epiphany

The Plowing of the Wicked

I have a housemate who drives me mad. He is the entire reason that I am moving next month. If irresponsibility were a cardinal sin, he would be heading for the lowest pits of hell.

A few weeks ago someone asked me what I had learned from living with this housemate. All I could say at the time was, "I don't want to have three housemates." However, this morning I came to another realization.

Proverbs 21:4 says, "An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin." While I've heard people quote it on occasion, I've never quite known how to take the statement. But now I think I'm starting to understand.

My housemate does not often sin against me directly. Rarely has he been openly rude to me. He generally stays out of the way. I hardly ever interact with him. Yet all of my interaction, my entire view of him, is tainted by his irresponsibility. He leaves his bags, toys (yes, toys), and clothes strewn about the house. He leaves the kitchen counters covered with crumbs, jelly, and peanut butter. He does not rinse his dishes. He does not put his dishes in the dishwasher. Dishes will disappear for weeks on end only to reappear from the bowels of his extraordinarily messy room. He does not do anything to take care of the rest of the house. He does not pay his bills on time. Despite our talks with him and his apparent (and repeated) intent to change, he does not.

My view of this housemate is so tainted by who he is, who his actions have revealed him to be, that he can do no good in my sight. I hear someone thunk his way down the stairs at four in the morning, and I know it's him. I walk into the house and see things strewn about, and I immediately assume he left another mess. I see or hear him rummaging through the refrigerator, and I expect a mess and think ill of him. On the rare occasions when he actually does put his dishes in the dishwasher, I still find fault (he has little or no concept of order and the way things fit). I hear him breathe (he has this loud, puffy breathing), and I think ill of him. His actions may not be wrong or inherently sinful. Some of them are actually good and necessary. But due to his relationship with me, due to his revelation of himself over the past six months, everything he does is wrong. It is, in a very real sense, an offense. His plowing is sin in my eyes.

So it is with all the wicked and God. A person's acts may not be inherently sinful: plowing is not evil. The sin is in the relationship. Wickedness brings with it detest. Wickness is a form of character, and it is natural to each of us. It is a state of being, a state that renders all action to be sinful, whether or not that action is necessary or even good. Being wicked in God's sight taints all actions with sin. The only escape and relief from condemnation is to be in Christ, appropriating all of his genuine goodness through his gift of faith.

I do not claim to be innocent. My own dislike (even hatred) is a sin of its own. I am undoubtly the one with the high look and proud heart. I reveal my own disbelief by not loving the brother I can see. But if you ask me what I've learned from this housing situation, I will tell you that I've begun to see how the plowing of the wicked is sin.

That, and I don't want to have three housemates.

Posted by jonhanneman at June 30, 2005 7:48 PM | TrackBack