Leaving evil behind
by Colleen Fitzpatrick
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Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34:13,14).
This is a tough one! How easy it is to slip into saying mean, nasty and/or untrue things. I find it very difficult to keep my tongue under control. Things just slip out when I’m not thinking about what I’m saying. It is so easy to badmouth people and pass judgement. I guess that the psalmist would also ask that people stop taking God’s name in vain. I find it sad to hear the phrase ‘O my God’ and the abbreviation ’OMG’ used so frequently in everyday conversation and the media. Surely this is not pleasing to God!
The psalmist is very clear here – we must be much more careful about what we say and do.
The exhortation is to depart from evil. Many things today could be classified as evil or morally bad, wicked, harmful and the opposite of good. We only need to pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or check out our favourite news website to be assailed by all sorts of bad, wicked and harmful things. On a large scale, there are wars and rumours of wars, and at a personal level, we can read of countless crimes or violations of people and their property. Think about the royal commissions investigating a variety of matters that could be classed as evil – institutional responses to sexual abuse of children, abuse of people in aged care or disability services or the culture of disrespect for women even at the highest levels of our government.
Apart from the factual evil, there are all sorts of manufactured bad things that can be viewed online, on TV, in books, in video games or in movies – things that are not life-enhancing or respectful of people’s dignity or things that seem to glorify violence and evil.
In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you (Philippians 4: 8,9, Good News Translation).
For me, that says it all.
Lord God, you have given us so many good things. Help us to live our lives doing good and seeking peace and in ways that please and glorify you. Amen.
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