This may surprise you, but there is a lot of evil in the world.
OK, I’m kidding. If you’ve thought about it at all you know there is a lot of evil. We see it in all kinds of forms: bullying, terribly foul language, cheating on taxes, and calling in sick when you are in perfect health.
Are any of those evil? Are any of them good?
Sometimes with actions like those, whether we are directly involved or not, we like to play The Justification Game. With calling in sick when you aren’t, for instance, we might say, “I really needed to be away from work because…,” and that reason justifies the lie. You could imagine some form of justification for almost everything on the list above. As we improve at The Justification Game, we might get to the place where we can justify pretty much any action we want to take.
Abortion is an action that many people believe is evil unless it is done to save the life of the mother, or for one or two other exceptions. On the other hand, there are many people who believe the mother of that unborn child has the right to decide about its life, and that to take that right away is evil.
Can you see what is missing in all of this? It is the one thing that would help a great deal in distinguishing between good and evil. In fact, it is the one thing that is needed. Otherwise we will all be victims of opinion, whether that is our own or it comes from the crowd.
A Standard
About ten years ago I was pulled over by a police officer for speeding. I had driven from the Phoenix metro area to the Tucson metro area, and for most of that trip I had taken a two-lane road. The speed limit on that road was 65 miles per hour, and I’d done a good job of staying in that limit.
The last half-mile of the road, however, had a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. Of course that made sense because the two-lane road was ending at a highway that had three lanes going east and three lanes going west, and the transition would be important. So I slowed to 35, stopped at the stop sign, then turned onto the six-lane road. I assumed that this big beautiful ribbon of concrete had a speed limit of at least 65. I saw no speed limit signs, so I kept the peddle down until I hit 65, and that was when I saw the lights in my rear view mirror.
Soon I learned that if there is no speed-limit sign on a road you turn onto, it is the same as the road you were just on.
When there was no standard (speed limit sign) I could see, there was still a standard. That’s how I knew good from evil, but rarely is it stamped into a large black and white rectangular sign. It is usually learned.
We start learning it as children, often from the instructions of parents, grandparents, teachers, and other “authority” figures who seem to know these things. Many of the standards are for our own safety, but others are clearly about how we behave, especially how we behave toward other people.
We learn early that truth is a fundamental standard. We may learn that by telling a lie, soon discovered and soon corrected. Notice that the standard is not to lie better or more convincingly, it is to tell the truth (honesty). Other standards we learn include treating others well, obeying our parents, and (this is a hard one) sharing rather than being selfish.
Subjective and Objective
You could look back at the behaviors listed above (e.g. bullying) and find a standard from childhood for each one of those. Where justification comes in handy is when we don’t want to adhere to the standard, so we go around it by saying it is OK to not keep the standard in certain circumstances. In fact, that really is the case. It is not the case as often as we try to make it the case, though, and we know the difference.
The more dangerous way we violate the standards we have learned is through a variation called subjectivism. We declare that there is no external moral standard or objective truth. We say instead that everything is subjective, so right and wrong are based on our personal feelings, tastes, and opinions. That’s handy! It allows me to do anything I want, and if my standard is different than your standard, so what?
Clearly a society — whether that is a family, a company, a classroom, or a country — cannot exist long or well without objective standards. That is even true for a social media platform, like X or Instagram or even Reddit.
Speaking of online, that is a place where a great deal of evil is done through various scams. Even the people doing it know it is evil — it just pays well. Apparently there are many “scam parks” in Southeast Asia. China just announced that it executed 11 people it found guilty of killing 14 Chinese citizens and running scam and gambling operations worth more than $1 billion. Apparently there is an objective standard that those who do evil should be punished.
Two notes from one book
The Bible has a lot to say about good and evil. I’ll mention just two.
Isaiah 5:20 says: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” If you can, read the next few verses as well. Great standards.
Hebrews 5:14 says: “Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Are you mature? Then your discernment should be well trained because you have practiced distinguishing good from evil. Good for you!
Since we know the difference, let’s…
Do good. It’s in us!
Can you tell good from evil?
This may surprise you, but there is a lot of evil in the world.
OK, I’m kidding. If you’ve thought about it at all you know there is a lot of evil. We see it in all kinds of forms: bullying, terribly foul language, cheating on taxes, and calling in sick when you are in perfect health.
Are any of those evil? Are any of them good?
Sometimes with actions like those, whether we are directly involved or not, we like to play The Justification Game. With calling in sick when you aren’t, for instance, we might say, “I really needed to be away from work because…,” and that reason justifies the lie. You could imagine some form of justification for almost everything on the list above. As we improve at The Justification Game, we might get to the place where we can justify pretty much any action we want to take.
Abortion is an action that many people believe is evil unless it is done to save the life of the mother, or for one or two other exceptions. On the other hand, there are many people who believe the mother of that unborn child has the right to decide about its life, and that to take that right away is evil.
Can you see what is missing in all of this? It is the one thing that would help a great deal in distinguishing between good and evil. In fact, it is the one thing that is needed. Otherwise we will all be victims of opinion, whether that is our own or it comes from the crowd.
A Standard
About ten years ago I was pulled over by a police officer for speeding. I had driven from the Phoenix metro area to the Tucson metro area, and for most of that trip I had taken a two-lane road. The speed limit on that road was 65 miles per hour, and I’d done a good job of staying in that limit.
The last half-mile of the road, however, had a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. Of course that made sense because the two-lane road was ending at a highway that had three lanes going east and three lanes going west, and the transition would be important. So I slowed to 35, stopped at the stop sign, then turned onto the six-lane road. I assumed that this big beautiful ribbon of concrete had a speed limit of at least 65. I saw no speed limit signs, so I kept the peddle down until I hit 65, and that was when I saw the lights in my rear view mirror.
Soon I learned that if there is no speed-limit sign on a road you turn onto, it is the same as the road you were just on.
When there was no standard (speed limit sign) I could see, there was still a standard. That’s how I knew good from evil, but rarely is it stamped into a large black and white rectangular sign. It is usually learned.
We start learning it as children, often from the instructions of parents, grandparents, teachers, and other “authority” figures who seem to know these things. Many of the standards are for our own safety, but others are clearly about how we behave, especially how we behave toward other people.
We learn early that truth is a fundamental standard. We may learn that by telling a lie, soon discovered and soon corrected. Notice that the standard is not to lie better or more convincingly, it is to tell the truth (honesty). Other standards we learn include treating others well, obeying our parents, and (this is a hard one) sharing rather than being selfish.
Subjective and Objective
You could look back at the behaviors listed above (e.g. bullying) and find a standard from childhood for each one of those. Where justification comes in handy is when we don’t want to adhere to the standard, so we go around it by saying it is OK to not keep the standard in certain circumstances. In fact, that really is the case. It is not the case as often as we try to make it the case, though, and we know the difference.
The more dangerous way we violate the standards we have learned is through a variation called subjectivism. We declare that there is no external moral standard or objective truth. We say instead that everything is subjective, so right and wrong are based on our personal feelings, tastes, and opinions. That’s handy! It allows me to do anything I want, and if my standard is different than your standard, so what?
Clearly a society — whether that is a family, a company, a classroom, or a country — cannot exist long or well without objective standards. That is even true for a social media platform, like X or Instagram or even Reddit.
Speaking of online, that is a place where a great deal of evil is done through various scams. Even the people doing it know it is evil — it just pays well. Apparently there are many “scam parks” in Southeast Asia. China just announced that it executed 11 people it found guilty of killing 14 Chinese citizens and running scam and gambling operations worth more than $1 billion. Apparently there is an objective standard that those who do evil should be punished.
Two notes from one book
The Bible has a lot to say about good and evil. I’ll mention just two.
Isaiah 5:20 says: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” If you can, read the next few verses as well. Great standards.
Hebrews 5:14 says: “Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Are you mature? Then your discernment should be well trained because you have practiced distinguishing good from evil. Good for you!
Since we know the difference, let’s…
Do good. It’s in us!
Get The Do Good U news
We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Let's Do Some Good
Learn more about our programs.