Tag Archives: evil

The Good That Goes Unseen

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)

     You do not need to look farther than your news feed to see acts of evil, and I am not talking about the “duck face” selfies, although scary, maybe not evil. I am talking about war torn countries, world hunger, IS etc. Is the existence of evil something to be feared or is it something we need to understand? The Apostle Paul implies, in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, directly to the inevitability of pain and suffering. He writes that on one hand we are wasting away on the outside, but through Christ we can be renewing our heart, soul, and mind day by day. Evil and the things that come with it, like pain and suffering, are merely a preparation for what good is to come.
     I believe Paul is writing truth, in my own thoughts, I see evil as a contrast. When we want to explain and understand something in everyday life, we often apply a contrast in order to compare and fully understand a topic. Paul applies evil as the contrast to which we can fully understand more the glory and goodness there is to come. “Where good is to evil, eternity is to a fleeting moment.”
     Good is inherent in creation, Paul writes about that when he mentions the unseen, which is eternal. Simply put, the unseen is good, the seen which is transient, is evil. If you look at life the way Paul is writing here, it should bring you comfort. Comfort in knowing all the bad you may experience here on earth, is nothing by comparison to what good is waiting in eternity. Keep your focus centered on what is unseen, the good things that are eternal. I encourage you to take a few seconds and think about the good relationships in your life; notice the good that goes unseen.

224 Reasons

     Earlier this week the Islamic State (IS) claimed another attack. This attack was on a Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers. IS claims this plane also carried a bomb of their handiwork. This is only one of many stories of atrocities committed by this organization. The actions of the IS are what most people would say to be evil. But what exactly is evil and why does God allow it?
     Evil by definition is the corruption of good. It is the corruption of what is morally right and/or righteous. From a Biblical perspective evil began from the disobedience in Eden, the entrance of sin. Evil is one of those titles that everyone in the world can place it on an action, to some degree or another. This plays into our universal morality we all know and live by. By this morality, we observe immediately that bombing a plane is probably not a good thing to do.
     I think God can and does prevent evil. However, if God did remove all evil, completely shutting down the IS and removing any trace of evil works on earth, then, would this eliminate free will? I think not. Our free will is not reliant on there being an evil, but rather it is reliant on there being good. For there cannot be evil without good but there can be good without evil. It is our own free will that propagates evil in this world. The original creation had no evil, “and God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31).
     What can the IS stand to gain from doing such atrocities? It is an example of a prideful organization. They would have you think it is their way or the highway. They operate under a self understanding that they are not doing evil, but good according to their worldview. At the very least I can think of 224 reasons that evil exists, but the exact answer for why God allows such evil, is at its very root, a mystery to me.