What counts as evil and not just bad?
How do we recognise evil?
Human beings tend to grade sins according to what we think is very bad, or just mildly bad. Murder is very bad and therefore evil, but a small lie, is not serious to us, and therefore just a “white lie.” All the judgments we make are subjective and are only our particular point of view. There seems to be no absolute standard to judge by.
There is a list of wrongs set out for us in the Old Testament, which never change, as they are God’s standards for our thoughts, words and behaviour. But even these are judged by us, according to our personal belief, our family upbringing and society we live in.
Surely lying is not that bad… No one get hurt it seems, and it can often help other people from hurt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lying is a complete lack of respect for the other person and a face-saving method of covering over wrongs. Is it evil?
A definition: evil is a state of mind and heart that accepts wrong and excuses wrong for selfish ends.
Evil is hurting others and excusing the thought, word or deed for our own benefit.
All wrong is evil, not just what we consider to be the extreme varieties of wrong- doing. The human heart gravitates towards it and often doesn’t even recognise it at all.
We are in a predicament. Evil invades my thoughts, determines my words and plays out in my behaviours. I cannot escape it.
There is only one remedy for this moral disease- the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he is able to forgive it all and take away the desire for it and drive evil from us.
Let us run from evil and pursue goodness.
Evil is not neutral. It grows and becomes a powerful force in our lives.
Only he can give us a taste for rightness, and the longing to be better, to be right in God’s eyes.
Lettsom Inn 