Ok. I readily admit. I hate Halloween. I walk around our neighborhood and see witches and goblins and grim reapers (giant sized ones) adorning yards. It makes me cringe.
I think dress-up is fun for children (maybe adults too). But dressing our children in evil is just … well imitating evil.
John in his third letter warns the church about a man named Diotrephes. He calls him one “who loves to have first place,” one who is “slandering us with malicious words,” and one who not only “refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.” [vs9-10]
Then John immediate declares, “Do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” [3John11 HCSB]
John does not want Gaius, to whom the letter is written, to act like Diotrephes. But I think the advice he gives is broad enough for us to apply it to other times and situations.
“Do not imitate what is evil.”
The world has made evil “fun.” It dresses evil up as entertainment. It seeks to make it exciting. Or it seeks to make us think it is just a “harmless” activity. But evil is never harmless. Just ask Adam and Eve.
