Me Thinkest Thou Doth Protest Too Much

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Category: Miscellaneous

Published on Wednesday, 08 September 2010 15:48

Written by Ryan Hicks

Me Thinkest Thou Doth Protest Too Much

By Ryan Hicks

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." -- From Hamlet (III, ii, 239), William Shakespeare

It is not often that I quote from the world's literature, but I believe this quote is so common that it is worth addressing (compare with Acts 17:28). The oft-used quote "Me thinkest thou doth protest too much" is a paraphrase of the above quote from William Shakespeare. This quote is so commonly used because of how accurate it is seen to be in daily life. For example, I recall a certain "minister" who was regularly preaching against sodomites. He would give impassioned sermon after impassioned sermon against this one sin and rarely dealt with any other sins. Even though he spoke with a lisp and had very effeminate mannerisms this preacher appeared to have this one sin as the focal point of his life. What happened next has been repeated hundreds of times over the years: it later was exposed that the man was seeing a male prostitute and was actively partaking of this sin that he was so often preaching against.

It is fine to protest a single sin on occasion, but there is something very off-base about a person that is obsessed with "protesting" only one particular sin. It may be true that one sin needs to be dealt with more often because of societal proclivities toward committing that sin, but overall we should be protesting all sin. It is not merely the sin of the sodomites that sends people to eternal damnation, but it is each and every sin that men continue to commit in their constant rebellion against God. We are not trying to get people to repent of only a few certain sins, rather we want people to repent of ALL sin and turn to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for freedom from sin.

Perhaps you have begun focusing on certain sins because you see them as more prevalent in your country's culture, but many times this is a grievous error. We are not on some holy war against a society's most popular and grievous sins. We are at war with all sin and sin in general. When we focus regularly on only a select few sins we do a disservice to those sinners that may feel that it is acceptable for them to continue in their sins because they are not partaking of the select sins that you are constantly focusing on. We need to be led by the Spirit and at times He may lead us to preach against a specific sin, but if your life is constantly revolving around the protest of only a select sin or two then you are out of line with the tenor of the Scripture. You can see sins that are dealt with infrequently in Scripture being preached against each day as if the Scripture was focused on it. The truth of Scripture is that Jesus did not come to save mankind from only certain grievous sins, rather He came to save men from all sin (Matthew 1:21). This distinction cannot be overstated, as people go to churches all over the world that convince them to stop certain sins, all the while these individuals are still bound for hell because they have never had true salvation and repentance from all sin. They have only dealt with the sins that their particular church was constantly protesting against. Salvation is not about changing yourself or cleaning yourself up, nor is it about aligning yourself against a few "pet" sins. Salvation is about being changed by the Lord Jesus Christ and made a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It is always interesting to see what sins people ignore in order to preach against a few particular sins. They will give a strong emphasis on a few sins, but ignore sins that are causing greater harm among those that they are addressing. Ignoring the sins your audience is partaking of and preaching against select sins in order to get "Amens" from them is wicked and does not help the cause of Christ. When men get up and preach against abortion to a crowd of people who do not partake in abortion he is doing a service for Satan if he then fails to preach against the sins that do so easily beset that crowd of people. We should not be seeking the approval of men by only preaching against sins that are unpopular in our society. Among believers all sin should be unpopular, resisted, and preached against. Instead of only preaching against a few sins and damning those that partake in them let us proclaim the life giving freedom from sin that is available to all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

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