Colum Cille (27)

There was at that time a certain man, sprung from the royal family of Gabrán; an evil-doer, an oppressor of good men, by the name Ioan, son of Conall, son of Domnall. He oppressed Colmán, Saint Columba’s [Colum Cille’s] friend, and acting as an enemy had sacked his house, carrying off all that he found there, not once, but twice. So it happened not undeservedly to this evil man that on the third occasion, after his third plundering of the same house, when, with his associates, he was returning, laden with booty, to his ship, he encountered the blessed man, whom he had scorned as being very far away, approaching very near. When the saint rebuked him for his misdeeds, and entreated him to put down the booty, he remained unyielding and obstinate, and scorned the saint; and entering his ship with the booty he scoffed at the blessed man, and mocked him. The saint followed him down to the sea, and entering knee-deep the glassy waters of the ocean, he raised both hands to heaven, and earnestly prayed to Christ, who glorifies his chosen ones that glorify him.

  - Adomnán, Life of Columba[1]

Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you.”

 - 1 Samuel 13.10-13

So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”

 - 2 Samuel 12.5-7

These days it is not uncommon for people to avoid confrontation. It’s never pleasant. It can cause offense and even lead to broken relationships. It sounds judgmental. And so forth. The Corinthians tried to avoid confrontation with an obvious and scandalous sinner in their membership, and Paul soundly rebuked them for their neglect (1 Cor. 5). Paul was acting more like Samuel and Nathan than like many church leaders today, who overlook or minimize the sins of people under their care—and who hope to be treated the same way.

Colum’s practice, however, was more like Paul’s, Nathan’s, and Samuel’s.

And, by the way, like that of Jesus as well.

Put yourself in the situation Adomnán described. Your best friend has been robbed and ransacked three times by the same bad dude. Imagine your outrage. Your anger. Sadness. You track down the perpetrator, who is accompanied by his henchmen, and you are determined to confront and rebuke him. Does that sound safe? Wise?

It did to Colum. He not only stood firm in his demand that the thief return his booty, but he pursued him all the way to shore and knee-deep into the water, making it very clear at every step precisely what he expected.

Colum could have been beaten or worse by Ioan and his thugs. But that didn’t matter. Wrong and injustice had been perpetrated, and the situation must be redressed. The sinner must be confronted. The expectation must be made clear. And the offender must be given every opportunity to turn from his wrong and make things right.

Imagine Samuel confronting Saul. Or Nathan getting in David’s face. These were acts of courage. Doing what is right, especially in the face of manifest evil, takes courage. Colum had courage because he trusted in the Lord, knew what was right and counted his life of value only insofar as he could pursue the will of God.

Confronting evil begins with confronting it in ourselves. Those little secret sins. That attitude toward your colleagues. All those lame excuses. We will not confront the sin in our brethren if we are not willing first to confront it in ourselves. Harboring sin will shipwreck your prayer life (Ps. 66.18). It will keep you from facing up to sin in others, and thus it will allow sin to plague like a crippling spiritual disease throughout the Body of Christ.

Our attitude toward sin must be to hate it (Ps. 97.20), just as Colum did. We must be done with it ourselves and we must, in patience and love, help our fellow believers to be done with it as well. God hates sin, and when we hate evil as much as God does, we will confront it wherever we find it, that justice may prevail and the goodness of the Lord may flourish in the land of the living.

As it turned out, Ioan and his entire crew were drowned in a storm at sea. Adomnán regarded that as an act of God’s justice against hardened men, who would not listen to reason and who mocked the very idea that God could do anything about it. We know He can. And part of how God intends to curtail evil is by sending us to confront it in ourselves, our friends, our church, and our world.

For Reflection
1. What is your practice of waiting on the Lord to show you any sin in your life?

2. If we never confront anyone with sin or wrongdoing, what can we expect?

Psalm 139.23, 24 (Ripley: Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul)
Search my heart, O LORD, and know me, as You only, LORD, can do.
Test my thoughts and contemplations, whether they be vain or true.
Let there be no sin in me, LORD, nothing that Your Spirit grieves.
Lead me in the righteous way, LORD, unto everlasting peace!

Show me my sin, O Lord, and help me to…

T. M. Moore

Bring some joy to your world
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All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Adomnán, p. 125.