“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.”
an evildoer
An “evildoer” is one who customarily engages in doing what is wrong. This is a wrongdoer with society. Evildoing in this passage may refer to civil disobedience.
No Christian is immune from evil. The capacity for evil is still resident in the sinful nature. When we become Christians, we do not lose the ability to sin. The apparatus for sin is still resident.
1 Pe 2:12, “Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
If we are going to be good lovers, we need to be good haters of evil,
Ps 97:10, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the souls of His saints;
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.”
Prov 8:13, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverse mouth I hate.”
PRINCIPLE:
No Christian should partake in civil disobedience unless he is called upon to deny his faith.
APPLICATION:
An evildoer ignores the rights of other people. An evildoer is a person who participates in civil disobedience. This person orients to mob psychology. Mobs destroy property, lives, and rights of individuals. No Christian should develop mob thinking.
God expects us to develop a hatred for civil disobedience. Anarchy destroys society. Even a lousy government is better than no government. At least the bad laws give some protection for law-abiding people.
Some people are spiritual anarchists. They are a law unto themselves.
Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
