Abstaining From the "Appearance" of Evil

I Thessalonians 5:22 in the KJV reads as - "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Growing up I heard this verse used many times and for many different purposes. Many times it was stretched in order to justify not going to otherwise normal settings. For example, I remember sitting under a pastor who was preaching that you should not go to a movie theater because they play “R” rated movies there. Even though you may be going to watch a “G” rated cartoon with your children you should not go because someone may get the “appearance of evil” that you are in fact going to watch the more adult movie.

The same reasoning is used for not going to the beach, or not going to the swimming pool. Other people may see you there and see “the appearance of evil” that you are there to look lustfully at members of the opposite sex, when in fact you’re just going to have a nice time with your family. If this verse truly meant “live your life in a way that it doesn’t look like you’re doing anything wrong at all costs,” then I would agree with those scenarios. But is that truly what I Thessalonians 5:22 is telling us?

The Greek word for “appearance” is εἴδους (eidos) which means “form, figure or shape”. To add that definition into the verse itself, you could read it as “abstain from all forms, figures, or shapes of evil.” This changes the meaning doesn’t it? The English language allows for multiple meanings behind the word “appearance,” where you could read into it and pull out the idea that it should not “appear” that you are doing evil, which is why it is so important to double check with the original language. The Greek is able to get more specific and shows us that simply we are to avoid any forms of evil, figures of evil, or shapes of evil.

Ultimately, to get the true meaning of verse 22, you could remove the word “appearance,” and maintain the meaning that God desired. We see this done in multiple other versions of the Bible besides the KJV. For example:

Reject every kind of evil – NIV

Abstain from every form of evil – NASB

Stay away from every kind of evil – NLT

Abstain from every form of evil – ESV

As you can see, these show a truer meaning of what God is trying to teach us. These translations pull a more literal meaning of the word “appearance” and translates them using the Greek translation we looked at earlier with the words “kind and form.” Knowing this, it changes the way we can look at this verse. In fact, it gives it a much more straightforward meaning then those posed in the original paragraphs. Paul is simply telling us to stay away from evil.

With that said, it doesn’t mean we get to live how we want and not care how others perceive what we’re doing “as long as we know we’re doing right.” For example, a Christian man should not enter into a strip club because he hears they serve good food. Yes, he’s only going in for the food, and maybe he keeps his eyes shut the entire time, but it hurts his testimony and effectiveness for Christ with those that see him going in. They would see hypocrisy. Obviously I over dramatized this, but I did for the sake of getting the point across. There are many other examples of this.

In fact we see this in Scripture. Romans 12:17 reminds us that we should live honorably among all men, and I Corinthians 8:9 tells us that we should not be a stumbling block to our brothers. We should not live our lives with the mindset of not caring what others think about us. We claim to know Christ. We go to church. We talk to others about Him. If we don’t care what others think of us, then we don’t care what others think of Christ.

What makes this distinction important in breaking down I Thessalonians 5:22 is that when you go with the literal translation of “abstain from all forms of evil,” it gets rid of the command and changes the focus on a very specific idea of staying away from evil. It then turns itself to rely on Romans 12:17 and I Corinthians 8:9 to be our basis of living a life that glorifies God even in its perception of ourselves in someone else’s eyes. This takes it from command to Holy Spirit led. It takes it from legalistic to relationship based.

Have you ever heard I Thessalonians 5:22 used in a way mentioned in the first few paragraphs? If so, let us know in the comments. Share your experiences below about how this verse has affected you personally. I’d love to hear from you!