@Scotty17 10 October 2021

Don't Ever Befriend Evil

We live in an increasingly hostile world where lawlessness rules the day. Everywhere we look there is evil. No matter what you believe, **you should hate evil**. When good people do nothing to confront evil it spreads like cancer and destroys economies and governments and lives. Evil **Evil is the opposite of good**. Evil is typically thought of as anything which is morally wrong, sinful, or wicked; and yet at the same time, the word evil can also refer to anything that causes any kind of harm, with or without the moral dimension. Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland rightly noted, “Evil is a lack of goodness. It is goodness spoiled. You can have good without evil, but you cannot have evil without good.” His comment makes perfect sense. But what is good and what is evil? That depends on your worldview. But yet that is not even true, because evil is evil is evil. I merely speak for those who say we all have the freedom to do as we please in this world or in our community. Think of it this way: if it is alright to look away from evil, what will you say when evil does harm to your loved ones? Would you not cry out from the rooftops? Yes, you would! So why then turn aside from it when it is adversely affecting others? We all live in a real world where our good and evil actions have direct repercussions and indirect repercussions not only us but on those around us. Therefore, we need to consider our actions: are they good or evil - and what is out intention(s)? Hate evil We tend to turn a blind eye to evil when we see it. We don't want to become involved in the affairs of others unless they are close to us. Otherwise, we merely go on our way and mind our own business. Personally, I cannot do it. Where evil persists, I speak up or take action, as **it is my moral duty**. I am not God but I am his agent, His representative as a Christian in a fallen world. Do you not know that “The one who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:20, NIV). A couple of examples One time I saw a man rob a person who was about to drop a large sum of money into an outdoor bank deposit machine (through a drop box). The audacity of this man was that it was only 75 meters from the police station! When he noticed that I had witnessed the theft, he quickly darted into a dark alleyway. I gave chase in my car and quickly caught up with him.

Not wanting to cause an accident, I alit from my car and continued the chase on foot. I chased him for 4 blocks in the dead of winter with no coat on. I never caught him because a police officer stopped me and pulled a gun on me. The thief got away. How's that for irony? Of course I was let go. Another time a man was hitting a woman. Having grown up around an abusive father, I despised the behavior (I'd run my father out of the house with a loaded shotgun after he knocked my mother unconscious while drunk). Anyway, the woman was physically handicapped. She was hurt. When the man refused to stop, I stopped him with several punches, blew a hole in his car with a shotgun, and chased him away. Was I a hero? **Not at all, I simply did the right thing to stop evil.** Looking back, I shouldn't have blown a hole in his car, however. Love good Not only should we hate evil but we should love good. The root problem of why the world is continuously regressing rather than progressing is because of an overall spiritual decay. We have kicked prayer and God out of our schools and courts. We have allowed abortion (murder) to proliferate; we have failed to uphold what is morally right. In a spirit of going along so as not to make enemies and "offend" others, we have given our consent to perversion in all its forms - underage sex, homosexuality, gay pride, radical feminism, political correctness, cancel culture, and more. We have said yes to drunkenness and recreational drugs. We have failed to rise up and say no to evil. Therefore, do good.

Government is not the answer Governments can make laws but no country in the history of the world has even been successful insofar as legislating morality. Laws restrain evil but do not produce good and never will. We have so many laws that do not address certain aspects of evil that thus allow the violators and perpetrators of evil to go free. But rest assured that God only permits evil for a time before He intervenes by bringing judgment. Call it out The reason our countries are in the dismal spiritual state that they are, and they are regressing rather than progressing, it is because we turn our heads to evil. Some say, "It's their choice; they may do as they please because it's a free world." Is it really? What if the same evil you ignored falls on your family or loved ones? We'd all be quick to speak against it! Paul writes about this very thing in his epistle (letter) to the church in Ephesus (now in modern Turkey): "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. **Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,** ****but rather expose them****" (Ephesians 5:8-11, NIV). Application and solution God’s is ever willing to give us the freedom to choose what we will which opens up the possibility of moral evil. Moral evil inevitably leads to physical evil. God’s will is that for all of our sakes we would turn from evil and obey Him that it might go well with us. Obedience to God is *the solution* to evil. Not only do we refrain from evil, but we correct others and call it out as in the above example of Paul. We must warn the evil people, the wicked. "If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me" (Ezekiel 3:18-19, NLT).

Let us not turn a blind eye to evil but speak out. We who believe are the salt of the earth. We overcome evil with good. Choose good over evil "so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth” (Ephesians 6:3, NIV).