More and more with each passing week it seems, there are countless videos which have gone viral showing people in the act of not just committing crimes but indeed unthinkable, unimaginable atrocities against their fellow citizens, including kicking them in their heads, knocking them unconscious, beating them to the point of death and a recent shooting and murder of a man.  I won’t post any of those here because this is absolutely and completely a family website, safe for the entire family, and I intend to keep it that way until I die or the Lord returns, but suffice it to say that such viral videos reveal how low human nature will go when left to its own devices and are causing much righteous anger throughout the country.  Not just the crimes themselves but also the fact that a small percentage of people are actually recording those acts and uploading them to YouTube.  But it’s not even just that:  they’re also laughing  while recording those horrific crimes against humanity.

I absolutely understand why this “boils the blood” of sane, rational, kind-hearted people all across the nation and globe and political spectrum.  That’s not only a natural human reaction, it’s biblical:  in His humanity, did not Jesus’s own blood boil when he saw that a group of merchants and moneychangers had made God His Father’s “house a house of merchandise” (John 2:13-17), to the extent that He “made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables” (verse 15)?  If that  isn’t a picture of righteous anger and “one’s blood boiling” I don’t know what is!

The religious leaders of the time saw this and weren’t very pleased and indeed dedicated their lives to removing Jesus.  As in permanently.  (D’oh!  Talk about an unmitigated FAILURE! =)

But it’s very interesting and important to note that just six chapters later, in John 8:44, Jesus said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” whom He said (sans stumbling or stuttering, i.e., very bluntly) was a “murderer” and “liar” by nature, to the hilt.

But also note that, while poignantly pointing out that fact, Jesus did not excuse them or look past their evil deeds and conduct.

And that’s EXACTLY the perspective I think we should have in regard to those vicious viral videos:  we shouldn’t excuse or overlook the wrongdoing, the horrific crimes (almost always against the defenseless, the helpless, the very vulnerable and/or very outnumbered) regardless of the political views or ethnicity or religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of the doers… but we should  remain crystal clear about the fact that they’re merely doing the will of their father, the devil, to whom they are utterly enslaved.  You needn’t take my  word for it, take GOD’S WORD for it:  “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26)

Isn’t that amazing?!  And so totally practical and applicable to the current torrent of abhorrent, heartbreaking videos of victims being injured or worse at no fault of their own.  (The Bible always is practical and applicable, we just need to come to see how  it applies to any given situation.)

It’s hard – very hard – to see so much sin surrounding us (2 Peter 2:8; also in many of David’s Psalms and elsewhere).  Everywhere we look these days it seems.  And we are indeed to hate  those vile crimes seen in those viral videos… but to love  the criminals.  Not to just let them off the hook; indeed, the Bible is equally clear that they should be held accountable for their actions in this life and that we all will in the next one in any case (Romans 14:12).  But also not to hate them.  To hate the sin but love the sinner.  Understanding – thanks to John 8:44 and especially 2 Timothy 2:25-26 – that they’re simply slaves of Satan himself, literally “held captive by him to do his will.”  Therefore, our hatred and righteous anger should be directed there, at the devil; but to the people who are merely carrying out his will because their eyes are yet darkened, we should direct sympathy and compassion and prayers for eye-opening and salvation and spiritual transformation.

Because we know firsthand  of the predicament and position they’re in.  Because we were once just like they are – and would still be but for the beautiful and boundless and utterly undeserved and amazing grace and goodness of God in rescuing and releasing us from that very same snare:  “to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.  For we also once were foolish [paralleling the “come to their senses’ of 2 Timothy 2:25-26] ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” (Titus 3:2-3)  And a whole list of vile conduct right after which the Bible reminds us “AND SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU” [before being saved] (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  Ergo, our attitude toward the sin  and the originator of sin, the devil, should be righteous anger and hate (Ephesians 4:26; Romans 12:9) but our attitude toward the sinner – as outrageous and blood-boiling as those vicious viral videos conveying criminal conduct are – should be love and sympathy and compassion and humility.  Because “there but by the grace of God  go I.”
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