The Devotional - 001 - Random thoughts on Good and Evil

A Thought for the Day – 001 – Random Thoughts on Good and Evil

Proverbs 31:1-9 – The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (KJV) and in the (NKJV) the last half of the verse reads; Keeping watch on the evil and the good. It is important to note that God does not deal with sin, sin is forgiven (John 3:16) believing God, satisfies this thought immediately.

 

Comments and challenges

Once a very long time ago I was on Shore Patrol duty in Newport, Rhode Island. In those days there were USO clubs in most every city where there was a military population. These clubs were normally places where the men could go and dance with the local girls and possibly meet someone who would eventually become the misses. USO’s in those days were somewhat conservative since the country according to our modern day bent on evil was not yet there.

As a Shore Patrol Officer, I was part of a four man crew to keep peace in the club. This normally meant to break up a fight over who was dancing with whom and to chase away the drunks who could spoil any party. A young girl came to me and pointed out a sailor on the dance floor that had a large “Bowie” knife tucked in his trousers and covered by his uniform top. She became aware of the knife while dancing with the man.

I approached the young man and asked him for the knife, I had never asked a person to give up a weapon before so I did not know what to expect, I expected the worst so with my night stick at the ready the man reached for the knife. I said; “Stop! Now I know for sure you have the knife, put your hands on top of your head” and I had my backup retrieve the knife.

This action prevented sin by removing the evil. Of course the man was detained and sent to the Shore Patrol Headquarters in Newport for disciplinary action. The event is explained so that we can understand the avenue of good and evil. Sort of like that town in Texas called Texarkana where half of the city is in Arkansas and half is in Texas, where the West side of North State Line Avenue (U.S. Route 71) is Texas and the East side of North State Line Avenue is Arkansas.

Now I am not saying that one U.S. state is evil and the other is good, but I am saying that “good and evil” travel the same road and both the good and the evil is visible God, but invisible to you and me. “Got it?” “Good!” Until sin is exposed in human consciousness for what it is; good or evil cannot be known by human intellect. Only sin can reveal the presence of evil. So what am I saying specifically?

Since the human mind cannot understand these realms (good and evil) how can God reveal this to you and me. He does this by raising a “standard of Righteousness” this banner is His flag of “Perfect Righteousness” God does not have to ask us if we have “sinned” Romans 3:23 states this… “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. This simply means that since we walk in harmony with “good and evil” a relative righteous standard or flag that reveals to God that all of our works… the good and the evil fall short of the glory of God.

It is hard for us to understand that even the good that we do produces sin under the banner of relative righteousness before our Holy God whose banner is absolute. The apostle Paul speaking to us through his epistle to the Romans says in Romans 3:9 that Jews and gentiles are all seen through the absolute righteousness standard of God as being under sin. Then he goes on to quote several passages in Psalms and Isaiah the reveal this sinful condition of relative righteousness.

So, we have a serious problem, as we walk about in the world; our footprints leave a trail of sin everywhere we go. But do not despair; there is good news, notice one of my favorite verses of scripture. Romans 5:8 – but God demonstrated (proved) His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; I would challenge you to read Romans 5:6-11. While we stand before God with our hands on our head revealing our hidden guilt, remember this.

The disciplinary action that we should face was placed on the Son of God; Jesus who in absolute righteousness took upon Himself our sin of relative righteousness and has given us His Righteous standard to live by. This is of course another study for another day, but I leave you with this thought. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, 2 Corinthians 5:21.