On thinking ugly, nasty thoughts

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice. Proverbs 24:17

Someone in the public eye - someone whose face is recognised throughout the world, though they’re not very popular with most people - crashes to earth in a scandal of crime, stupidity and sheer wickedness. They are shamed and humiliated, likely to end up behind bars. A case, truly, of “How are the mighty fallen”.

And what do we do, many of us? We gloat; we snigger; we take it all as a source of fun… Well, he had it coming to him… she’s only got what she deserves… about time too…

We always need something to brighten our days, and this, squalid though it is, fits the bill perfectly: a delicious talking-point.

To borrow Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13, we “delight in evil”. And that, as we know perfectly well if only we stop to think about it for a moment, is wrong; it goes against the law of Christlike love, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.

When this happened recently I was, I must confess, no better than anyone else. But the more I thought about the individual involved, the more guilty I felt.

Not that his wrongdoing was some small thing. No, it certainly wasn’t. But such was the venom poured out on him that I actually began to feel a little sorry for him. I found myself wondering if there was anybody in his circle (what was left of it) who might be able to tell him that God loved him, even if nobody else did – who might tell him that while it was right that he should be brought to justice, there is a God in heaven who delights to forgive those who are truly sorry for their sins.

In Luke 15 Jesus told the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. And at the end of each of the first two he added the glorious, glowing statement: “… there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent”. Which can only mean, surely, that rather than wallowing in that person’s fall, we should be praying for his restoration?

You might say to me: “You should speak for yourself! I would never react in the way you have described!” Well, of course I accept that rebuke and can only say that you are a better person than I am. But I strongly suspect that, albeit on a much smaller, more petty scale, most of us do find it hard to resist that nasty pang of ugly pleasure (I think the Germans call it schadenfreude, “harm-joy”): an uppity colleague at work gets reprimanded; a noisy neighbour suffers some misfortune; an over-ambitious friend experiences a disappointment. And while our inner reaction may not be out-and-out malicious, there is, all the same, a little stab of satisfaction: Yes! as we punch the air.

Two questions are worth asking.

First, why are we so prone to give way to this sin?

The most obvious answer is: because we are all sinners, no different from that person whose fall gives us pleasure. True, if your trust is in Christ, you are a saved sinner; but you are a sinner nonetheless. The well-known saying “There but for the grace of God go I” doesn’t appear in the Bible, but it certainly might have done, for it conveys a vital truth.

Probing a little deeper, it may be that our nasty reaction springs from the poison of envy or jealousy. That person may have been what the world calls a “high-flyer”, and arrogant with it. And deep down, though we probably wouldn’t admit it, we feel inferior.

But if we yield to such a feeling, we damage only ourselves for (to quote Billy Graham) “Envy takes the joy, happiness and contentment out of living” (and it doesn’t even hurt the other person!). How stupid is that!

Let’s pray for a satisfaction with our God-given place in life – to copy Paul, who wrote “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:12).

True, we may have only few and slight gifts, but if they are baptised in the Holy Spirit they will be beautiful in the eyes of God, and more useful to him than we can ever know!

The second question: What should I do when I am tempted to commit this sin?

If someone falls, our first prayer must obviously be for any victims who have suffered because of them. But after that, however hard it may seem, shouldn’t we pray for them too? And a good place to start is with the simple request: “Lord, help me to see that person with your eyes”.

If that prayer is answered – and why shouldn’t it be? – everything is wonderfully changed.

Father, I confess that deep in my heart there are ugly traces of jealousy, spite and sheer nastiness. Help me to see these things as you see them, to uproot them with the help of the Spirit, and so to see even the worst of sinners with your eyes of love. Amen.