Jump Start # 2063

1 Timothy 6:4 “he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions”

Our passage today is the dark description that Paul gives of those who reject the doctrine of the N.T. Without the guidance of N.T., they roam free into areas of trouble, doubt and negativism. Relationships are ruined because the Gospel of mercy, grace and forgiveness has been abandoned. Instead of being united, these folks turn on each other. Thinking that they are pursuing a better way by rejecting the N.T., they have been fooled by Satan and their lives are miserable and messy. Anger, finger pointing, blame become a regular part of their lives.

Among these descriptive words we find, “evil suspicions.” The KJV uses the words, “evil surmising.” Thinking the worst. Guilty before proven innocent. It often works this way. Word gets back about someone and immediately the worst is assumed. No thought is given to their faith, history of walking with the Lord or finding out what really happened. The worst is expected. The evil thinkers hope for the worst. They love a good scandal. They rise to the occasion when there is some mud to throw and some juicy gossip to spread. Reputations are tarnished. Character is assassinated. Rumors spread. Tongues wag.

These thoughts came out of our study last evening about Joshua. The battles were over. The land was divided up. Cities of refuge were established. It was now time to settle down and live. Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, were to take their place on the other side, the east side of the Jordan River. The rest of the nation was on the other side of the river. These three tribes feared that down the road, generations later, they may not be considered a part of Israel. Future generations may look upon them as a neighboring nation. To prevent that, these three tribes built a replica of the altar. The altar was with the tabernacle in Shiloh. It was upon the altar that sacrifices were made. There was one altar, that is until now. Word reaches Israel what these three tribes have done. They assumed the worst. They thought they were going to have sacrifices upon them. This was a test of faithfulness. The nation was ready to go to war against these three tribes. It would have been ugly, except a delegation was sent to talk and reason with these renegade tribes. It was then found out that this was not to be used for sacrifices. It was not intended for God. It was a reminder that Israel included the three tribes on the other side of the river. Trouble was averted and all ended well. But a great lesson for us.

The Joshua story reminds us to get the facts before we come to our conclusions. What we have heard from others is often not the whole story. Rumors, gossip and evil suspicion still run through many congregations today. Here’s a few examples:

• A teen confesses sin and the rumor mill runs overtime guessing what all happened. The worst is assumed.
• A man’s name is submitted to be an elder and immediately, people feel compelled to find something wrong with him. When they can’t, some make up stuff and assume things without the facts. If not handled carefully and rightly, the man may withdraw his name.
• The elders want to address the congregation and immediately folks try to read between the lines. There is more that is not being said, they believe. The evil suspicions run wild. They try to guess who the elders are really talking about.

Modern media thrives on thinking the worst. I was listening to an “expert” talking about the Austin, Texas bomber. The man had blown himself up as the police narrowed in on him. Little details were known. But this “expert” who lived in another part of the country was certain that the young man had studied the tactics of the famed Unabomber. Did he know that? No. He was surmising. He was assuming. Media does this. Politics does this. The world does this. But God’s people don’t.

Thinking the worst and assuming wrong is considered not only evil, but characteristic of not following the Gospel of Christ. Don’t be ready to go to war until you get all the facts. It’s so easy to play the role of the judge, jury and executioner in our minds. We can do this just with the statement, “You’ll go to Hell.”

Assigning someone to Hell should never be done with a smile on our face, but rather a tear ought to be running down our cheeks. Assigning someone to Hell is not our prerogative. We ought to be doing all we can to show someone Jesus Christ. There was a generation not too long ago that loved to tell people that they were going to Hell. I’ve run into so many through the years that those words destroyed them. They could never forget them. I was told that I’m going to Hell, someone claims. Most times, that was enough for them to stop trying to find God and to just give up all together. It ruined them on Christianity.

Threats may keep North Korea from launching rockets, but it doesn’t change behavior. A person must be shown with the Bible why their behavior is wrong and what they are missing from not following Christ. The very definition of the word “gospel” means good news. It’s good news for those who do not have it. It’s good news for those who are living with bad news. It’s helpful, hopeful and life changing.

Let God be God. Stop thinking the worst. Gather facts. Help by showing that God has a better way. Make disciples of Jesus, not church members.

Now, some may be thinking, ‘I wonder what made him write about this today?’ ‘Must be something going on in that church he attends.’ Thinking the worst. Suspicions. Truth be, it was our study of Joshua and what Israel did that prompted this.

Try thinking the best, rather than the worst.

Roger

Jump Start # 1636

1 Timothy 6:4 “he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions”

  Our passage today takes us to the sewer of attitudes. The words are not kind nor healthy. Here we find, morbid, controversial questions, abusive language, strife and suspicions. These are all connected and characteristic of one who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ. He is going a different direction. He didn’t agree with what was taught by Paul. However, that’s not enough. He is arguing about words. He is mean in spirit. He is troublesome. This is not an outsider, but someone on the inside who ought to know better. I have run into some of these characteristics before. The guy who loves to stir things up in class. He is interested in controversial questions. He likes to shake things up. He is an outside the box thinker. He doesn’t know what is inside the box, but he definitely spends most of his time creating messes and stirring the pot. Some preachers are like this. They forgot that the word “Gospel,” means good news. They love to spread bad news. Some of them are really good at it.

The one expression that caught my attention is “evil suspicions.” This is nothing more than thinking the worst of a situation and a person. It’s reading things into a matter that may not be there at all. For some reason, human nature tends to take us there. We think the worst before we think the best. We hear a story, and immediately, before everything is known, the worst is assumed. Why do we do that? Sometimes we load the cannons and are ready to go off to war, when there isn’t a problem at all. Our minds took us there. We thought the worst. Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t happen much in the church. We make a guy prove himself innocent before we will believe him.

Thinking evil of someone. Thinking that they are up to no good. Thinking that their motives are impure and  not like Christ. Evil suspicions leads to false judging. There is a time and place for judging, but never false judging. We don’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’ve learned that the expensive way. I’ve bought books that had cool titles. The books were duds. I’ve passed over books with covers and titles that seemed boring only to find out later on that they were great. The same goes for people. A young guy with his shirt tale hanging out, looking sloppy, and we assume he can’t even put the right shoe on the right foot. To our amazement, he is not only smart but he is strong spiritually. We assumed the worse.

We can think the worse about many things. The preacher announces that his topic is on giving and immediately, the first thought that crosses our brain is “He’s wanting a raise.” Why do we think that? An old guy gets up to lead singing, and before he opens his mouth, we just know that the song is going to be slow, slow, slow. To our amazement, it’s not. Why did we assume that? One of the elders at church grabs us on the way out of the church building and says that he’d like to come by this week and talk with you. Immediately we panic. We think, “What have I done wrong?” All he wants to do is get to know you better and to see how he can help you be stronger in the Lord. Nothing bad. Nothing wrong. Nothing to worry about. Why do we think the worst?

Past experiences with some may be the reason we think this way. You only hear from some people when they want something. So they call, and you know that they need something. It’s easy to assume that everyone is that way. They are not. It can be assumed that all doctors overcharge. They don’t. It can be assumed that all car dealers will rip you off. Not all of them do. One can assume that all attorneys are dishonest. They are not.

Generalizing also makes us guilty of thinking the worst. Prejudice and fear feeds those suspicious thoughts.  We see on the news that some young black men are rioting. We can assume that all black men are like that. Wrong. They are not. You’ll find some of the most incredible Christians are young black men. Generalizing about “teenagers.” Generalizing about “college kids.” We can make the mistake that all people are the same. My last name is of German origin. Occasionally, someone will refer to the “German” in me. The problem is, our family has been in America for more than 300 years. The spelling of our name has changed. There isn’t much German in us at all. To say, “Well, you know how Germans are…” Assuming. Suspicious.

So, how do we stop thinking the worst about others? How do we put the brakes on assuming things without the facts? How do we keep from going negative on each other? You have to work at it. You have to divorce yourself of our culture. You have to walk with Christ.

Consider Jesus, who touched lepers, went to the home of a tax collector and chose a tax collector as one of His twelve. We find Him speaking to a woman at a well in Samaria. We find Him not being governed by the social norms of His times. Jesus, who did right, thought the best of others. He wanted the best out of others. He never gave up on others.

It helps applying the golden rule. Do you remember that? How would you want folks to think about you? What would you want others to be saying about you? Would you like folks to talk without knowing the facts? Would you like to be tried and executed with out being given a chance to say what happened? Things may look bad because we’ve made it look that way.

It helps believing that someone loves the Lord and wants to do what is right. Look at the person’s track record. Have they gone from one suspicious mess to another to another? Or, is this out of the ordinary? Be patient.

It helps allowing God to be God. There are situations in which I never did know what happened. But guess what, I didn’t need to know. It wasn’t my place. Curiosity can lead to suspicion. That in turn, can lead to thinking the worst. I don’t have to have an opinion on every thing that happens. I don’t have to get involved. My grandma used to say, “Mind your own bee’s wax.” I never did understand what that expression meant, other than, don’t put your nose where it doesn’t belong. Mind your own business. If I pointed the spiritual radar gun at myself as much as I do others, my life would probably be closer to the Lord. We give ourselves a pass on things, while at the same time, we are ready to speed dial the executioner for another’s crime. Look to yourself is a common theme in the N.T. We are fast to judge others, but so slow at changing ourselves. Maybe we ought to just pour more attention into ourselves.

When wrong is done, there are proper channels and ways to deal with that. But let’s not be so quick to go there until we know wrong has been done. We are a touchy society. You look the wrong way and someone is upset. Someone is always upset. You say the wrong thing. You say the right thing but the wrong way. You say the right thing, but they don’t think you meant it. It’s enough anymore to just want to stay home. But we can’t and we don’t. We do not try to offend others, but some will be offended no matter what. They are looking to be offended. We can go out of our way to make things right.

Thinking the worst…do you do that? Does that make you happy? Does that make you feel better? Maybe it’s time to get out of the jury box and instead of finding guilt with everyone we encounter, we tried to help folks. People make mistakes. People sin. People need Jesus. We can point fingers or we can help. Two of Jesus’ disciples wanted the Lord to allow them to call down fire from Heaven and burn up some people. Can you imagine? Can you imagine Jesus being party to killing people that disagreed with Him? Yet, today, there are many who are still calling for fire from Heaven. Let’s put down the matches and extend our hands in love, kindness, forgiveness and help. Isn’t that what we’d hope that they would do to us?

Don’t think the worst…it will bring the worst out of you.

Roger