He or she is "pure evil"
the battle of "good vs evil"
and so on
The idea of evil is quickly and easily applied to people and situations that seem horrific to us or society as a whole. At first glance, I guess we assume evil just means bad. Or maybe it means really, really bad. I'm not sure most people have much of an understanding of "evil" beyond some notion of , "it's just bad."
Maybe its worth some pondering to take a second look at "evil". Our expert "go to" resource, Wikipedia, says "evil" in general refers to something that is the opposite of good. A more specific context is often associating "evil" with profound immorality. Certainly the Bible speaks about "evil" quite often. Yet, the Bible is not about morality, but about a Kingdom and a King. There must be more to "evil" than meets the eye. So, what does the Bible add to the idea of "evil" that Wiki seems to miss? I thought it was worth a second look, what about you?
The word for "evil" in the Bible literally means "rotten to the core." This implies that when something or someone is "evil", the very inner or intrinsic quality is inexhaustibly BAD. The "evilness" is not determined by the outcomes associated with the person or thing, but the qualities that determine the person or thing in its very essence. Regardless of how good something looks on the outside, if the heart or essence is rotten, it is "evil". There is nothing that can be done to change it because the "evil" in endemic to the object. That's what "to the core" means.
The idea of "rotten" or bad seems to only have clarity when we compare it with the idea of "good". This may seem routine, but the idea of "good" is not so simple. There are two ways something or someone can be "good." First, there is the extrinsic way to view "good." That is, something or someone is "good" if the outcome from it (them) is beneficial or useful. You say "that is a good idea" when the idea is helpful in the quest for accomplishing something. You say, "that food is good" when something you eat is favorable to your taste buds or healthy. Positive impact on circumstances is the extrinsic way something or someone is considered "good." Since morality is a code of conduct that is considered right vs wrong, this meaning for "good" would include an extrinsic conformity to moral code.
But, the word most often used in the Bible for "good" is not extrinsically or situationally contingent. The word for God uses to describe creation, the word for "good" Paul uses when referring to our works, and even the word for "good" in Romans 8 that gives us the hope that everything will work out for "good" is not about circumstances. This word for "good" is an intrinsically oriented notion of quality. It means that something or someone is "good" in its very essence of being. In the Bible something is "good" when it possess the qualities of God, who is the source of goodness. Creation, the works of believers, and our ultimate well being is "good" because it is "of God." This is why Jesus points the rich young ruler to the "one that is good."
Hence, if "evil" is rotten to the core, then "evil" is anything or anyone that in its (their) very essence is not of God. "Evil" is enmity with God intrinsically or in one's inner qualities. For a person to be "good" and therefore not "evil", he/she must possess in the very core of their thinking, the mind of Christ. For an action (works) to be "good" and not "evil", the source of motivation must flow from the mind of Christ. To see "evil" as God wants us to see "evil", we must orient ourselves to the intrinsic qualities of people and their actions and not the circumstantial consequences that we witness. Assumptions about and insights into what God is doing in His Sovereign will must be our determinant of what is "evil" and "good".
You may never get an unbelieving world to see "evil" any way other than extrinsically. After all, Wiki has more credibility than God's word. However, if you are a Christian, seeing "evil" and "good" as God does requires a second look.
It is just one more way we ponder what it means "to walk by faith and not by sight" ....
This is one of many topics young believers can explore in our course on Biblical Psychology available at http://b4worldview.com/homeschool/
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