Evil has many faces . . .

If love has many definitions, so does evil. For some, evil is anything that threatens their comfort zone or their freedom to do whatever they please. Because of this, the definitions of both good and evil become confused. That is why Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Biblically, evil also has many definitions, but it defines evil from God’s perspective, not our comfort. It shows that evil is anything that opposes or sets itself against God and the goodness of His character. Here are only a few verses about evil vs. good.

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). God is always sincere, never pretending to be what He is not. I’m to hate hypocrisy and cling to sincerity.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate” (Proverbs 8:13). Like God, I am also to hate these things and instead cling to humility and a pure attitude.

“A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil” (Psalm 101:4). Perverse means froward, devious, contrary to what God wants. Like David who wrote this psalm, I must stay away from perverseness and instead have a pure heart that is free from evil.

However, the Greek word for evil surprises me. It is translated as “evil” 51 times, “wicked” 10 times, “wicked one” six times, “evil things” twice, and in miscellaneous ways seven times. Some of these usages show that the word is about wickedness and moral corruption, worthlessness, or having serious faults that make a thing without value. It can also refer to guilt as the result of sin, or jealousy, envy, stinginess, evil spirits, and crimes that are legally chargeable. It can also mean bad, of a bad nature or condition including the physical conditions of disease or blindness, but also the ethical sense of wickedness. In Matthew 6:13 where Christ says, “Deliver us from Evil,” the word is in the nominative case which usually denotes a title in Greek. Therefore, Christ is probably referring to Satan.

Here is the surprise part. This Greek word can mean “to be full of labors, annoyances, hardships; to be pressed and harassed by labors; to bring toil, annoyance and peril.” It can refer to a time of threat to my Christian faith and steadfastness, or anything that causes pain and trouble. Two of this word’s synonyms refer to the prominence or force related to the effort of work, and one of them refers to the resulting fatigue.

This makes me think. I know the Bible is not calling work evil, at least not the normal idea of work. What Scripture calls evil might be best seen by contrasting the above descriptions with the word used for “good.” This is agathos, a primary word mostly translated as good, and sometimes as “well” or “beneficial.” It is a descriptive word of things that have a good constitution or nature, are useful, salutary (give an opportunity for learning from experience), pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, upright, and honorable.

There is a manner of doing work that is like that, a labor that might produce sweat, but it is good, not evil. However, there is another manner of doing work that is filled with anxiety and stress. It is fretful work that takes my mind off God. Instead of working in faith and with the joy that He gives, I am upset and pressured by doing it.

I cannot imagine God working in that second manner. He knows what He is doing and knows that He has the resources needed to do it. For Him, work is good and the result is good. He said so several times in the creation account in Genesis. He takes joy in what He does. He is not grumbling or impatient when the results are slow in coming. Work gives Him no harassment.

When I read the verse from Romans 12 about loving good and hating evil, I first thought, “Of course I hate evil,” but after taking a closer look, I realize my idea of evil was the obvious wicked stuff. After looking deeper, I now realize that being pressured and harassed by my to-do list is also part of what He commands me to abhor — because He calls that evil too. I need to do my work, but I need to cling to that which is good by tackling my list with God’s way of working, and abhor that attitude that makes good hard work an evil thing.