Awareness of Evil
This is my third reflection on Blamire's book The Christian Mind.
The Christian is distinctive by being aware of evil. You may argue that being aware of evil is common to the human condition. At best that statement is partially true and very slanted. The Christian Mind is distinguished by understanding fully both the source and consequences of evil.
The Christian rigidly maintains that man is created in the image of God and that image has been bent by the hereditary consequences of sin. This dynamic tension explains all that is both good and bad in people. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, we should be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in all our dealings. What should we watch for?
The gospel of John uses "world" to denote the sphere and system of human relations which opposes the authority of God. The central value of the world by this definition is pride, or the aggrandizement of self. Pride finds avenues to manifest sin and defy God through the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the boastful self-centeredness of life. The Christian must view the world with caution, because it is the Establishment. The Establishment has no interest in sacrificial love. The Establishment crucified Jesus.
The Christian mind is free from the Pharasitic hypocrisy of gweh and gtheyh which the world endorses as a guide to assessing evil. "We" are moral, upright, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. "They" are wretched and corrupt. These we/they distinctions allow us to ignore the real but desperately subtle sins of pride which are common to all.
The Christian mind sees the evil in what the world, the self-deceptive gweh, accepts. Our comfortable Orange County values of sex, money, and power are seen as by the Christian mind as depraved, self-destructive and offensive to God.
This concept of a proper mind is so radical it is shocking. This view of evil has allowed the Christian church to do such radical things as rescue babies in 1st century Rome, and historically oppose abortion, slavery and child labor. May the Holy Spirit give us ability to see evil in making people into things and things into deities.
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