If there was a villain among us, we would want to know, right? How would we know? It would be important to identify a villain and turn them in to the authorities so that they could not hurt or harm anyone. WHAT IS THE BIBLICAL PROFILE OF A VILLAIN? The Bible gives a profile of a villain and uses a variety of words that characterize their thinking . . . DEBASED, UNBELIEVING, DEFILED, DEPRAVED, and CORRUPTED.
1. A villain does not ACKNOWLEDGE God (Rom.
1:18-21, 28) –It doesn’t take much to acknowledge someone’s
existence . . . a look, a smile, a nod, a wave.
When a real person enters a room, it would be disrespectful to ignore
the fact that they exist. How does a person get a villainous mind in the first
place? Pretty simple, in spite of
the fact that God makes Himself plainly known in the things that have been made,
we do not acknowledge His existence.
When we ignore God’s existence, He allows our minds to morally
deteriorate and become debased.
A debased mind only thinks and produces actions that are not right or
appropriate. In order to lose our
villainous mind we must first acknowledge the reality of God!
2. Nothing is PURE to a villain (Tit. 1:15-16) – A villain has the ability to take anything
and use it for a sinful purpose. God
created the stars and the planets for a pure purpose and yet a defiled and
unbelieving mind uses them to foresee the future (astrology). God created plants for a pure purpose and yet
a defiled and unbelieving mind uses them for pleasure (drugs). God created our physical bodies for a pure
purpose and yet a defiled and unbelieving mind uses them inappropriately. To those who are pure and believe in Christ
EVERYTHING has a pure purpose but for those who are defiled and unbelieving
NOTHING is pure! A defiled mind
is one that is morally filthy or contaminated.
An unbelieving mind is one that does not believe in Jesus Christ. In order to lose our villainous mind we must
purify ourselves through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
3. A villain has a DIFFERENT DOCTRINE and CONCEIT (1 Tim. 6:3-5) –
A tool of destruction for a villain is a bomb. In order to produce a bomb a villain must
combine the right chemicals and instruments that will cause it to explode and
cause destruction. Similar to a physical
bomb, false beliefs’ combined with arrogance is a lethal combination. Believing the wrong things and arrogantly
thinking we are correct all of the time is all it takes to be in controversy,
quarrels, and friction with others.
According to verse 5, this state of mind is considered depraved. Depraved thinking is perverted
(twisted), a distorted perspective from the way something was intended to be. In order to lose our villainous mind we must
humbly make sure our beliefs are consistent with the
words spoken by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
4.
A villain is OPPOSED to the TRUTH (2 Tim.
3:8) – An inherent characteristic of a villain is that they are
always in opposition to the good guy.
Villains “push against” and “resist” anyone or anything that stands for
what is right and good. Obvious to
everyone but the villain, their resistance never seems to be an equal
force. Verse 8 says that men like this
have a corrupted mind. A
corrupted mind is one that is setting itself up for violent destruction. To oppose
the truth is to oppose God and be the recipient of His wrath and
punishment. 1
Sam. 2:10 says, “The adversaries of the Lord
shall be broken to pieces.” In order to lose our villainous mind and avoid destruction we must cooperate
with God become His ally.
Do you fit the Biblical profile
of a villain? The answer is yes,
without Christ we ALL do, OUR
minds and actions without God are VILLAINOUS! It’s scary to think about, but being born
unbelieving, defiled, corrupted, depraved, and debased we all have tremendous
potential to be wicked and evil! We may
never be a mass murderer but we are guilty on some level of conniving or
conspiring to participate in evil. A villainous
mind is NOT something that we want to possess!
We are all villains unless we are willing to “LOSE OUR
MIND”.
