Evil is that which is not of God. God is good. He creates good. He does good.
Evil is departure from the good of God. Since all of God is good and it is His Will that good be done the ultimate source of evil is disobedience to God.
Lucifer disobeyed God and became evil.
Adam disobeyed God and caused the evil of sin to fall upon all creation – including himself and his posterity.
Sin, by definition, is disobedience to God.
Evil is the “bad” associated with sin. It is inherent in sin. Note that some “good” may come of sin but it is inherently evil. One might justify steeling from the rich to give to the poor. However, the poor then become complicit in the crime. Lotto dollars may be used for schools and economic development but it in fact takes money from those who have false hopes and the innocent become dependent on the vices of the weak. Abortion may be seen as good to one who does not want to accept the responsibility or the inconvenience of a child but it means the slaying of the most innocent among us. These are evil results of sinful behavior.
If disobedience has brought sin and the subsequent evil, only obedience to God can restore the goodness and forgiveness of God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Some would argue that if God created all things He also created evil. However, evil is not something created or generated by good. It is the consequence of the freedom God gave man to choose to obey Him or not. Such a design is risky can only serve one purpose: to prove love. Without a choice love is irrelevant, a mere glandular emotion that only complicates life and has no meaning. With choice love is still glandular and still complicated but when it is true and one chooses to love God who first loved us it is the greatest treasure and brings Him the Highest pleasure, glory and honor.
A perfect creation without love? Or a fallen creation to choose to love and be loved of (at least by some) in return? Creation will eventually be purged of evil but the love of God is forever!
RLH
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Greetings ... I saw your page
ReplyDeleteI have been doing a study on the story of the good samaritan, the operation of love and revival and overcoming, oil and wine, the surrendered will, oil in our lamp, the 5 wise virgins, oil press [Gesthemene], the 5 or 6 of 2Kings 13:19 and the 5 or 6 elements in the story of the good smaritan and Acts 5:32
Thanks for being a brother in Christ Jesus and a lover of the Word and His Word!
George in Gresham