The Mother of All Self-Denial Mandates

Of all the Bible’s clearly stated and repeated mandates calling for self control and self denial, there is one jarring statement which makes legalists drool and freedomists froth. The Elizabethan text, with which I was trained, puts it this way:

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

Probably that verse more than any other was the Shire of spiritual list-making and the Mordor of pre-freedomist list-haters.[1] (Scroll to the very bottom of the page for the footnote.)

Abstain (apechomai) is used six times in the New Testament and means to personally hold yourself back from something. The other five uses are significant. Four of them specifically command that we abstain from fornication and from fleshly lusts. The other identifies commands to abstain from foods and the like (extra-biblical list stuff) as the game plan indicative of seductive spirits (which I understand in the context to be control mongers).

The significant term is appearance. In my youth this was understood as having some close or distant link with evil. Thus, card playing could be linked with gambling and therefore, it should not be done. Or, potentially it could lead to gambling. The word (eidos) does not speak of linkage but it may speak of potentiality. It has to do with something recognizable as when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, or when Jesus’ outward form was altered on the Mount of Transfiguration. It comes from a root word which means to know or recognize something for what it is. In terms of linkage, therefore, one may deny that card playing has a clearly recognized character of evil; one may quibble about a Michelangelo nude sculpture; but one is being disingenuous to deny the character of evil in explicit pictures of fornication. Here and with regard to potentiality the freedomist will balk and draw continuums to dredge up “exceptions” and thus deny the obvious.


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[1] Forgive me! I felt compelled to include that analogy for my many “Lord of the Rings” enthusiasts.