God defines good and evil

Fiction in a novel depicts truth in real life. The one I’m reading tells of a well-off man who is discontent and thinks more money will make him happy. His pursuit of more money feeds the greed in his heart. When something happens to threaten the gains he hopes to make, he resorts to fear, hatred and then murder. His discontent became a slippery slope.

This is where fiction meets reality. For many, sin seems rather harmless in the beginning. Who will it hurt if I . . . but in the end, it turns on you, bites you, enslaves you, makes you do things that in the beginning you never thought you would do.

Paul describes his real battle with sin. He became a Christian as an adult and while theologians differ on whether he was talking about his life before Christ or after he was saved, every Christian knows this struggle at least at some point in our lives.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:14–23)

In another place, he wrote, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:16–17)

Paul came to the conclusion that winning this battle never involves “trying harder.” He learned, and so have I, that the efforts of the flesh are no match for sin. This is because those efforts are also corrupted and sinful. As Isaiah wrote, sin is “everyone has turned to his own way.” This includes our own efforts to be good people.

In the mind of God, evil includes all the bad stuff like murder, idolatry, jealousy, and so on, but it also includes the innocent looking “I can do this myself” attitude that leaves God out of the picture. That is why the Bible says that God’s thoughts are “higher” than our thoughts. We grade sin on a scale; He does not. If someone does anything out of His will, they have gone over the line. It doesn’t matter how harmless their actions seem or how small. We tend to compare ourselves to the worst, like Hitler and Clifford Olsen, but He compares us to a high standard.

Not only that, God’s black and white view of sin makes the white side much whiter than most can imagine. The righteousness of God is far holier than most of us can envision. When He talks about good, we tend to think comfort, no hardships, ease. However, He thinks, “Does this match up to My Son, Jesus Christ?” and “Will this develop the image of Jesus in My people?”

Jesus is God’s standard for humanity. He never sinned. His motives were pure, as were His words and actions. All that He did was in obedience to His heavenly Father. Beside Him, I am a foul and ugly mess. Without Him, I have no hope of righteousness, no possibility of gaining favor or honor from God.

The good news of the gospel is that God accepts and forgives sinners, not because we do anything to deserve it, but because Jesus Christ died for our sin. The price is paid. He also lives to give us Himself, and by accepting Him into our lives, we have His righteousness. Because of Jesus, God gives me favor and glory. He puts me into His family, into His kingdom, and lets me enjoy His protection.

Yet I still battle sin. If I give in to that battle, I will suffer loss, including the loss of fellowship with the Lord. Yet this is temporary, not forever. As soon as I confess my sin, He puts His arms around me and again pours out His blessings. His goal is that I be like Jesus.

Being a Christian makes this battle with sin far different from the one facing those who do not know Christ. We can win it, not because our “try harder” is more effective, but because our Savior has conquered sin and continues to fight it in us and for us. For that reason, I can say along with the psalmist these words,

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:10–11)

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Lord, I’m aware of my own battles with sin and sometimes wish this was not the reality for Your people. However, when I compare the struggles I face with the same struggle in the lives of those who do not know You, I rejoice. Truly, a day with You is better than a lifetime without You. A tiny role in Your kingdom is better than any glory outside of it. You are my light and my protection. You do not hold anything good from me, and that includes the realization that what You call “good” is far better than any “good” that this wicked world could offer me. Thank You.

Can evil be good?

When Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, they thought only of themselves and how angry this upstart made them with his dreams and visions of his own future glory. They didn’t think of the anguish it would cause their father Jacob over the loss of his favored son. They didn’t think of his mother who would certainly grieve the rest of her days. They were totally selfish in their actions, and God calls that selfishness evil.

They had no idea of the power of God either. In an outcome that surprised them all, God used Joseph. He put him into a place of power in Egypt, and when famine came and people were dying for lack of food, Joseph was the one who saved his entire family.

When the brothers realized that this Egyptian leader was their brother, they were terrified. They knew he could destroy them. Yet the power of God had also transformed Joseph’s life. Instead of an arrogant revenge, Joseph offered forgiveness and compassion. He said to them, 

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20)

Today’s world is filled with unfair and evil actions and reactions. Christians are not in a bubble; these things affect us too. Sometimes members of the body of Christ, in a reversion to being governed by that old nature, commit some of those evil things. We hurt one another and the people around us with our disobedience and selfishness.

In my heart I know that I cannot do good without the power of God enabling me. The Holy Spirit is the source of godly attitudes and actions. The fruit of the Spirit includes love, patience, gentleness and self-control. Without Him, I’m as selfish as Joseph’s brothers.

But when I sin, I cannot say that the Spirit left me and I could not help what I did. This is a mystery. My Christian life depends on God, but it also involves the choices that I make. At times I’ve felt helpless to make the right decisions and unable to depend on the God that I love, but I still cannot blame Him if I act in helplessness and wind up doing something foolish.

Nor can I claim that it doesn’t matter, that God can still use my sin for good. He does use my mistakes to teach me lessons, but going into sin and committing with that presumptuous attitude will result in the most difficult lessons of all.

James 4:17 winds up a section on the folly of assuming that God will bless me even when I do whatever I please with these words, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Evil is never good. The wages or the result of sin is always death. It may be physical (should I persist), but it certainly will be a separation or loss of some kind. Because of God’s promises to “save to the uttermost” I will come out of it, hopefully wiser and more humble, but I will miss any rewards that might have been mine had I obeyed Him in the first place, and the people around me will also miss out on those benefits.

No one can rewrite history. I cannot ‘what if’ regarding Joseph and his brothers. God could have used another way to rescue them from the famine, but the story stands. The brothers didn’t make much of a mark, but Joseph, who obeyed God throughout his ordeal became one of the Old Testament heros, an example of what God can do when others abuse one of His children.

Joseph is an example for me of what to do when life seems unfair. I can trust God with everything, even to use evil for good. However, I cannot ever say that evil is good. Only God can pull His good purposes out of it, and He makes all the decisions of what and how to do it.