Exodus 22-24

 Exodus 23:2 (NIV) "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong."

I was watching NHL hockey with my wife the other night and the teams that were playing began getting frustrated and consequently began playing unfairly and fighting. When penalties are given it's not indicative of cheating per se, though you would be hard pressed to find a definition making the distinction between a cheating scandal and a game misconduct or penalty. Often penalties can be properly called by the official referees, though at times it seems the calls are made incorrectly - it's ultimately the best judgment of the ref on the ice at the time and sometimes after the time the rule infraction was witnessed, many times to the great dismay of those in attendance of the hockey game even when the hockey players admit guilt in some instances.

Fighting is an entirely different scenario. In just the past 3 years I have noticed a marked increase of violence in the NHL though I'm told that "original six" 100 year-old hockey teams have a cultural history of violence with fighting. Many hockey goers aren't genuinely interested in the sport, if you've ever been to an NHL hockey game there is an abundance of alcoholic beverages and often in passing there is talk of great expectation for "the fight" and when the fight happens the stadium is on it's feet watching and cheering gleefully. Violence is always evil and should not be applauded or encouraged, this is consistent in the old and new testaments going all the way back to the original Mosaic Law God gave and then again with Paul's exhortation to the Corinthian and Roman churches.

I Corinthians 13:6 (NIV) "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

Romans 12:9 (NIV) "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

In a culture that celebrates violence and even calls for the murder of political opponents, genocide and religious persecution believers and God-fearers are to live as C.S. Lewis writes, 'contra mundum' or against the world. We must be diligent in our pursuit of righteousness fleeing the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life from the world. Living set apart from the world means standing firmly in the truth of God's word, will and ways by rejecting unrighteousness and sin, not applauding violence or evil.

Comments

  1. lesherjFebruary 7, 2026 at 7:14 AM

    It is worth further justifying my comment, "Violence is always evil." Violence is always evil because God hates evil (Psalm 11:5) and because God is not unjust (Hebrews 6:10) it is important to make a distinction between righteous judgement and uncontrolled violence. Vengeance is the LORDs (Deuteronomy 32:35), but the LORDs wrath, annihilation and destruction seen throughout scripture is precise and controlled with justification because the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Suggesting God does not hate evil denigrates His holy, just, righteous, loving, good character and means God is evil or violent, which I wholeheartedly reject. God's character is consistent (Hebrews 13:8), God hates sin and violence (Proverbs 6:16-19), Psalm 97:10 says those who love God are to hate evil, Psalm 11:5 says God hates evil. God hates sin. We are to hate sin. Violence is evil. We are to hate violence. We are to love God and love justice based on His moral law.

    I would like to say that the Law of Non-contradiction must be considered: God cannot simultaneously be something he is not. It is important to understand the authority of scripture and properly seek the whole counsel of scripture through a rigorous pursuit of truth and proper Biblical interpretation of textual criticism which entails a grammatical-historical method. To save ourselves from confirmation bias and logical fallacy we must approach the word of God with humility and trembling, the word of God informs our life, culture and politics; political stance, life experience or worldly culture should not reshape how we understand and practice the gospel & word of God.

    "Let us not measure God's judgments by our own wisdom...It would be preposterous to measure His operations by our wisdom. When we weigh facts, deeds and thoughts by our own judgment, we deceive ourselves." ~John Calvin

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