I’m tired of “toxic.” It seems everything and everyone is “toxic” these days and with toxic toxicity comes easy excuses. Someone is toxic? Cut them out of your life (regardless of who they are). Workplace is toxic? Quit and find a new place to label as toxic. Have you noticed that every new relationship and every new job is gloriously non-toxic? Soon, though, the “non-toxic” wears off and we find new toxicity to lament…and move on from.
If everything is toxic then nothing is toxic, right? Well, no. Everyone IS toxic and everything we touch radiates toxicity. All of us. It is who we are, how we are born, and how we are raised. Toxic people make and raise toxic people. The Bible is very open and honest about who we are and what we are like. Consider the following…
Romans 3:10
“…as it is written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE…”
Galatians 5:19-21
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these…”
Titus 3:3
“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
1 Peter 2:1
“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander…”
We may not fully live out every evil to every extreme but if we are honest, I believe we all find ourselves peeking out and staring back at ourselves in those verses. We have found the enemy and it is us. So, what are we supposed to do, then?
Well, we can’t kill everyone (or anyone!) who toxifies us and we know we can’t ultimately run and hide from everyone (as much we may like to at times!) so those two options aren’t really options. The Bible, though, does provide answers for living within the toxicity of toxic relationships. Again, consider the following…
Galatians 6:2
“Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
Colossians 3:12
“…put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Titus 3:2
“…malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.”
Lastly, and most poignantly,
1 Peter 2:21-24
“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
Possibly the greatest witness we can have in our world is to exhibit Christlikeness amid toxicity. There are no easy and simple answers but we must begin by setting these as our daily foundations. Additionally, we must also deal with our own toxic nature. Jesus died to rescue, redeem, and reconcile us in our toxic state. We must turn to Christ for forgiveness and new life in Him that raises us out of our toxic state; coming to Christ in faith and then daily walking in faith, confessing our sin and failures to Him. You see, “toxic” and “toxicity” have become a clinically nice way of identifying our sinful lives as the sinners that we really are.
Yep, we live in a toxic world. I’m toxic, you’re toxic, we’re all toxic because we are sinners and sin against each other daily. Jesus provides the way forward, the only way.
A Float on the River 