The Devil's Advocate
Bless, do not curse.
In the 1500s, the Catholic Church established a particular position to assist in the canonization process (where someone becomes a venerated saint). “It was this person’s job to take a skeptical view of the candidate’s character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent.” The positive term for this position was Promotor Fidel (Promoter of the Faith). But the office became known more popularly as Advocatus Diaboli (The Devil’s Advocate). The office still exists today, with a bit less power than before, but still with the ability to interview critics of the candidate. One fascinating modern example is in 2003, “when author Christopher Hitchens, atheist and outspoken critic of Mother Teresa, was interviewed as a part of her beautification (saint-making) hearings.”
Today, the Devil’s Advocate is an idiom for someone who takes a position that they don’t necessarily agree with for the sake of debate. But it’s an odd idiom, isn’t it? To advocate with the devil? To align with the accuser?
The past several months, Paul’s exhortations in Romans 12:9-21 have been challenging me.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.” (CSB)
It feels like this is Paul’s version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Paul sounds so much like his rabbi. It is counterintuitive, counterculture instruction. And it’s verse 14b that’s really been simmering in me. “Bless and do not curse.”
Again, he’s channeling Jesus’ teaching: “Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” -Luke 6:27b-28
But what does it mean to bless? And what does it mean to curse? These are somewhat foreign concepts. We might talk about being #blessed when we want to humble brag, or we might say “bless you” when someone sneezes. And cursing is even more strange, very few of us call down curses on those who irritate us, or consult witches to afflict our enemies (hopefully).
But to bless (εὐλογέω) simply means to speak good(ness), to speak well of. To say something that leads to fullness of life in someone else.
To curse is the opposite, to wish harm, to call down judgment, to say something that would lead to the deprivation of life, usually with contempt.
I think of Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Or Proverbs 12:18: “There is one who speaks rashly, like a piercing sword; but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Our words have life-giving or life-depriving power. I think most of us recognize this power in how we speak with others. Recently though, I’ve been challenged with the words I speak about others, and not even primarily in a gossip-like sense, but primarily in my own head and heart.
Father Josiah Trenham, an Eastern Orthodox priest, said this in a recent interview:
“One of the things I’m trying to convince converts of constantly is that when you see something terrible, something that’s a lie or dark, (and how could you live in our culture and not see those things?) You have a choice right then what you’re going to do, when you see it. How are you going to respond to this? If you choose to point at it, criticize it, judge it, what you’re doing right there is collaborating with the one that we call in the scriptures the diabolos, the one who points the finger. You’re actually collaborating with Satan himself, or with a demon, in actually promoting a spirit of darkness. The scriptures say that Jesus came into the world not to judge the world but that they might be saved through him. And yet he is the judge. If he wanted to exercise his judgment he could have done that. But he didn't. He wanted to save us, not judge us. So we have the better choice every day, when we see something that's terrible, dark. We can do two beautiful things. 1) Is we can collaborate with Jesus in bringing grace and salvation to someone’s life. So when you see something terrible going on, you can lift up your mind and say “Lord, look on this person. Open some spout in heaven to come down upon them. Because they are in great need right now. Send your mercy to them right now, and save them from this catastrophe.” Then you’re actually collaborating (with God.) And the second good thing you can do is 2) be convinced that God only allows his children to see horror so that they can discern some portion of that horror in them. Whatever we see, in some way, it’s in us. And if we turn from what we see and say Lord, that’s in me too, in some way, please, get it out. Those are grace summoning actions where we collaborate with Jesus in bringing grace to the whole world.
(You can watch the whole interview below).
Let me rephrase in my own words. When we see something that frustrates us in someone, from the mildly annoying to the deeply disturbing, we can either collaborate with Satan or partner with Jesus. We can point the finger in contemptuous condemnation (curse), or we can appeal to God and examine ourselves (bless).
As I listened to Father Trenham, there was a particularly obscene news story making its rounds about an OnlyFans model who slept with 100 men in a single day. The terrible story and some of the conversation around it disturbed me for hours, maybe days. But I considered Father Trenham’s exhortation. There’s a way to view this story, this person, with immense disgust, contempt, and condemnation. And that’s what Satan does; he points the finger.
But Jesus’ way asks a different, difficult question: How do I bless her? Not bless her sin, but beg God to rescue her? From this, from herself? And, maybe just as difficult, to recognize some of the same impulses in me, the desire for attention, clicks and likes (on this very blog post!), or the inordinate pursuit of financial gain, or the temptation to sexualize others.
As one song once put it: “There but for the grace of God go I.”
To not point the finger in disgust, but to fall to our knees and beg God to deliver her, me, and our world from this catastrophe.
That’s an extreme example, but the everyday examples are just as important, if not more important because of their frequency. The Holy Spirit has been convicting me on how often I curse others in the privacy of my own mind. Maybe it’s something dumb I see on social media, or a difficult person at church, or a slow driver.
“What an idiot.”
“He’s so scattered.”
“She’s such a jerk.”
“They are not good at their job.”
But our internal conversation is the foundation for our external interactions. How we think about people is eventually how we’ll treat them. Jesus says the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart (Luke 6:45), and the Proverbs remind us that everything we do flows from our heart (Prov 4:23).
It’s so easy to see other’s flaws or things that frustrate me (and there’s probably plenty that’s frustrating about me), and then to point the finger and to collaborate with Satan. To really be the devil’s advocate.
The saint-makers in the Catholic church have another office: Advocatus Dei. (No, not DEI, everyone settle down). God’s Advocate, contra the Devil’s Advocate, the person who argued in favor of the saint-to-be.
That role makes me think of Jesus, the Advocate himself, who doesn’t hold our sins against us but offers to save us. And this same Advocate invites his followers to collaborate with him to advocate for others, to be people who bless, to pray for those we resent, to love our enemies.
None of this is to say Christians should be naive to evil, or be soft on sin, or not call things out when we see them. But even that calling out shouldn’t be done in contempt, a sense of prideful superiority, or without the awareness of our own stuff. And this very calling out should always be done with the awareness that our ultimate battle is not against flesh and blood, but evil powers and principalities.
It’s ironic, sometimes people who are the most vocal against some of society’s sins, or perceived or even real sins in the church, might be collaborating at some level with the same Power behind these sins. Consumed, corrupted, co-opted by the very evil they are opposing. In pointing the accusatory finger like Satan, we’re adding to the problem. Anyone can point and curse. Few pause to bless.
Finally, I think of the contrast between Zechariah and Stephen, two men who were stoned for their faith.
While Zechariah is dying, his final appeal to God is “May the Lord see and avenge!” (2 Chronicles 24:22). Basically a curse. And it’s not like that was an unreasonable thing to pray. The psalms are filled with appeals to God to deal with the evildoer and to bring justice. An Old Testament curse or imprecation is when you don’t take violence into your own hands but instead appeal to God, because vengeance is his.
But Stephen’s dying prayer is the opposite of Zechariah’s: “Father, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).
Wow!
Granted, I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis’ famous quip: “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.” This is way easier to talk about in principle than experienced in practice. But how profound and powerful. Zechariah’s prayer wasn’t bad. But Stephen’s was better. He’s learned to pray like his Savior. For his final words to be words of blessing and not cursing.
I hope you don’t get stoned like Stephen, but I know we all have little opportunities every day, in our inner person, to curse or to bless. To pridefully point at them (“what an idiot!”) or to humbly pray for them (“God, please help him!”).
May it be done in me, may I do this today.
Thanks for reading!
Great post. The historical example of the origin of devil’s advocate was fun. I didn’t know that.
I like most, have had this opportunity, to Bless or curse. Thank you for covering this . I always wish to take the high road, but some times the temptations are great, and I may appear to do just that, yeat in my and heart I'm not . I'm usually heart confused on why dose this person treat me this way.
Should I stand and rebuke? Should I bless.
Often very draining for me to the point I withdraw from the group or person or who ever has made me, there instrument of anxiety.why I don't know. But you showed me I can advocate with my God with My Jesus. Thank you Tylor.