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What Does Evil Look Like?
"Abstain from every form of evil." 1 Thess 5:22
When I read this warning from the Apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonica, I thought to myself, "Good advice, indeed!" Today, more than ever, Christians will do well to heed this timeless advice. However, for the wisdom of this statement to have any practical impact in our lives, we need to examine it a little bit more closely.
For starters, before one can abstain from evil, he needs to be able to discern evil from good. This may appear simple on the surface but it is anything but. With lines greatly blurred in today's society, evil is not as easily identified, defined or recognisable. For example, yoga is regarded as simply exercise; immodest dressing is accepted in the name of fashion; and, safe sex is preferred over abstinence since you-can't-stop-the-young-people-from-doing-it-anyway. With a little rationalization, anything can be justified as good, necessary or essential. Give a new name, a new twist, a new reason, and evil today can appear quite good! How then can one abstain from evil if it gets increasingly more and more difficult to discern evil from good?
What does evil look like? The word "evil" comes from the Greek word "poneros". Whilst "poneros" does not define what exactly is evil or bad, it gives us an understanding of the adverse effect evil has on us. Put another way, anything that causes destruction, harm, disaster or danger is evil. Paul was in fact warning Christians to be wary of anything that brought harm to them - spirit, soul and body! Evil is destructive!
Of course, we recognise obvious evils like theft, murder and adultery. But as already noted, evil presents itself in all shapes and sizes in modern society. No wonder Paul says to avoid "all forms" of evil. With clever marketing, advertising and packaging, evil is disguised in its many forms and makes its way unnoticed into our unsuspecting homes and lives, wrecking many families and relationships.
Yet, so many Christians remark, "But everyone is doing it!" or "What's wrong with it?" Have we so lost our ability to identify evil that we now rely on the majority to show us the way? Left to ourselves, we have no hope at all. Our hearts are deceitful (Jer 17:9) and anything can appear right in our own eyes. Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." To be sure, evil in its various forms is deceptive. The enemy does not play fair, and he will do all to bring destruction into our lives.
So, what does evil look like? There are no easy answers in a world that regards everything with shades of gray. To abstain from every form of evil is not merely to decide what is or is not allowable in the Bible. That is merely looking for loopholes in God's Word so we can justify our actions as good and one could even end up religious and legalistic in the process.
Perhaps, to know what evil looks like, we need to first know what good looks like. God is good and His Word is good. We have the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth (Jn 16:13), to show us what is truly good in God's eyes. The closer we draw to God, the more we are changed by His Spirit into the image of His Son, Jesus. The closer we walk with God, the more we walk in the light as He is in the light (1 Jn 1:7). It is when we walk as children of light that we will then know what is good and acceptable to the Lord. In knowing what is good, we will expose what is evil, the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph 5:9-11).
Without doubt, our preoccupation is not only to abstain from evil, but to develop an intimate relationship with God, who alone is good. Romans 12:9 says, "Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." In clinging to God and walking close to Him, the One who hates sin, we will surely be changed in His Presence to clearly know and see evil as He does.
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