The Bible says: “To fear the Lord is to hate evil” (Prov.8:13). It further states: “Hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the gate…” (Amos 5:15). Now the word “hate” is not a passive word but an active verb which denotes action and activity. Further, the word of God in this context is not a neutral statement but a definite commandment, commanding us to fight against evil for the establishment of justice within our community gates. However, one very wrong conception about evil among Christians seems to be that –As long as we are not indulging in evil, we have done our duties to God. But such an attitude amounts to an evasion of our duties to God rather than obedience to God. And if we evade our duties against evil, what will the end result be? The answer is simple: Good and justice will disappear and evil will reign within the gates of our cities. This is how the word of God describes such a condition: “Whoever shuns evil becomes a prey to evil” (Is. 59:15). To shun evil is to see evil, but do nothing about it.
Because of our evasion and indifference to evil, we are today under the suffocating grip of evil and corruption. We are in short, allowing the Devil and evil to rule over us because we have given up our hatred and fight against evil. Our present condition is so similar to the condition in Israel in the context of which Isaiah was speaking in Isaiah 59. “Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood.. The way of peace, they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness…at midday we stumble as it were twilight…truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter… Truth is nowhere to be found and whosoever shuns evil becomes a prey” (Is. 59::7, 9, 10, 14, 15).
In the true Christian experience, when we are born again in the spirit, we are freed from slavery to sin and evil (Rom. 8:2). The born again experience is however not an experience where we are transformed into spiritual beings and then transferred into a spiritual realm in the heavens. Far from it, our spiritual beings continue to live under our material bodies in a material world. And here, if we are not careful and continue to oppose evil, we can end up in a material world where both our spirits as well as our bodies become captives to the material world and its evil ways. After all, when evil man takes over political powers, even Reverends and Saints go to prisons.
Kaka D. Iralu
