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Many older liturgies have confessions like this: ..........................we have sinned against You.............in thought word and deed in the evil we have done and in the good we have not done Failing to do "good" is certainly a sin, but are "doing
evil" and "sinning" the same thing ? I suggest not. This sort of
wording comes about because good and evil are conventional opposites.
Consider the Lord's prayer: ................forgive us our sins (as we forgive....... and lead us not into temptation) BUT deliver us from evil It seems there is a difference between Sin and Evil.
Sin can be forgiven but Evil requires Deliverance.
This is not just semantics it has important consequences for daily life and our
attitude to crime in particular.
Consider also Ephesians 6 Vs 11-12 (Click for a modern version) 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We might be tempted (!) to interpret
high places as referring to our worthy Government, but no, it refers to the
spiritual dimension. There is no doubt that Jesus believed in Evil Spirits
and cast them out just as often as He forgave sins. To the best of my memory
He never did both on the same person.
I am content to take evil spirits
literally, if you dear reader cannot, then at least accept them as a parable
for what God has allowed to exist in our world alongside but different from
sin. Equally: do not imagine devils as cute little fellows in red flannel with
horns and a pointy tail, we are dealing with the depths of human experience.
I do not claim to have a clear definition to differentiate evil from sin
and I do not want to dwell in particular examples when tabloid newspapers
scream EVIL in their headlines, but let me try a simple hypothetical example.
Holding a knife up to someone and demanding money is sin and serious sin,
but holding a knife to a baby’s throat to demand money from its mother is
evil. What really differentiates them is not the extent or depth of the wickedness,
but whether we would feel it reasonable to ask the victim, under the right
conditions, to consider forgiving the perpetrator. No-one should ask the
parent of a murdered child to forgive the murderer or even mention the idea.
We might, however, hope that the parent can eventually move on from hatred,
simply because carrying hatred is corrosive and destructive. Once evil has
struck, everyone concerned is in danger of being tainted by it, not least
the journalists who report and dwell on it. I suggest that hatred is a symptom
of the presence of evil.
I could go on about famous dictators
and perpetrators of terrible acts of terrorism, but there is a danger that
these words could then become tainted by evil. Instead I prefer to suggest
that, if there is a particular one on your mind, or when you see the next
on the television, that you stop and consider whether such a thing could
ever be forgivable. If you think not then label it as Evil. Take no concern
whatever about forgiveness, rather pray that we are all delivered from evil.
Among other things that means being delivered from the hatred we might feel.
What then of Jesus and the Cross?
I remind you that Jesus did not say of Judas that he would be forgiven, rather
that it would have been better for him if he had never been born. (Mark 14
v12). Forgiveness of all our sins is possible through the Cross, but if we
get sucked into Evil we are doomed.
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