Summary
Romans 1:32 calls out the practice of “approving of” evil—different from “doing”, to be sure, but still problematic. The thing is, making sure we do not approve of evil is a very different thing than constantly injecting ourselves into the business of others to shove the truth down their throats. “Not approving of evil” thus does not necessarily equate to “going around and telling people they are doing evil and will go to hell” (and so on), in other words. Sometimes, per Matthew 7:6 (“pearls before swine”), we instead need to bite our tongue, and make sure we are wise in terms of where we direct our words and efforts. For the time is short, and we truly don’t have the resources to waste on people who won’t listen to the truth in any capacity whatsoever. These people aren’t somehow irredeemable/beyond salvation or somehow unworthy of the gospel message (perish the thought!)—the point is more just that the time may not yet be right for them, and if it is in fact not yet right for them, then we shouldn’t push things at present. Being circumspect about when we speak up like this is being prudent and godly—rather than somehow improperly worshiping the notion of “live and let live”, or “approving of evil”.
Content
“Live and let live” is a popular sentiment in our modern culture. (At least among the younger generation—speaking from my time in college, the idea of “you do you” very much permeated the expected social fabric). Being frustrated by this over-emphasized tolerance, it might be tempting to interpret verse 32’s condemnation of approving evil works as carte blanch for poking our nose into all manner of sinful conduct in the lives of others. After all, if one believes silence implicitly means approval, then we really would have no choice, right? But does silence really mean approval? And what exactly does “silence” (=not speaking up) mean anyway, in practice? How does it interact with the concept of “pearls before swine”?
Since a close contextual example here in Romans 1 is homosexuality, let’s use that as an example. If verse 32 calls out not just “doing” such things, but also “approving” of them, that would certainly mean we have no business praising the “braveness” of public figures coming out as gay, attending gay pride events as supporters of their cause, clapping at speeches that malign traditional marriage between one man and one woman, and so on. All of these things would amount to directly approving of those who practice and/or preach homosexuality, and therefore run afoul of this verse.
However, it ought to be fairly obvious that not doing these things is decidedly different from doing such things as organizing counter-protests at gay pride events, shouting “turn or burn” at people coming out of gay bars, and things like that. (Cf. also bombing abortion clinics). So are we supposed to take action in these ways—is that the only valid way to “not approve”? Some people say so. They say that you are being a cowardly Christian if you don’t always inject yourself into unbelievers’ business to tell them what’s what.
They would be wrong. Matthew 7:6 speaks of casting pearls before swine. Put simply, this verse does not somehow instruct us to avoid sharing the gospel, but rather commands us to use discernment, and not throw our limited time and effort towards people who have not demonstrated even a shred of receptiveness towards the truth. Some people might decide that there can’t be anything wrong with always continuing to push the gospel anyway—the gospel is always a good thing, right? Except that’s not what the Bible commands. It is wrong to misallocate our time like that.
One does have to be careful not to give up before one even starts. We ought to always season our speech with the salt of the gospel, for example. That general practice is not what we are speaking of. We are speaking of the evangelism equivalent of “throwing good money after a bad cause”, of failing to choose one’s battles wisely. We need to be responsible and wise in when we choose to press forward, and when we choose to step back and just pray for people rather than trying to forcefully shove the truth down their throats when they obviously aren’t the least bit open to it.
I’d like to say this ought to be obvious, but it apparently isn’t, since a large number of self-professed Christians hold up this very thing we are discussing (what one might term somewhat harshly as “forcibly shoving the truth down others’ throats”) as “evangelism”—and pat themselves on the back for engaging in this decidedly problematic behavior—when in fact true evangelism is much more organic than forced, and is based upon personal relationships that develop naturally. Evangelists (i.e., those members of the body of Christ with the spiritual gift of evangelism) are supernaturally empowered in their ability form connections with unbelievers and share Jesus with them in a way that leads to them accepting the gospel. Not grudgingly through force, but with joy and rejoicing through well-placed words and well-maintained relationships.
In a stroke of irony, at the same time many are far too eager to go around crusading for their set of moral standards out in the world (see: very politically active Christians in America, who have completely sacrificed spiritual growth for political campaigning), they completely drop the ball at policing their churches from within. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul makes it clear what our conduct should be when it comes to dealing with the immoral behavior of others. Alongside Matthew 7:6, this passage makes it crystal clear that unbelievers are not ours to correct and police, but God’s. However, those who claim to be brothers in Christ get no such pass. If they claim Christ with their lips but clearly reject His truth in their brazen, unashamed flouting of His commands, we are to throw them out of the Church, and refuse to associate with them until they submit to the Lord in repentance. (We need to welcome them back with open arms then, of course, but not before then).
To pull us back, it really depends what one means by “live and let live”. As Christians, we obviously need to not approve of evil (and that is essentially all this verse specifically says). The rest comes down to spiritual discernment. Sometimes we need to speak up and boldly proclaim the truth. But sometimes too we need to take a step back and not force the issue—if it is not the right time for a given individual. Perhaps we may have planted seeds that will take root in time, but even that is not always for us to know.
Regardless of the circumstances, we can always pray for others.