Passivity – The Seed of Sin
By Scott Jones
While those who undertake engagement in the political sphere are subject to the temptations of pride, anger, and fear, there is another temptation that I find most common in the Church today – PASSIVITY.
Passivity is not a new temptation, but one that has afflicted mankind since the Garden of Eden. Indeed, in Genesis, chapter 3, Adam stands passively by while Eve eats the apple, and then going along with the crowd, eats of it himself. The impulse to be passive, when action is needed to restrain sin, can entangle one deeply in sin. Indeed, in the case of Adam, it entangled all of humanity.
2 Samuel 13-18 relates the story of Amnon and Tamar. Although David is not directly implicated, it seems hard to believe that he did not notice that “Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her long-sleeved garment which was on her; and she put her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.” (2 Samuel 13:19) As a result, Absalom killed Amnon in revenge and eventually led a rebellion against David. When Absalom rebelled, David again responded passively, by fleeing Jerusalem. This led to much hardship for David and his household. Were it not for the warning of Hushai, David himself might have been killed. The rebellion finally ended when Joab disobeyed David and killed Absalom as he hung in a tree.
David’s son, Solomon, also displays passivity. Having married foreign wives, Solomon, who twice spoke directly with the Lord Almighty, allows them to continue practicing idolatry. By refusing to call them to worship of the one true God, Solomon becomes deeply entangled in the sins of his wives. He even goes so far as to build high places for the detestable gods Chemosh and Molech. Again, passivity might have kept peace in a complicated household, but it does not end well. “So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.” (1 Kings 11:11-12)
Ezekiel 33 presents two sides of the coin of passivity. On the one hand, if the watchman sees danger and fails to blow the trumpet to warn the people, the watchman is guilty of sin. On the other hand, if the watchman sees danger approaching and blows the trumpet to warn them and one of the people disregards the warning and is killed, his blood is on his own head. Clearly, both the failure to warn the people and the failure to heed the warning lead to sin and to death.
Passivity appears in the New Testament as well. In Galatians 2, Peter fell into hypocrisy by passively participating in separation from the Gentiles, when in the presence of the “party of the circumcision”. Paul admonished Peter warning him not to live in hypocrisy, but to boldly live out the truth that “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
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One may argue that passivity itself is not a sin, since it does not involve any direct action, but certainly, as we can see from these examples, it is the seed that produces sin. When a believer experiences the temptation of passivity, generally two things are required:
· Warning: the believer is required to warn others of the danger the present or future sin presents and admonish them to turn back to the Lord.
· Action: the believer is required to act to mitigate or to counter the sin by ceasing or preventing the sin, and turning back to the Lord.
Thinking of politics and civics, I would argue that the dire situation in which we find ourselves today in the United States, stems largely from the passivity of the Church.
For almost 100 years, the Church has withdrawn passively from confronting the encroaching tyranny of the state. Church leaders invoke Romans 13 out of context and instruct their flock to “stay in their own lane”. When the Church passively fails to speak truth to power, the powerful will inevitably seize more and more power for themselves. Emboldened they take actions like forcing bakers to bake cakes depicting detestable practices, slaughtering 60 million innocent babies, declaring a month to take “pride” in acts God clearly tells us are sinful, forcing schoolchildren to affirm transgender madness and to spy on their parents, and more – sadly, so much more. In their worldview, the state is god, and you will bow before it.
Many Christians avoid politics by use the excusing that politics is a dirty business and they want to keep themselves “pure”. Nevertheless, the fact is you cannot escape involvement with politics. They will make you care.
“If you get out of bed in the morning, you're involved in politics. In fact, if you do not get up out of bed in the morning, you're still involved in politics, from the cradle to the grave and even past the grave. Politics affects every aspect of life and death from every place, where you worship to where you work. And so you have two choices. You can do politics or you can allow politics to do you.”
- North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson (My Faith Votes)
Our liberties and our republic are being stolen from us. If the Church continues to allow the seed of passivity to grow to full maturity, we will see a very dark age very soon. We must recognize that the tyrants intend to take away our God-given liberties, including the freedom to exercise our religious beliefs. It is past time for pastors to step up, to recognize the danger, and to sound the warning trumpet! It is time for every believer to take action to stop the tyranny of the state.
What must I do, you ask?
Simple:
· Pray for your nation, state, and community.
· Vote in every election – God has given us a republic and He expects us to participate in it.
· Engage – get involved in some way to push back the darkness where you live.
Take the PLEDGE to pray, vote, and engage and get moving with us. Christians Engaged is here to help us all build habits in these areas for the sake of our nation. We have to shake off passivity NOW before it is too late. Let us help.
Works Cited
My Faith Votes. (n.d.). A Conversation with NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Retrieved August 2021, from MyFaithVotes: https://www.myfaithvotes.org/articles/a-conversation-with-nc-lt-gov-mark-robinson
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
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Have our resources been a blessing to your life? Would you consider becoming a monthly donor with us to help us reach more people? Or maybe a generous one-time donation? We would love to have you as part of our team.