THE WHY QUESTION (PART 4)

WHAT IS EVIL?

“Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies does not mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish a purpose.”
William P. Young, The Shack pg. 157

This statement rightly captures the mind of James in James 1:12-15. Even though trials and temptations can be used by God to work out good, verse 13 of James 1 specifically says, “let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God, for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil and he himself tempts no one.” Can you see that? God is incapable of being tempted by evil neither does he tempt anyone with evil. There is no evil in Him. Since it is impossible to give what you do not have, God cannot give evil.

The question now is, how then does evil arise? Or perhaps, what is this evil? The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant and has a baby called sin! Sin grows up to adulthood and becomes a real killer. (James 1:14-15).

What is this lust? They are desires and conclusions conceived outside the person and principles of God. When we pay attention to things outside God and his word, our desires follow our attention and we can be thrown off course.

An example that comes readily to mind is the story of Eve in Genesis 3. Before her conversation with the serpent, she had her mind and attention set on the instructions of God and never desired the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden; the one God instructed not to eat. After the conversation, her attention changed and so did her desires. This developed and ended up producing evil actions- conclusions outside God.

Another example can be seen in the book of Numbers 13. In that passage, God told Moses to send leaders from Israel to explore the land of Canaan. These leaders, save two, forgot the promises God had given Israel, and paid attention to what they had seen in Canaan, therefore coming to the conclusion that they were weak men, unable to conquer the land the Lord had promised them. Because of what they chose to give attention to, they drew conclusions outside God and eventually acted on them. To what do you give your attention? For they shape your desires and can determine your eventual actions.

God is God by himself and needs no validity or approval from man to be God. He is incapable of evil and does not need to use evil to prove how powerful he his. Like we stated in the previous post, we can always look to Jesus to understand the nature of God. When the Devil in the book of Matthew chapter 4 came to tempt Jesus with the words, “If you are the son of God command these stones to become bread.” Jesus was never in doubt about his identity. He knew who he was and did not need to prove anything to him. In fact, prior to then, God had publicly declared that he was his beloved son (Matthew 3:17). So he replied, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. To Jesus, what the Father says was more important than what anyone else had to say.

While the devil keeps presenting opportunities to be tempted to every one of us, we can choose whether to give in or not. Like an adage says, you cannot stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest on your head. Temptations are common to man, but man is not left without a choice. There is always a way out (1 Corin 10:13).

God works good out of evil because he is love. However, so long as there is another will free not to follow God and his word, free to pursue his own desires, evil will continue to subsist.

“But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:13 (NKJV)

To be continued…