ἄστοργος

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I did not know Charlie Kirk, but would come across him on social media and listen occasionally to his podcast. He was a young man trying to make a difference for good. His cold-blooded murder and the ghoulish reaction of many to it are reminders of things the Bible is trying to teach us.

1. Get your life right. “Lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” (Heb 12:1, ESV). Each moment could be your last. You may never see it coming. Quit every sin, whether porn, lust, alcohol, worldly speech, lying, failing to put God first—whatever it is. Shape up while you can.

2. Develop thick skin. Jesus noted long ago, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Which had you rather? To be among the hateful, or to be among the hated? Be humble enough to have a heart, but be calloused enough to be courageous.

3. Guard your family. “Bad company ruins good morals,” and Paul said if you don’t believe that, then you are deceived (1 Cor 15:33). Public schools are a breeding ground for indoctrination into godlessness, false religion, wicked agendas. Where could you go to find more Bible ignorance than in our governmental educational institutions? Add to that the influence of your children’s peers, social media, video games, movies, television, music, podcasts, etc. Satan has a hundred disguises to show up in your den. Noah stood for righteousness in front of everyone (2 Pet 2:5), but all he saved was his own family. If all you save is your family, then, whatever it takes will have been worth it.

4. Know that heartlessness is real. In a lengthy description of the devil’s own (Rom 1:28-32), Paul accuses them of having “a debased mind,” being guilty of “murder,” “heartless, ruthless.” People “who practice such things deserve to die.” Then Paul writes, “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Sounds like people who would applaud the murder of an innocent man, doesn’t it. “Heartless” translates the Greek ἄστοργος, which means “without natural affection” (The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, p. 82). Paul uses the word in another list of fiendish attributes in 2 Tim 3:1-4, indicting those who are “heartless, unappeasable…brutal”—the kind of barbarism that will show up “in the last days.” Alas, those are our days. People will behave “like unreasoning animals” (Jude 10). Remember the picture of God’s two servants in Rev 11:10? They were executed, after which there was rejoicing. The good were murdered and the world celebrated, made merry, even exchanged presents with each other in their glee. That’s the world we’re in (but not of). The ghoul dances on the grave of the good.

5. This is all about right religion versus wrong religion. There is “religion that is pure and undefiled before God” (Jas 1:27). Likewise, Paul admitted the pagan Athenians were “very religious” (Acts 17:22). Everyone’s religious. God made us to relate to him. It is our nature, inescapable as our shadow. It’s why every atheist thinks about God (even if to deny his existence). Everyone puts something on the throne of his heart, which is what he worships. Religion springs from worldview. Every professor, student, schoolteacher, legislator has a worldview. It is fantasy to think religion can be separated from education, legislation, medicine, public policy, or any area of life. Why? Because every health worker, congressman, teacher, bureaucrat is inherently religious. It’s a question of which religion will predominate in a culture. Christianity should, by right, occupy that place because it is the only true religion.

6. There is no coexisting. Paul asked, “what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14). “You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor 10:21). The “Coexist” bumper sticker performs no service for a religiously confused population. Christ is true, every competing message is wrong. Saints and sinners mix like an oil slick on pristine water.

7. Government has moral duty. “For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom 13:4). The God-given function of “governors” is “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet 2:14). Good and evil are defined by God—not by whatever party won the last election. Any government that punishes good or praises evil is a failure. Further, authorities in charge have the duty to execute every murderer (Gen 9:6). There’s no such thing in the Bible as a murderer getting life in prison, or a murderer on parole. Murderers are to be put to death, no exceptions. And quickly. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Eccl 8:11). A slow-as-ditchwater judicial system incentivizes evil. God said it.

8. Vengeance is a righteous concept. How do we know? Because it’s associated with God. “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies” (Nah 1:2). Granted, we are not to be vigilantes trying to avenge ourselves; that belongs to God (Rom 12:19). Then again, on earth, government is supposed to be “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom 13:4). It is not wrong for Christians to want things made right. Murdered saints cried out to God, “how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10). God did not rebuke them for wanting vengeance. Instead, he told them to be patient because more Christians would suffer the same fate before final justice is done.

9. Don’t forget, we win. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57). The odds may look long. The enemy may be energized. Darkness may seem dominant. But, when those who hate goodness outnumber those who practice it, remember Psalm 118:6-7. “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.”