Character, Law, & Sin
At this point I feel compelled to address a disturbing trend. There are going to be people who will make character assassinations against men like George Floyd. Indeed they have already begun. Before we hear those accusations we need to ask ourselves a few biblical questions though.
For the sake of time we will only explore Mr. Floyd. A store clerk called law enforcement because Mr. Floyd supposedly paid for his goods with a counterfeit $20 bill. Was it right to contact law enforcement about counterfeit money? Yes. It is here that we must be very careful as Christians. We do not know if Mr. Floyd knew the nature of the money. We do not know where he got that money. It is our Christian duty to uphold the 9th commandment and preserve Mr. Floyd’s good name until proven otherwise. This is one reason why our justice system is supposed to assume innocence until proven guilty.
Stealing
But what does God’s word say about stealing?
First, if you went to God’s word, could one find a requirement to kill a thief?
You would be hard pressed to find it. The old testament laws require reparation for stealing.
If you look hard enough you can find one instance though. There was one type of stealing that called for capital punishment, kidnapping (man stealing).
Exodus 21:16, “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.” (NKJV)
What does the Christian find in these passages? Slavery. Kidnapping and selling into slavery is a capital offense.
If you have made it this far please do not callous your heart here.
These are human beings. Whom God created with inherent dignity.
The Reality of Sin
I can’t personally vouch for the integrity of every single person who has been killed. Obviously I can’t do that. I cannot say that George Floyd was a perfectly righteous man. I cannot say that he didn’t have any sin.
Let me encourage you. Are you perfect?
There is a story of a woman who walked up to her puritan pastor and she said something like, “You’re one of the most godly man I’ve ever known.” He responded, “Ma’am, if you looked into my soul you would spit in my face.”
The apostle says it another way in First John,
“If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 Jn 1:10 (NKJV)
I am not here to say that any one of the people who have been killed were sinless. Quite the opposite. Every single day my ministry is to sinners. Every single day, we fight together. We as Christians fight to put off the old man and to put on the new man. From what I have heard from George Floyd’s family, this is exactly what he was trying to do. He was fighting against sin. Fighting for Christ. I can’t say that he was sinless. But, I can say that if he was in Jesus Christ, he sure was sinless.
Systemic Racism
If we truly believe in total depravity, we should not be surprised if there are systems of oppression. Please do not misunderstand me. This is not critical race theory. A Biblical worldview takes sinful biases seriously. The noetic effects of sin are real. We sin daily, not only in the things we do and say. We also sin in the ways we think.
We should grieve. We should grieve over the loss of life. We should also stop and realize that there are ramifications that come from a system of oppression. The evil reality of slavery and Jim Crow in our country still affects people today.
My boys can do things that some of my friends’ boys can’t do. A while back a black friend told me about instructing his son. He has to tell his son when (not if) he gets stopped in a neighborhood how he is going to respond to police officers. He has instructed his son to go above and beyond in respect. To respond with, “Yes Sir,” and “No Sir.” He has to instruct his son to be a Christian man, to take Romans 13 seriously. Any back talk, resistance, or sudden movement can be taken as aggression and can result in severe consequences.
Why? Because there is a system bent against him. This is a Christian father. He feels the weight of having to tell his son about how to interact with police. The black Christian father has to tell his son about the likelihood of being prejudged based on the color of his skin. The black Christian father has to look into his boy’s eyes and tell him, “It is not the content of your faith but the color of your skin by which you will initially be judged.”
This is a sad world we live in.
Protests & Police – Riots & Stealing
With that ground work laid. What has happened in our country has gone far beyond protesting. What is shown on social media and television is far beyond our first amendment rights of protesting.
There is anarchy and riots in the streets.
How can we think Biblically about protests, riots, and looting?
The Civil Magistrate
The government, presidents, senators, mayors, governors bear the sword to enforce moral law. God tells us in Romans 13 that He appointed them to this position. The civil magistrate is to enforce the law, punishing evil doers.
The 6th & 8th Commandments
One of those laws is the protection of life. But another law is the protection of property.
Not too long ago I posted about keeping the 6th and 8th commandments in tension. During the Covid-19 crisis we had/have to preserve both life and livelihood.
In our present context we need that same balance.
And there are many things that have happened that are outright evil. Christians need to be able to call it evil.
It is wrong to destroy other people’s property.
It is wrong to destroy other people’s livelihood.
But, not every protest is a riot.
Call Sin – Sin
We have been flooded with images from our cities. But, protests and riots are not monolithic. There are different people, different factions, different ideologies, and different goals within this movement.
There are Martin Luther King Junior’s in this movement right now. There are pastors and congregants praying as they walk through their neighborhoods in peaceful protest. Christians are protesting: Black, Asian, Indian, and White. I have friends all throughout the country who are marching in peaceful ways.
But not everyone marching is of the same mind.
There are anarchists. There are people of lawlessness right now. We should condemn that. We should say that anarchy and lawlessness are wrong. We should be able to tell the difference between someone who is there to loot, destroy, steal, injure, and harm.
There are some who are so pent up with frustration that they do not know any other way to express it. And before we would necessarily condemn all of them. Remember that is what happened at the Boston Tea Party after they had exhausted every lawful means. Some people are just plain upset. It’s understandable.
But, some factions in these riots just want to burn the world to the ground.
We should recognize that there are those who hate the Government. There are those who hate America. Some hate our civilization. Some just want to see the world burn. There are some who just want to loot and steal.
We should call sin, sin.
We should call sin for what it is when someone’s life is unjustly taken from them. When someone is is starved of oxygen until their brain starts to shut down. That is sin.
We should also call sin for what it is when someone purposely decides to rob and destroy businesses. Both are sin. It is “both and” not “either or.”
