14 March 2022 - Pete Nicholas READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
Abuse is not ‘just sin’ The Apostle Paul, whilst not indulging in hyperbole, says he is the ‘foremost’ or ‘worst’ of sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). Does this therefore mean that anyone could become an abuser? As evangelicals, we can be good at not ‘cartoon-ising’ people. We know the world does not divide up into ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23 ESV).
However, we need to avoid the contrasting danger of normalising sin and particularly normalising egregious sin like abuse. Abuse is not ‘just sin’, but as Dr. Diane Langberg points out, because abuse means literally to ‘misuse power’, ‘Any study of power misused is also always a study of deception, first of the self and then of others.’[1]
This self-deception requires a persistent hardening of heart to the conscience. Well does Scripture warn of ‘the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared’ (1 Timothy 4:2 ESV). It requires a deep distortion of how someone views others, no longer image bearers but mere pawns in a game of satisfying their lusts (sexual, power, or other). To abuse someone, and then even worse to abuse repeatedly and cover it up, requires a long and concerted journey down a very dark road. So whilst, yes because sin is so evil, every human being has the capacity for such egregious sin, no there is nothing ‘normal’ about abuse at all.
Published at soulinformation.org
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