Someone who uses the excuse that "I am not perfect", is doing two things, first they are saying they don't care that they are offending God and secondly they have no intention of seeking God to change them. When a believer is confronted with bad or sinful attitudes, an authentic believer will be ashamed, confess and desire to go on to be better with God's help.
This attitude of confession and turning from sin, is what will sustain them in the future, preventing them from repeating the same sin over and over. When someone will not confess their sin, they are not repentant, their desire is to be forgiven without ever changing their behavior.
We live in a culture that rewards the evil person and punishes the righteous. There have been times when I have rebuked a believer for a wrong action or attitude and their response was rage and retaliation. Many believers experience this frequently, which is the reason they often hold back advice, they expect others to rage and exact revenge when they point out a flaw in need of repair.
Isaiah 26:10 "Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord."
The reason so many people believe that we should bless a wicked man, is because our culture has taught for the past 50 years they Paganistic and psychological idea that evil people do evil because they have had some trauma in their life, that they are basically good and no one is truly evil. This is patently wrong, the Bible teaches that the heart of man is wicked and can only be different when man trusts Christ.
This excuse of past trauma does not fly in light of Biblical teaching for many reasons, but we only need one reason, that is that Adam and Eve had the perfect environment with the perfect parent, the Father in heaven, for their example and companionship and they still chose to disobey, lie about it and blame others for their sin.
Genesis 3:8-13 "8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
The verses that are often used to justify blessing an evil man are taken out of context as a mandate to go out of our way to give good things to evil men, when we do this, we solidify and justify the evil in a man's heart. The heart of man does not change because we gave someone something they want, it only changes when they see their own evil heart, desire to be changed by Christ and then He comes into man to change their heart.
An evil man can act and appear as though he has changed, when nothing has in his heart, just to keep the "blessing" coming. It is the heart man that needs the change not the outer appearance. The best blessing we can give a evil man is to show him that he is evil, tell him the remedy, the Gospel and support him when he has become broken over his sinfulness.
Getting a wicked man to like us does not help him come to the Lord, it only lets him feel comfortable in his sin.
Many times I have experienced people who grow deeper into their heart of wickedness because there were no consequences for their sinful behavior. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we see that all our evil didn't bring us anything but misery. To continue to pamper a wicked man is to help him remain in his sin, AND THIS IS NOT LOVING!
Of course I am not saying we should treat people in a mean way, that doesn't work either. We are to handle their evil with appropriate Biblical consequences, speak truth and if they will not listen or learn then we are to remove ourselves and allow the consequences from God to teach them.
Remaining friends with a wicked man who refuses to repent, is only becoming a part of their evil, a help to their evil lifestyle.
Acts 17:30 "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,"
John 8:24 "I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
Psalm 37:1 "Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!
Psalm 37:1-40 "Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. ..."
2 Thessalonians 3:2 "And that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith."
Acts 3:19 "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,"
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
Romans 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Romans 13:4 "For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Psalm 73:1-28 "A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind."
Hebrews 13:6 "So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from every form of evil."
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,"
Isaiah 1:16-17 "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."
1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"
The remedy for a wicked man is to hear the Gospel, repent of his sinfulness and trust Christ. When this is done in truth and sincerity, then the man will become born again and Christ will begin to work miracles in his heart. He changes the heart of stone and evil into a heart of flesh and righteousness. When someone becomes born again they don't have to work at hating sin, they will take on the new nature of Christ by His hand and never want to return to the old man.
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
This attitude of confession and turning from sin, is what will sustain them in the future, preventing them from repeating the same sin over and over. When someone will not confess their sin, they are not repentant, their desire is to be forgiven without ever changing their behavior.
We live in a culture that rewards the evil person and punishes the righteous. There have been times when I have rebuked a believer for a wrong action or attitude and their response was rage and retaliation. Many believers experience this frequently, which is the reason they often hold back advice, they expect others to rage and exact revenge when they point out a flaw in need of repair.
Isaiah 26:10 "Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord."
The reason so many people believe that we should bless a wicked man, is because our culture has taught for the past 50 years they Paganistic and psychological idea that evil people do evil because they have had some trauma in their life, that they are basically good and no one is truly evil. This is patently wrong, the Bible teaches that the heart of man is wicked and can only be different when man trusts Christ.
This excuse of past trauma does not fly in light of Biblical teaching for many reasons, but we only need one reason, that is that Adam and Eve had the perfect environment with the perfect parent, the Father in heaven, for their example and companionship and they still chose to disobey, lie about it and blame others for their sin.
Genesis 3:8-13 "8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
The verses that are often used to justify blessing an evil man are taken out of context as a mandate to go out of our way to give good things to evil men, when we do this, we solidify and justify the evil in a man's heart. The heart of man does not change because we gave someone something they want, it only changes when they see their own evil heart, desire to be changed by Christ and then He comes into man to change their heart.
An evil man can act and appear as though he has changed, when nothing has in his heart, just to keep the "blessing" coming. It is the heart man that needs the change not the outer appearance. The best blessing we can give a evil man is to show him that he is evil, tell him the remedy, the Gospel and support him when he has become broken over his sinfulness.
Getting a wicked man to like us does not help him come to the Lord, it only lets him feel comfortable in his sin.
Many times I have experienced people who grow deeper into their heart of wickedness because there were no consequences for their sinful behavior. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we see that all our evil didn't bring us anything but misery. To continue to pamper a wicked man is to help him remain in his sin, AND THIS IS NOT LOVING!
Of course I am not saying we should treat people in a mean way, that doesn't work either. We are to handle their evil with appropriate Biblical consequences, speak truth and if they will not listen or learn then we are to remove ourselves and allow the consequences from God to teach them.
Remaining friends with a wicked man who refuses to repent, is only becoming a part of their evil, a help to their evil lifestyle.
Acts 17:30 "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,"
John 8:24 "I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
Psalm 37:1 "Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!
Psalm 37:1-40 "Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. ..."
2 Thessalonians 3:2 "And that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith."
Acts 3:19 "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,"
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
Romans 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Romans 13:4 "For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Psalm 73:1-28 "A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind."
Hebrews 13:6 "So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from every form of evil."
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,"
Isaiah 1:16-17 "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."
1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"
The remedy for a wicked man is to hear the Gospel, repent of his sinfulness and trust Christ. When this is done in truth and sincerity, then the man will become born again and Christ will begin to work miracles in his heart. He changes the heart of stone and evil into a heart of flesh and righteousness. When someone becomes born again they don't have to work at hating sin, they will take on the new nature of Christ by His hand and never want to return to the old man.
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
