I just finished a book about evil by Julia Shaw. It’s not written from a Christian point of view, so there were things I agreed with and things I didn’t. For example, yes, any of us could be capable of evil in the right circumstances; no, I don’t think that calling certain actions or people evil is just being lazy, or that we should never do it.
This got me to thinking about how the word “evil” should be defined. My big Bible dictionary simply says evil is “that which brings distress.” I found that disappointing. According to Merriam-Webster, evil is “deeply immoral and malevolent.” Hmmm … more satisfying, but not completely correct.
To me evil = sin. It is disobeying God’s law. Evil began with a being, although not a human — Satan. It spread to us when Adam and Eve deliberately ignored God’s command, and now is part of the world.
“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19
It’s also become part of our human nature, as the apostle Paul says,
“For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ” Romans 7:19
As the author of the book says, evil is more prevalent than we like to think. Sometimes we try to distance ourselves from it — for example, we may say slavery is evil, yet purchase consumer goods produced in another country by slaves. If we don’t see it, it doesn’t count. Sometimes we try to assign evil tendencies only to certain truly repugnant crimes — serial murder or pedophilia,for example. We may excuse an evil act because “everybody does it.” None of this cuts any ice with God. The Bible tells us that:
“… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:21
We’re all sinners. we’re all lawbreakers; we’ve all done evil things and had evil thoughts. All we can do is plead for mercy and say along with Paul:
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
For more posts on sin see:
Lutheran Ladies Connection 
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