Our Wish for the Wicked

From an early age, we humans become well accustomed to the enduring theme of good versus evil. From the fairy tales and shows of our childhood to the books and movies we consume as adults, we learn to root for the good guy, to rejoice when good triumphs over evil, and to feel satisfied when the bad guy meets his demise or gets his just punishment.

We could spend much time diving into how this good-versus-evil dichotomy is a reflection of the deeper reality that pervades every part of the universe, how God, who is Goodness Himself, has defeated in an already-but-not-yet capacity the most profane Rebel of all time, known among many other things as the Evil one. But today, I’d like us to consider how the many fictional portrayals of the war between good and evil, from the cosmic scale to the inner-personal, might have trained us to think of evil people in the real world in a way that is not fully reflective of the mentality we are called to have as followers of Jesus.

In most, if not all, superhero tales, there is a clear and definite evil enemy. Sometimes this creature is in the form of a non-human; other times it’s a human who has achieved super-human abilities. These “bad guys” are clearly sensationalized, just as the superheroes are, meant to represent an idea—the existence of evil—and it’s not hard to exult in the destruction of a clearly fictionalized monster that represents evil itself. But in other tales, the “bad guy” is clearly an ordinary human—whether it’s someone who commits horrendous crimes or one who bullies, abuses, oppresses, or neglects others—and the way many of these tales are told is designed to make us similarly wish for the downfall of such wicked people and to celebrate when that downfall occurs.

Certainly, there is a biblical case to be made that we should be against wickedness in all its forms. Paul describes love (which is to be the hallmark of a Christian) as that which “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6, ESV). The Psalms are filled with pleading for and rejoicing over the defeat of enemies. As we saw in an earlier post, the certainty of God’s perfect justice is something we can be thankful for, and the demise of our greatest Enemy is certainly something we can celebrate. But does it follow that we should cheer when wicked people meet their end? We can celebrate the carrying out of justice and the punishment of evil deeds, but is it godly to be giddy when wicked people die?

Follow the thought process with me for a moment… God tells us in His Word that “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV). In other words, left to ourselves, we are all wicked people. The only way to become good is to be given a new heart and a new spirit, to take on the righteousness of Jesus that He freely offers to those who accept His sacrifice and gift on their behalf. The villains of this world are those whose wickedness is simply on display more obviously than others, and it becomes easy for the rest of us to want these villains to pay, to be angry and vengeful in our attitude toward them, and to be happy when they meet their end, even though we know that dying apart from Jesus means an eternal prolongation of the separation from God that they experienced on earth.

But what does God say about the death of the wicked? He tells us in Ezekiel 18:23 and 32: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? […] For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” (ESV). So while on the one hand, we know that vengeance belongs to God (see Romans 12:19) and that in His perfect justice He will certainly condemn the guilty, we see that because He is also Love, He has no pleasure in doing so. He is not vengeful without empathy. He is not wrathful without compassion. Time and time and time again, He calls us wicked people to take the way out, to turn from our wicked ways, put on the righteousness of Jesus, and live.

When we do this (become followers of Jesus and good instead of evil) we are called into a higher way of living—a way that seems counterintuitive to the world because it goes against the culture. Instead of hating our enemies, we are called to love them; instead of cheering for their ruin, we are commanded to pray for them (see Matthew 5:43-44). We are called to see that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV). In other words, evil humans are not actually the true villains, however heinous their crimes may be. Our fellow humans, even the most outrageously evil among them, are evil because they, just like we were, are enslaved by sin and the Evil one (see Romans 6; John 8:44; 1 John 3). Satan is the ultimate villain, not they. They are merely pawns in his futile game. 

The problem with fictionalized good-vs-evil sagas is that they make us forget this truth. They lead us to equate in our minds the concept of evil or Evil himself (Satan) with evil people (those in bondage to him) and to therefore wish for human perpetrators of evil to be destroyed when instead we should be praying for them to repent. We should bear the fruit of God’s Spirit, which includes His kindness—a kindness that we are told is meant to lead people to repentance (see Galatians 5:22 and Romans 2:4). While we can certainly rejoice when good triumphs over evil, we should be careful to separate in our minds evil itself from those who are enslaved to it.

Retraining our brains to hope and pray for the good of those who are “the worst” among us (i.e., for them to come to faith in Jesus) rather than to hope and pray for their present and eternal destruction can be a hard pill to swallow. But as we are called to become more like Jesus (i.e., God), we must face the fact that just as God’s greatest desire for those enslaved to evil is that they take the way He has provided to break out of that bondage, becoming free to be good, so our greatest desire for them should be the same.

May God give us the strength to look at the perpetrators of evil and injustice in this world not through eyes of hatred, anger, and vengeance, but with hearts of love, empathy, and compassion, recognizing that, but for the grace of God, we would still be in bondage just as they. And may we be able to say, as Paul said about the unbelieving Israelites, that “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1, ESV).

PC: Hannah Vazquez. Used with permission.

أهمية العقل في حياة المسيحي

قبل عدة أشهر استمعت الى تعليم جين ويلكن في مؤتمر ريفيف 15' للسيدات واقنعني تفسيرها عن أهمية إشراك أذهاننا في مسيرتنا مع المسيح وليس فقط قلوبنا. ضمن عرض قضيتها تطرقت الى مرقس 30:12 والذي يتحدث عن محبة الله بعقولنا كما وتطرقت الى رسالة رومية 2:12 والتي توضح أن العقل هو المكان الذي يبدأ فيه التحول.

لن اعيد كل ما قالته الآن (يمكنكم مشاهدة رسالتها هنا).

ولكن هذه بعض من العبارات التي علقت في ذهني: 

" الطريق لتجديد مشاعرنا هو من خلال تفكيرنا. التفكير الصحيح يجب ان يقود الى الشعور الصحيح. لا يمكننا ببساطة أن نشعر حتى نشعر بشكل مختلف يجب أن نفكر حتى نشعر بشكل مختلف."

" لا يقدر القلب أن يحب ما لا يعرفه العقل."

منذ سماع جين تتحدث أصبحت متيقظة لحالات اخرى في الكتاب المقدس التي تشير الى العقل. إحداها في كورنثوس الأولى 14. حيث يتحدث السياق عن المواهب الروحية وبالتحديد عن موهبتي التنبؤ والتكلم بألسنة وعند الحديث عن هذا الموضوع يؤكد بولس على أهمية العقل:

لذلكَ مَنْ يتَكلَّمُ بلِسانٍ فليُصَلِّ لكَيْ يُتَرجِمَ. أنَّهُ إنْ كُنتُ أُصَلّي بلِسانٍ، فروحي تُصَلّي، وأمّا ذِهني فهو بلا ثَمَرٍ فما هو إذًا؟ أُصَلّي بالرّوحِ، وأُصَلّي بالذِّهنِ أيضًا. أُرَتِّلُ بالرّوحِ، وأُرَتِّلُ بالذِّهنِ أيضًا (اية 13-15).

ثم يشرح " اذا كنت تشكر بروحك" (و يفترض الا تكون بعقلك) فلا يمكنك " بناء " الاخرين (اية 16-17). وبالتالي فان اشراك عقولنا ليس فقط امر مهم وحاسم لنمونا الروحي ولكنه أيضا مهم لبناء ونمو اخوتنا واخواتنا المؤمنين.

ويكمل بولس ويلفت الانتباه الى العقل " أيُّها الإخوَةُ، لا تكونوا أولادًا في أذهانِكُمْ، بل كونوا أولادًا في الشَّرِّ، وأمّا في الأذهانِ فكونوا كامِلينَ" (اية 20). 

من الواضح أن عقولنا مهمة. ومع ذلك كم من مرة أهملناها في حياتنا اليومية؟ كم مرة سمحنا للكسل بالسيطرة، مفضلين التسلية والدلال بدلا من السعي للتفاعل مع الكتاب المقدس بشكل شخصي والتصارع مع أنفسنا بالأسئلة الصعبة؟

المشاعر بنفسها وبذاتها سوف تتغير بكل تأكيد. لذلك من المهم جدا أن نبني مشاعرنا على أساس قوي من الحقيقة أو ما تسميه جين ويلكين "التفكير الصحيح ". إحدى الطرق التي يمكننا من خلالها بناء هذا الأساس هو التفاعل بشكل مدروس مع الكتاب المقدس من خلال قراءته ودراسته .

لذا بدلا من الاكتفاء بأن نكون أطفالا في تفكيرنا أو أن نعيش علاقتنا مع يسوع المسيح فقط في عالم القلب , فلنتذكر ان الله اعطانا عقلا وأنه أعطانا إياه لسبب. دعونا نطرح الأسئلة ونصقل فضولنا و ندرب عقولنا لنرى كيف أن معرفة الله المتزايدة من خلال كلمته ستغير حياتنا.

"ولا تُشاكِلوا هذا الدَّهرَ، بل تغَيَّروا عن شَكلِكُمْ بتجديدِ أذهانِكُمْ، لتَختَبِروا ما هي إرادَةُ اللهِ: الصّالِحَةُ المَرضيَّةُ الكامِلَةُ " رسالة رومية 2:12

كتب من قبل أوليفيا باشا. ترجم من قبل ميار مسلّم. تعديل حنا باشا.

هذا المنشور تم نشره أولا في 2016. لرؤية النسخة الإنجليزية الأصلية إضغط هنا.

This post was first published in 2016. To see the original English version, click here.

Love Overflowing

Much has been said and written about the connection between language and culture, and while this connection is something I was loosely aware of on a cognitive level, it wasn’t until I moved to the Middle East that I began to understand it more experientially.

Arabic and English are very different languages, from sentence structure to the way words are formed and even to the direction of reading and writing. In many ways, the two could not be more different. As I’ve mentioned in another post, these differences shape (or are shaped by, depending on your argument) the very way that people think. But they also are related to the way people express their thoughts. For example, as I pointed out in yet another post, the English language and English-speaking cultures tend to be very direct, while the Arabic language and the cultures that utilize it tend to be more circular in communication. But there is another major difference between these languages/cultures: one related to the expression of emotion.

Since living in the Middle East, I’ve learned that Americans are often thought of as “soft” (as we would say in English), i.e., that we have a low tolerance for suffering and hardship and that we tend to complain about minor things. (When you compare the average life experiences of an American to those of someone from the Middle East, you begin to understand why this opinion is formed.) In other words, Americans are thought to be much more emotive than Arabs, even melodramatic, when it comes to dealing with inconvenience, suffering, or pain.

But there is another way in which Americans are much less emotive than Arabs, and that is in expressing affection—and I’m not just talking about romantic affection. I’m talking about every level of affection that can be felt by a human being. By way of example, though, here’s a humorous take on what this looks like when it comes to romantic affection:

To an English speaker, the number of words, breadth of descriptive vocabulary, and intensity of the all-caps in this example convey an over-the-top expression of affection. But to an Arabic speaker, the verbosity, descriptiveness, and intensity are all perfectly normal—normal even to the point that such expression is only mildly modified when the affection is something less than romantic, e.g., between friends.

Not long ago, my husband and I were in a men’s clothing store in our city and were being helped by the owner. Shortly after we arrived, another customer came in who obviously knew him. I wish I had had the presence of mind to record or at least write down the conversation between the two men because they went back and forth multiple times exchanging expressions of greeting before ever getting to the point of why the customer came in the store in the first place. The length alone of that introductory exchange, while completely normal in Arab cultures, is still disorienting to my American, English-speaking self, but what made the exchange, and others like it, even more disorienting were the actual words and expressions used. It’s not just a “Hi, how are you?” “Oh, hi, I’m well, how are you?” repeated over and over. It’s more like:

Man 1: “Hello, My Dear! Welcome!” [Those familiar with Arabic even a little will recognize that “my Dear” is “Habibi.”]

Man 2: “Hello, My Age! What’s new?”

Man 1: “My Eyes, praise God, all is good, My Dear. All is well?”

Man 2: “My Dear.”

Man 1: “My Heart, welcome.”

Man 2: “My Precious One. How is the family?”

Man 1: “Well, well, My Life, thank God.”

Etc.

This effusive mode of expression is not just limited to greetings, however. The Arabic equivalent of “Happy Birthday” literally translates to “Every year and you are healthy,” which is a way of wishing prolonged good health upon someone. Instead of “Congratulations,” which translates “Mabrook,” it is more common to say “Alf mabrook,” i.e., “a thousand congratulations,” (or even “alf alf alf mabrook”). When you post a picture of your meal on social media, comments are less likely to be about how delicious the food looks (which is typical for American responses) and instead are more likely to be of the “bon Appetit” variety but that literally translate to, “Health and total wellness” or “Two health.” And when that Arab equivalent of “enjoy the food” is said to you, the appropriate response literally translates to “On your heart,” which is a way of heaping the blessing back on the one offering it. And of course, it is not uncommon for each of these to be followed—or surrounded—by one or more of the “my life, my heart, my eyes, my precious one,” type of phrases.

As an American, I am not used to this overflowing expressiveness, and my manner of communication reflects that. But as much as I am unaccustomed to offering such effusive expressions, I am even more unused to receiving them. I find myself completely at a loss as to how to respond to words that to my ears seem to convey a depth of feeling only reserved for those most romantically in love with each other. A simple, “Thanks” or “You too,” never seems sufficient in the face of such outpouring, and yet I never quite know what to say, so I usually end up resorting to a smile and nod and feeling the weight of my inadequacy to reciprocate such apparent depth of emotion.

Of course, in some ways, these expressions are merely part of the culture and have just become what people say without really thinking about it. But even still, the fact that these deep and flowery phrases are part of normal communication reflects an emotiveness inherent in Arabic-speaking cultures that English-speaking cultures lack.

To be honest, at times, this cultural difference can be incredibly frustrating. It can leave me feeling awkward or like a terrible person for not feeling rushing swells of emotion at every turn. It makes me think I come across as rude or insensitive or shallow for not being easily able to roll expressions of adoration off my tongue. But in another sense, I’ve come to see that this cultural difference, like so many others, is yet another opportunity to learn more about God.

Numerous times, the Bible speaks of God delighting in those who follow Him. And in one of the most beautiful verses, we read:

“The Lord your God is in your midst,

    a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

    he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).

 

It wasn’t until I moved to the Middle East that I began to get a glimpse of what it really must be like for God to delight in us, to rejoice over us, to exult over us. His love is not just an “I love you” kind of love. It’s a “My adoration for you cannot be quantified nor expressed merely by the written word. The death of a thousand suns can’t match the energy of My love for you. I didn’t just face death, I met and defeated death to prove my commitment to you, o beloved one, my precious child” kind of love.

 

The Creator of the Universe, the All-Powerful God, is an emotive God who is overflowing with love (not to mention being Love itself) and who expresses that love by rejoicing over us with gladness and exulting over us with loud singing. He is effusive in His expression of affection toward us. And that’s something that I think our Arab brothers and sisters in Christ can understand on a deeper level than we Americans can.

 

As I continue to adjust to communicating in a different cultural dynamic, I pray that God uses my exposure to this more emotive manner of expression to enlarge my capacity for grasping and receiving His overflowing love for me. And for my American family of faith, I pray that you likewise “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19, ESV).

PC: Mais Salfiti. Used with permission.