From the list of sins in the Bible, we find one behavior that God does not tolerate at all — a behavior that is highly toxic to humanity. It is like a cold, dry spell upon our planet that dries up the fruits of love and sympathy between people and breeds hatred and every kind of evil. It is apathy.
God’s judgment will fall on those who spread this evil malady. God’s judgment upon the world will not be delayed for those who influence others into apathy and thus spread it like wildfire through cities and towns, corrupting the earth and God’s creation. Let us find out five reasons why apathy is so dangerous.
1. God’s Judgment — No Fruits (Matthew 7:16)
The Bible says that we know someone by their fruits. Yet the Bible also says we should not judge others. What does this mean? We are to judge others by the Bible — to know whether someone is of God or not by the way they behave and speak — but we cannot judge others by today’s society, since society’s judgment is corrupt. One thing we can know is the fruit of a person’s life, how they behave. One evil fruit that very easily reveals a person is not in Jesus is apathy.
It belongs to the same list of sins as pride and an unloving, unkind spirit. Apathy is neither loving others nor outright hating them — but apathy belongs in the category of hate, because the apathetic person believes that simply not hating is good enough. Yet Jesus said:
Matthew 12:30 — He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad.
This means a person who does not love, hates. A person who does not embrace truth stands on the side of lies. There is no middle ground. It is striking how many people believe there is a middle ground.
Life is made by God, and God is always one way or the other — God is never in the middle. God is either deeply loving, kind, and merciful, or God is sending judgments such as the sword, famine, plagues, and lions to destroy people. This is the character of God, and we are called to be like Him. God’s judgment will fall on those who have taken on the spirit of the world — wanting to remain in the middle, never taking a position, never fully choosing one side or the other. God’s judgment upon the world will fall on those who think they can remain neutral.
There is no such thing as neutral. There is no such thing as apathy without consequence. Apathy is hate — it is the refusal to love someone. Apathy is having an uncaring spirit and loving only yourself. Apathy is failing to do what Jesus told us to do:
John 13:34–35 — A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
2. God’s Judgment — No Love
If love is what God wants us to show toward others and toward Him, what is the worst thing we can do? Not love others, and not love God.
John 13:35 — By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another.
Apathy is people becoming totally engrossed in society’s behaviors, forms, ceremonies, and fashions. If society does something contrary to the Bible, should you do it? No. Yet millions of Christians and atheists alike simply follow society as though it were God. Society is not God, and the Bible says:
Exodus 23:2 — You shall not follow a multitude to do evil.
God’s judgment will fall on those who seek to please men rather than God. Here too we see that we cannot please both God and men, yet many believe it is possible to be of society and of God at the same time.
James 4:4 — Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
God destroyed the people in the days of Noah because they said, “We do not need to enter the ark; we are happy outside; we need nothing.” God destroyed them all except eight. In Revelation 3, it says:
Revelation 3:17 — Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
Jesus spews out those who say, “I do not need anything.” The apathetic people of society are seen as the cool ones, but God sees them as despicable and disgusting, to the point of spewing them out — because they are liars. We need many things every day in order to live, and saying “I need nothing” is a lie.
Revelation 21:8 — All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
To be apathetic is to refuse the main thing God asks of us: to love one another.
1 Corinthians 13:5 — Love seeks not her own.
1 Peter 1:22 — Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
3. God’s Judgment — They Do Not Know God
People who are apathetic not only lack love for others — they are proud and selfish, without mercy, and they judge others according to the standards of this world. Apathetic people have never truly come to know Jesus; they follow this world and the god of this world.
Many claim to be Christians, yet they are so blind that they cry “Jesus, Jesus” while failing to see that their character resembles Satan far more than Jesus. They display no trait of character that resembles Jesus at all. It is extremely offensive to God to see people claiming His name while being filled with the spirit of Satan and evil.
There are two main lists of sins in the Bible — Romans 1 and 2 Timothy 3 — where it says:
2 Timothy 3:2–3 — Lovers of their own selves, boasters, proud, unthankful, without natural affection.
To be apathetic is to be unthankful. A person who receives countless gifts from God and says, “I need nothing,” is telling a terrible lie. God’s judgment will surely fall on such a lie, since we need air, water, food, work, money, friends, love, shelter, a place to stay, a car, insurance, shoes, clothing, internet, electricity, phones, computers — and the list goes on.
4. God’s Judgment — Refusing the Truth
Apathy is the complete opposite of the character of God. Was Jesus ever apathetic? No.
James 4:17 — To him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
We do not get to choose our own version of right and wrong. I remember a sister telling me, “Oh, some people think they’re spiritual” — implying that some people can simply choose not to be spiritual. This is a lie, because we do not get to choose truth.
People who are not spiritual are wicked and are refusing the calls of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. It is deeply offensive to God when an atheist lives worldly — how much more offensive when someone who claims to be a Christian is apathetic. One of the listed sins of the last days, which will bring some of the most terrible of God’s judgments, is being “without natural affection.”
People without natural affection are lifeless, selfish, and proud. Their entire lives revolve around themselves. God’s judgment has been delayed because some might still break away from the delusion of our society — but God’s judgment upon the world will not be delayed much longer. Most people see the tornadoes, earthquakes, viruses, plagues, and wars as merely natural events, but they are allowed and sent by God to wake men and women to the terrible danger they are in of perishing forever and receiving the final judgment of God, which Revelation 14 says will be without mercy:
Revelation 14:10 — The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.
“Without mixture” means that while God’s judgments in the past fell with mercy mixed in, this time, the final plagues will be poured out without mercy. Because the whole world will have had access to the full light and knowledge of the Bible, everyone will have had to make a decision between truth and lies. Yet most people will worship humans, worship society, and follow what they can see rather than the loving God they cannot see. Their guilt will be without excuse, and God’s judgment will be righteous.
Revelation 16:5 — For You are righteous, O Lord, because they have shed the blood of saints and prophets.
5. God’s Judgment Is Not a Fairy Tale
If God sent terrible punishments before, He will do so again — and we already see terrible things falling across the earth. God’s judgment upon the world comes out of love, to turn people from their sins and help them see the folly of following this world rather than the truth.
Apathy is the complete opposite of a loving Jesus, who took children in His arms and loved them. Apathy is the complete opposite of a God who is merciful, full of kindness and tenderness. To refuse to love others and show them affection is to dry up your own practice of love and produce no fruit as a result. Trees — and Christians — that bear no fruit are cut down. The list of sins in the Bible tells us that the apathetic, and those without natural affection, shall never enter heaven.
To be apathetic, and to love only a certain group of people, is to think and judge according to the world — believing that only the proud, the wicked, and the unloving deserve love, when in fact the opposite is true. The Bible says that, rather than deserving love, such people deserve death:
Romans 1:32 — Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
If you have seen yourself in this message — unloving, uncaring, apathetic — and recognize that you cannot enter heaven in such a condition, why not repeat after me:
Father God, forgive my sins. Give me Your righteousness every day to do good and reject evil. Help me to love others, and not to hate them through apathy and coldness, in the name of Jesus, amen.