1 Thess 5:22 KJV “Abstain from all appearance of evil”
1 Thess 5:22 ESV “Abstain from every form of evil”
1 Thess 5:22 NIV “Abstain from every kind of evil”<\/p>\n
Legalistic folk love to misuses this verse. This verse has been a favorite verse of legalistic parents, youth ministries, and churches for years. The problem? The verse does not mean what so many people say it means. You have been there right? “You can’t listen to non-Christian music, non-Christians do that”. “You can’t do this, this, this, and this because it appears to be evil”. “Don’t you know, if you do that you will ruin your witness?”. But is that a faithful way to understand this verse? Does Jesus abstain from even the appearance of evil? Does Jesus do things that “Ruined his witness?’ Here are a few observations to consider.<\/p>\n
1. The KJV actually translates the greek incorrectly. No other translation translates it as<\/u> “appearance of evil”. Other translations get it right. “Abstain from every form of evil.”
2. Even by way of the KJV we must ask “Did Jesus abstain from all appearance of evil?” If we find ourselves wanting to correct Jesus behavior and words by appealing to this verse then we must realize we have misunderstood the verse.
3. Who gets to define what “Appearance” means? This verse has been used by legalist to prohibit anything from hanging with non-believers, playing cards, going to movies, dancing, and anything else they don’t like based solely on their own opinions.
4. Consider this accusation against Jesus from Luke 5:29 “And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Rest assured that Jesus did abstain from every form of evil, but<\/u> he was continually around people and things that had the appearance of evil.
5. Consider John 2:1-12. Jesus was at a Wedding Feast until the wine ran out. After the wine ran out Jesus made more wine, the best wine. This is a situation in which I can hear countless people screaming at Jesus “Hey don’t you know you should abstain from the appearance of evil?!” <\/p>\n
So… Let me plead with you to abstain from every form of evil. But don’t fall into the tyranny of appearances. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Thess 5:22 KJV “Abstain from all appearance of evil”1 Thess 5:22 ESV “Abstain from every form of evil”1 Thess 5:22 NIV “Abstain from every kind of evil” Legalistic folk love to misuses this verse. This verse has been a favorite verse of legalistic parents, youth ministries, and churches for years. The problem? The verse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}