Where does evil come from within us? Lewis might have you believe it comes from
worshipping Oprah too much. Some say the
easy catch phrase, “the devil made me do it”.
Some do not believe that a devil truly exists. So where does evil come from? We recognize evil when we see it; usually of
course, in others, not in ourselves. We
‘know’ it is evil because it causes ‘us’ pain.
Nothing ‘good’ would cause ‘us’ pain, therefore it must be evil. Then comes the question, why would this evil
be perpetrated on us? What did we ever
do to deserve this evil treatment? For
those that subscribe to the idea that there is no devil at all, I wonder what
conclusion they reach regarding this phenomenon.
But it is all too easy, to simply write off evil behavior as
devil originated. That is a cop-out
Christians like to use rather than examine the issue any deeper and find evil
has origins within them. It is also a
bit egotistical to believe that the supreme master of evil has his full
attention directed solely at you so that you … run the red light, break your
diet, miss a commitment; you get the idea.
I doubt the devil needs to trouble himself for you to participate in
these menial evil tributes. No, more
likely these patterns of shortcut and self indulgence start right within
you. Within the core of who you
are. Not a pleasant prospect I grant
you.
Where does this desire to gratify self come from? When you think about evil in terms of
behavior, you begin to see a real pattern emerge. Most every ‘sin’ you can identify starts with
the concept of somehow pleasing one’s self.
Theft, lust, gluttony, adultery, fornication all have to do with
immediate gratification without regard to consequences. Lies, murder, even wars, have to do with
covering up bad behavior once it has been committed. Disregarding God, treating people as objects,
greed, apathy to the environment or to others – all have to do with a
consistent focus on self at the expense of others. Self.
Looking inward. Trying to please
#1. It is all the true root of all
evil. And that root seems to have taken
hold in all of us.
Is it pure genetics?
Another way for Christians to rationalize their evil deeds, is by
writing them off to inheritance. My mom
did it, and my grandma before her, so if I do it, I am predisposed by my
genetic code. Anyway go back far enough
and you can simply blame Adam for dooming our inherent natures. Or can you?
Is it really your mom’s fault that YOU are so self oriented? Did your parents teach you to disregard all
others in order to gratify self? For that
to truly have happened there had to have been no discipline for you as a child,
so sense of right and wrong ever instilled within you by anyone or anything in
your environment. And now, I am talking
literally only about people like Charles Manson (apologies to his parents if I
am wrong). Charlie just did not seem to
understand the difference between right and wrong and it came out in his
behavior. But if you’re able to stay out
of prison, and refrain from killing innocents, you must have some sort of moral
compass. Weak as it may be, it can
hardly be blamed on your genetics as now you are of the age of reason and
accountability.
The blame for this condition is an interesting question as
well. Genetics do predispose you to
certain behaviors but do not dictate you perform them. Once patterns of behavior have become habits,
or worse addictions, they can be extraordinarily hard to curtail, but addicts
can experience recovery should they choose to begin the process of
healing. So where does blame enter
in? Do we blame the criminally insane
for their behavior, or do we excuse it to a certain extent due to their
“illness.” Aren’t we all ‘sick’ with our
sinful condition? Does God look at us
and see us as criminally insane. Who
else but a lunatic would choose to inflict pain on themselves and others? Yet ALL of us do this on a daily basis,
sometimes with premeditation, sometimes with absolute malice of forethought,
sometimes based on the spur-of-the-moment.
But we do it. We choose to
inflict pain on ourselves and on others.
Why? Are we in fact criminally
insane? Is there any real difference
between us and Charlie Manson short the murders? And more to the point, does our insanity
somehow excuse our behavior.
That is often what people look for, an excuse to misbehave,
rather than a way to stop misbehaving.
We all gripe about the length of the red light on the road, and the
never ending traffic, and slow pokes in front of us – until when presented with
a questionable call we run the ‘yellow’ light and try to get home 5 minutes
faster. An accumulation of excuses, to
‘justify’ our errant behavior. When
placed beside a grieving parent for the loss of the child who dies in a car
accident from our running a red light, the entire line of reasoning seems petty
at best. All of the sudden our selfish
nature has accidentally inflicted catastrophic calamity on others – all for a
mere 5 minutes early arrival at home from work.
Can the grief be reduced by pointing out the tragedy of never-ending
traffic? I doubt it.
So how do we kill this ravenous beast that lives within
us? How do we dispel this insatiable
need to gratify self at every moment of the day? Maybe it takes killing us. Maybe this is why Christ referred to being
born-again when counseling Nicodemus late one evening. To die to self, and be reborn for service to
others. The nature of God is to
serve. The nature of Satan is to gratify
self. These two concepts are mutually
exclusive. They can have no part in each
other. There is no compromise here. One path leads to misery, and the murder of
the creator of all life. The other leads
to bliss, and an eternity of meaningful existence. Comparatively, it would take an insane person
to choose death and misery.
But what about the blind?
What about those who do not believe that a life of self gratification is
really such a bad thing? Honestly any
level of introspection would quickly dispel this idea. But those who wish to live in a state of
immediate gratification do not WANT to hear truth. They reject it, not because they truly
disagree with it, but because they do not WANT to hear it. The Pharisees in the day of Christ, rejected
Him, not because they were unconvinced of His true nature. They rejected Him because He would have
forced a complete change in how they thought about service to God and
others. They liked the religion of
power, and prowess they had constructed.
They enjoyed the feelings of supremacy that came from looking down on
publicans, harlots, and Samaritans.
They studied scripture to gain supremacy of knowledge and of self made
righteousness. They wanted no part in
humble service to others. They did not
want to see themselves how they truly were.
Nor do we. But neither they, nor
we, are truly blind – we both pretend to be blind. We close our ears to truth that requires
change because we do not want to know we need it. We crave to feed the selfish beast inside us,
and we must have silence of truth, to keep out beast well fed, and
‘happy’. Nobody wants a downer.
Therein lays the mystery of iniquity, how self-destructive
behavior is passed-off as the better way to go.
It is a mystery to the Universe at large, how we so quickly buy in to
this level of crud. Is it so hard to see
truth? Or do we just work hard to avoid
ever coming in contact with it? And if
so, why? It makes no sense. We must tear the blinders off of our eyes and
seek truth. We must pull the cotton from
our ears and hear truth. We must not
fear to change, but embrace change. We
must not fear surrender to God, but embrace surrender even to the point of our
very lives. For a life of evil is not
worth living, but a life of service and meaning is what heaven is all
about. Let us not choose to be blind,
nor just habitually wander into evil, rather let us search for our God to heal
us, to restore our souls, to hold us in His bosom and bring us peace. Let us choose to serve rather than be served…
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