Evil: Just Refuse Delivery
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 But test everything. Keep what is good, and stay away from everything that is evil.
Sometimes, we get to imagining that evil is inevitable. That when temptation comes knocking at your door, well, it’s so tempting, you just have to let it in. How many times has that same temptation knocked you over, again and again?
I recently purchased a new smartphone online and, technology being what it is these days, I was able to track its movement from it’s despatch in China … right through to it’s delivery at my front door. Pretty cool.
But could you imagine, when the courier rang my doorbell, me going to the door saying, “No thanks, I don’t want it!?” The idea of refusing delivery is … well, it’s not natural is it? It’s something you’d never, ever do.
So what do you do when temptation comes knocking at your door? What do you do when temptation wants to hand you a package full of evil? (Because no matter how beautifully the package is wrapped, temptation is always about evil).
Some people struggle with this temptation and that. They think that their role is to overcome evil; to defeat it. But let me tell you, once you’ve accepted the package and unwrapped it, that’s way too hard. The best thing is simply to refuse delivery.
But test everything. Keep what is good, and stay away from everything that is evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)
So temptation comes knocking at your door. Now you have to figure out what it is – is it good or is it evil. Test everything. If it’s good, great, accept it, keep it, own it.
But you know how it is with evil. You take one look at it, and even though the wrapping is so appealing, so seductive, you test it, you think it through, you figure it out. Evil is evil. And at that point, you have a simple option before you. You say to the devil:
No thanks. Not at this address. Go away.
You simply refuse delivery, although that refusal takes power. Power that you don’t have, but power – that in that moment; in that instant, with just the quickest prayer; just the quickest turning to God – He is prepared to give you.
Test everything. Keep what’s good, and stay away from everything that’s evil.
So the next time evil comes knocking at your door, just refuse delivery.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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