Our problem
Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Malachi 2:17a
You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and He delights in them;’
Proverbs 17:15
He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.
God’s expectation
Romans 12:9
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.
Luke 12:57
Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?
John 7:24
Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Mark 13:5b
Be careful that no one leads you astray.
Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
A distinction
1 Corinthians 2:14
Now the natural man (non-believer) doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
2 Corinthians 6:14
Don’t be unequally yoked (choose a formal partnership) with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Proverbs 14:6
A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn’t find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.
Proverbs 17:24
Wisdom is [right in] the face of one who has [discerning], but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 29:27
A dishonest man detests the righteous, and the upright in their ways detest the wicked.
Amos 5:10 NIV
There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.
Psalm 119:163
I hate and abhor falsehood. I love your law.
Romans 12:21
Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 16:19b
Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
Truth
John 18:38a
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
John 17:17b
Your (God's) word is truth.
John 8:31-32
Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”
John 1:14
The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw His glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Ephesians 4:21b
Truth is in Jesus.
1 Timothy 3:15b
God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, [is] the pillar and ground of the truth.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Proverbs 16:6
By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.
Lies
1 John 2:4
One who says, “I know Him,” and doesn’t keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
1 John 2:22
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
Proverbs 19:22
A poor man is better than a liar.
Proverbs 29:12
If a ruler listens to lies, all of his officials are wicked.
A contrast
Romans 3:4b
Let God be found true, but every man a liar.
Matthew 19:16-17a
One came to Him and said, “Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” [Jesus] said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.”
John 16:8
When [the Holy Spirit comes], He will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment.
John 3:19b-21
Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.
John 10:10
The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Some warnings
Isaiah 13:11
I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
Matthew 5:45b
He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 13:24-30
He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and produced grain, then the darnel weeds appeared also. The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Matthew 13:47-50
Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some fish of every kind, which, when it was filled, fishermen drew up on the beach. They sat down and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 15:13-14
[Jesus] answered, “Every plant which My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Matthew 25:31-34, 41
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. Before Him all the nations will be gathered, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on His right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...’ Then He will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.’
Luke 3:16-17
John answered them all, “I indeed baptize you with water, but he comes who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Romans 1:18-32
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify Him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things [idolatry, including evolution]. Therefore
- God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts [sexual revolution] to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason,
- God gave them up to vile passions [homosexual revolution]. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge,
- God gave them up to a reprobate mind [choosing to make the insane seem normal], to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness,
who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of [and vote for] those who practice[, promote, or protect] them [effectively turning society upside down]. [Which brings us back to Isaiah 5:20.]
- sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Evil
Psalm 51:4b
I have sinned, and done that which is evil in Your sight
Psalm 119:53
Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law.
Proverbs 5:22
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
Proverbs 12:13a
An evil man is trapped by sinfulness
Isaiah 13:11 NIV
I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins.
Jeremiah 36:3
It may be that [My people] will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them; that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Ezekiel 3:19a NIV
If you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
John 7:7
The world... hates Me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
The evil one
John 17:15
I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that You would keep them from the evil one.
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
2 Timothy 2:25-26
In gentleness [correct] those who oppose [you]: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will.
John 8:44b NIV
The devil... was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Revelation 12:9a
The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
1 John 5:19
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
John 14:30b
The prince of the world comes, and he has nothing [over] Me.
Ephesians 2:2b
You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.
2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
[Some] men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Ephesians 6:12
Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Calibration
Jeremiah 9:23-24 NASB
The Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of (brag, or take pride in) his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.
Luke 10:20
Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Obligation
Romans 13:1-4
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God. Therefore he who resists the authority, withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same, for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.
Note:
- Paul all but explicitly says the government's authority is predicated on it's protecting good and punishing evil. When it does this, then it's representing God and we are commanded to obey. When it abandons its mandate and punishes good and protects evil then it forfeits its God given authority in (over) our lives. Again we return to Isaiah 5:20 and Romans 1:32, plus Proverbs 14:34 and Acts 5:29.
- In the USA and any democracy or republic, the government is the law (beginning with the constitution) not the lawyers nor the elected officials, and certainly not the beaurocrats. All these people are charged with upholding the law and are never to act above or in subversion of it. The people (the governed) determine the law. A single act of violating the law to force one's own personal political agenda invalidates their God-given authority over us, James 2:10.
Reminders
Genesis 4:7b
Sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.
Matthew 5:17
Don’t think that I came to destroy (cancel) the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill (complete & confirm). (Compare Luke 16:17)
Luke 12:51
Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.
Matthew 10:22
You will be hated by all men for My name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
Luke 17:10
When you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’
Jeremiah 49:12 CSB
This is what the Lord says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too.
2 Timothy 3:12-14
All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.
Specific examples of good and evil are detailed in my separate blog post on morality, here, and my post on sexual immorality, here. All scripture quotations were from the WEB translation, except where indicated otherwise, and all italics and bracketed text were added by me.
Extra-Biblical quotes
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” -Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.” -Marcus Tullius Cicero
“We must be careful not to confuse witty and wise.”