discipleship. We pursue many idols in America, primary among them sex, power, and appetites.
But I can’t honestly say those experiences distressed me. I was often disgusted, but mostly I just wanted to be away, and I tried to ignore what was going on around me. If I thought about the people involved, I probably considered them to be bad, deserving of whatever happened to them.
It’s shaming now to realize that I should have been greatly distressed, just like Paul. That should be any Christian’s reaction to sin. Not judgment, not ignorance or avoidance, but distress. This is Satan stealing souls. This is evil threatening to triumph over good. These are fathers and mothers and sons and daughters different from me in only one way: they do not yet know the grace of God. Or not different than me at all.
I shouldn’t feel more emotion over being cut off in traffic or losing a wifi connection than I do over the sins of my community. The most tragic, most frustrating, most enraging thing I should ever experience is Satan selling his lies to God’s image-bearers.
Today, I’m repeating a prayer I learned years ago: that I will see people as God sees them, and see sin as he sees it, and hate it like he does.
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