Abstain From All Appearance of Evil

While reading another post, I thought of this Bible text:

1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

What does it mean to "abstain from all appearance of evil"?

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In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

It must as a minimum mean that we should not be asking - What's wrong with it? Instead, we should be asking - What's right with it? We should stay clear of the line that separates the white and grey areas of what is morally right and wrong (rather than the line that separates the white and black areas of life).

Does Rom 13:14 shed any additional light?

How can we abstain from all appearance of evil?

Better yet, in response to Pastor Mike's post, what are the gray areas? Identifying them by listing them may help us answer Sarah's question.

Opinion version answer - Doesn't it mean get as close to as much right as possible under all circumstances? To fear God and give glory to Him in everything.

Documentation style answer -

1 Thessalonians 5:
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
5:18 MH 255; 5T 317

19 Quench not the Spirit.
5:19 GW 174; 3T 428

20 Despise not prophesyings.

21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
5:21 CW 35; 2SM 56, 79

22 “Abstain from all appearance of evil”. (33 SOP Search Hits){AA 262.2 - AA 268.1}; {AH 52.3}; {AH 332.1}; {CET 167.4}; {CH 569.2}; {CH 582.2}; {DG 150.4}; {EW 117.2}; {EW 302.6}; {GW92 163.2}; {SA 147.1}; {1SP 396.2}; {4bSG 112.3}; {ExV54 38.1}; {Te 98.2-3}; {1T 336.1}; {1T 353.2}; {2T 248.1- 2}; {2T 306.1}; {2T 455.1}; {2T 611.1 - 618.1}; {3T 239.2}; {5T 138.1}; [10 more SOP hits - feel free to look them up.]
Indexes SOP hits from Scripture index.
5:22 CH 591; Ev 461, 680; EW 117; FE 195; GW 125, 129; MH 486, 491; MM 143, 145, 218; 1SM 124; 2SM 30; 1T 336, 353, 381, 490; 2T 136, 248, 304, 306, 455, 457-8, 615; 3T 239; 4T 364-5; 5T 138, 358, 367, 593; 6T 201; TM 223

23 ¶ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5:23 AA 53; AH 177; 3BC 1143; 7BC 909; CD 57-8, 328; CH 66, 69, 579; CS 28; FE 144; GC 469, 473; ML 250; MM 21; SL 7, 26, 29, 41; 2SM 32; 2T 356; 3T 84, 570; 5T 227; 6T 475; TM 492

24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
5:24 1T 167; 2T 131

I don't believe God has grey/gray areas. As most of you know I am an Artist....believe me there are not grays mixed that are not a little this and a little that....as we all know a little sin makes: all sin. Even with a LOT of GOOD, if only a little evil...all evil. God gives us absolutes, we need not wonder what he means, there are examples of all things in the bible and SOP. If there is a question, Don't do it...There is no mixture of Gray. There is not enough gray to cover one tiny black spot.

Amen Charlene...I too do not believe in what people like to call "grey" areas. There will be no grey areas to Jesus. Do we obey or do we disobey.

I am not either agreeing or disagreeing to Charlene's and Avalee's posts.

The following Bible text comes to mind:

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Maybe we need to define gray and black and white.

I see gray as something that may be considered a sin by one person but considered OK by another person with both being correct.

I see black as something that is a sin no matter how one may consider it.

I see white as something that is not a sin no matter how one may consider it.

Now, based on the above definitions, I ask again what could be considered the gray areas?

By the way, somebody may have a better definition, or may simply disagree with what I have posted.

I think there can be gray areas in terms of what people understand to be sin, and how much light they've had. Of course God, Who knows everything, has perfect understanding of what's sin and what's not...black and white. But imperfect limited humans can't know it all.

Examples: the many Christians who will be in heaven, only to learn that they broke the 4th Commandment all their lives. ("the times of this ignorance God winked at..." - Acts 17:30) People who have just learned of the truth as it is in Jesus, who still don't yet realize that it's wrong to smoke, or to wear gaudy clothes/jewelry/cosmetics, or to listen to rock music. These may be sins in the black-white way of reckoning, but does God hold the people accountable who commit them, when they honestly don't yet know any better, and yearn to follow Jesus? Learning God's will is a progressive thing.

Many years ago when I was a newly baptized sabbathkeeper I wrote a letter to the late Elder Joe Crews of Amazing Facts, asking him for his opinions and guidance on a few issues. One thing I asked him was, is it a sin for an SDA to eat meat? He wrote back and said:

"Neither she [EGW] nor the Seventh-day Adventist church have made meat eating a moral issue involving sin. In other words, to eat it per se does not involve an act of sin; but I think we need to remind ourselves that with additional light available to Seventh-day Adventists and the additional knowledge of the contamination of meat, etc., it certainly would be a sin for me to eat it, and probably for most of our people who have this knowledge. I would not call meat eating a sin for anyone, but I would call it a sin for myself, because of my convictions about its effect on the body."

I think Elder Joe must have had James 4:17 in mind when he wrote this.

We also need to bear in mind the attitudes of those who are doing the "beholding" of our "appearance". An appearance of evil can suggest itself to some people when there's no evil present at all, not even the appearance of it. Certainly Jesus never did anything that would fit Paul's idea of an appearance of evil, yet some of the Jews said, "He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils." Luke 11:15. Some folks just don't know the difference between good and evil when they see it.

I'm sure not trying to 'muddy the waters' here, but am trying to illustrate that the issue of 'avoiding an appearance of evil' isn't a simple subject. There are many facets that require thought on our parts. I guess a lot of figuring it out involves trying to see one's actions as others might. (again, not an easy thing to do!)

[ May 12, 2002: Message edited by: John ]

Of course sin is based on the understanding of each person and the spiritual knowledge he/she has. There will be those as John said, saved and have never kept the 4th commandment....these are not what i suggest there is no grey areas. These have had limited light. I am speaking about we NAD SDAs. We have so much light and God has given enough light to al men, that the lost will be without excuse. Any country that has all the priviledges and freedoms that we do in America not only in our homes but in our churches. Bibles are everywhere, Home libraries and church libraries are full of the truth as it is in Jesus. Spirit of Prophecy counsel is available for every problem that may occur in your life.

The propblem is that we have a tendency to figure things out for ourselves and not go to the counsel of Bible and SOP. There is another point...if we err and have had counsel at our very finger tips we are guilty of not availing ourselves of the true knowledge that we could have had if we had studied it out and found the truth. We can be willfuly ignorant and this is a sin.

As far a grey/gray goes..it is always a mixture. there are warm grays and cool grays hot grays and cold grays.....all are not pure, they are mixtures . Black or white....lost or saved....if there is doubt, take it to black.

Amen. If in doubt, leave it out! For me, a "gray area" is something I'm not totally sure about, and so until I'm convicted one way or another, I put it on hold. By so doing I believe and feel like I am avoiding the shadow or reflection of sin, and the appearance of evil.

For example, there was a time when I wasn't sure about owning a bicycle or bowling, due to plain statements made by Ellen White. It was a gray area for me and so I put it on hold. But after having studied the question, I am now (have been for years) comfortable with owning a bike and going out bowling with friends.

Is sinning unwittingly and gray areas the same thing? Are we abstaining from the appearance of evil if we avoid so called gray areas? Or is there more to it?

The following examples from Ellen White indicates that abstaining from all appearance of evil involves at least avoiding practices or behaviours that can be construed by others as questionable or misleading.

Temperance, page 98, paragraph 2
"I do not see how our brethren can abstain from all appearance of evil and engage largely in the business of hop raising, knowing to what use the hops are put."

Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, page 38, paragraph 1
"In 2 Thess. v, 26, Paul says:--"Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss." And in the same chapter he says:-- "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Verse 22. There can be no appearance of evil when the holy kiss is given at a proper time and place."

General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 6, 1893, paragraph 5
"There should be connected with the mission married persons who will conduct themselves with the strictest propriety. But the danger is not alone from youth, but from married men and women; workers must build up the walls of modesty and virtue about themselves, so that women will not allure men, and men will not allure women, from strict propriety. 'Abstain from even the very appearance of evil.'

Testimonies for the Church Volume Two, page 248, paragraph 1
"You have fallen into the sad error which is so prevalent in this degenerate age, especially with women. You are too fond of the other sex. You love their society; your attention to them is flattering, and you encourage, or permit, a familiarity which does not always accord with the exhortation of the apostle, to "abstain from all appearance of evil."