Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
It is good to stay close to the Scriptures, just to make certain that the ideas that we carry have not drifted away from the standard of truth provided for us by God. Not long ago, I researched what the Bible had to say about the word "wickedness". Here are the results:
There are degrees of wickedness, and degrees of punishment for it (cp. Dt. 25:1-2; Eccl. 7:17), but it is dangerous in the extreme to be a wicked person to any extent. Every form of wickedness hurts people, just as every form of righteousness helps them (Job 35:8). Therefore, our loving Creator hates wickedness (Ps. 45:7), and He is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11). His curse rests upon their houses (Prov. 3:33).
God destroyed the nations in Canaan because of their wickedness (Dt. 9:4-5). God commanded the judges in Israel to burn alive any man who took as a wife a woman and her daughter or a woman and her grand-daughter (Lev. 18:17; 20:14), calling it wickedness. When God destroyed the entire world with a flood, it was because man's wickedness had become "great" on the earth (Gen. 6:5). The apostle John tells us that the whole world is again covered with wickedness (1Jn. 5:19), and Peter foretold of another complete destruction of the world, not by water this time but by fire (2Pet. 3:10): "The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
Demons are wicked spirits (Mt. 12:45), but man does not need them in order for him to be wicked. The heart of man is the most self-deceptive and wicked thing in all of creation (Jer. 17:9). If today, God were to destroy all demons and Satan himself, man would still be sinful and in need of the Savior.
The list of deeds that the Bible calls "wickedness" is long. These things are among them:
Perverse immorality, such as incest, is called wickedness (1Cor. 5:13). The perverse inhabitants of Sodom were also called wicked people (Gen. 13:13). Wickedness includes the fear of gods other than Jehovah (Dt.13:6-11), the worship of inanimate objects (Dt. 17:2), rape (Jud. 20:12), and murder (2Sam. 3:39). And because "foolishness is bound in the heart of a child", young people need to be taught that foolishness is also wickedness (Eccl. 7:25). The murder of one's brothers is called "wickedness to one's father" (Jud. 9:52); so, from that truth, we may learn that wickedness perpetrated against people are actually sins against the Creator of people, as the upright have always known (e.g. Gen. 39:7-9). For this reason, no wicked person is allowed by God to have peace in his soul (Isa. 48:22), and as long as he lives, there is fear in the heart of a wicked man (Prov. 28:1). "The wicked are like the troubled sea," wrote Isaiah, "when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
It is wickedness to alter God's commandments, and at times, God's people have twisted His judgments more than those who never belonged to Him (Ezek. 5:6). It is wickedness to attempt to occupy a position appointed by God for another (1Kgs. 1:52 & 2:23) or to otherwise reject God's rule over His people by whomever He chooses (1Sam. 12:17). To reject the one God anoints to rule, or to reject His way of governing His people, is to wickedly reject God Himself (1Sam. 8:7). The wicked often envy the upright and plot against them (Ps. 37:12; 119:110), often using some form of bribery to cheat the good out of what is theirs by right (Prov. 17:23). The wicked are found even in the very temple of God (Jer. 23:11; 2Thess. 2:4; Eph. 6:12) because they envy the blessings and glory of the godly.
The truth is that the heart of the wicked would actually prefer to have all good people dead (37:32), and if you don't believe that, you may become one of their prime targets. They prey on the unsuspecting; they shun all mercy as they strive to accomplish their ungodly desires (Mt. 18:32). And the more earthly blessings God gives to them, the more wickedness they do (Isa. 26:10).
When the wicked do manage to attain to positions of authority, they are oppressive rulers (Ps. 17:9; 73:8; 55:3) who cannot give sound advice (Job 21:16; 22:18; Ps. 64:2; Prov. 11:11; 12:5). Not only is their advice bad; they would rather hear bad advice than to hear the truth (Prov. 17:4; Hos. 7:3; Prov. 28:4). And when the wicked do gain high office, other wicked people are encouraged to be bolder in their wickedness than ever; they seem to crawl out from under every rock and out of every crevice (Hos. 7:3; Prov. 29:12). The wicked can in fact do nothing right, either in deed (Prov. 15:9) or in thought (Prov. 15:26). Men can perform wickedness in their hearts (Ps. 58:2), and they normally do contemplate wickedness before they actually perform it.
It is wickedness to be cruel and abusive, especially toward godly people (1Kgs. 2:4), but even toward animals (Prov. 12:10). But God has a place prepared for His people where the wicked will never afflict them again (2Sam. 7:10).
The wicked do not pay their debts, either to men (Ps. 37:21) or to God (Mal. 3:8), and they are cursed as a result (Mal. 3:9). Moreover, those in the congregation who have returned to wickedness will hide God's gift to them where no one can profit from it (Mt.25:24-28). The body is held together by the bands of the Spirit, but when a member of the congregation returns to his former love of the world and becomes vile, God will sever the bands that connect that reprobate saint with the body of Christ (Ps. 129:4). Those used by God to sever those bands of the children of disobedience from His faithful children are especially blessed, for they are keeping the True Sabbath of God by doing so (Isa. 58:6).
Wickedness can be a spoken thing (Job. 27:4; Ps. 73:8), and it is often disguised by sweet words (20:20). Jesus refused to allow any wickedness near his tongue (Prov. 8:7). Proud boasting is also wickedness. James said that we should not even speak of what we will do tomorrow because "ye know not what shall be on the morrow" (Jas. 4:14). The wicked boast of what they will do because they have no fear of God (Ps. 36:1), who holds the future in His hand. For all this, the people on earth who do not know God, including God's own people who do not know Him, hold the wicked in great esteem and honor (Mal. 3:15).
God hates the worship, and even the prayers, of the wicked (Prov 15:8), unless those prayers are prayers of sorrow and repentance. Some of the wicked think they have done no wrong when they sin (Prov. 30:20), but they will never know forgiveness as long as they pretend to feel no guilt for their sins. God is very merciful and will not despise an humble, repentant heart. Samuel (1Sam 12:20), Solomon (1Kgs. 8:47-50), Jeremiah (4:14), Ezekiel (18:20-22), and others sent from God proclaimed God's mercy for the wicked if they would only turn from their wickedness and begin to do what is right instead. The Lord appeared to Solomon one night and told him (2Chron. 7:14), "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Forgiveness is always God's first choice for the wicked. His first choice is eternal life for everyone of us. He told Ezekiel (33:11), "Say unto them, 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live. Turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O Israel?' "