ARTICLE: When Good Can Be Evil

[STR Ambassador]

When Good Can Be Evil
by Greg Koukl

I would like you to consider for a moment how something can be good and evil at the same time. Then I want to explain why this insight is so important for you as an ambassadors of Christ.

At first glance, to say something is good and not good (evil) at the same time sounds like a contradiction. There is no conflict, though, if the thing is good in one way, and bad in an entirely different way. It is possible, for example, for something to render benefit in the short term, but have devastating consequences as time wears on.


A man with cancer can take morphine to reduce his physical suffering. In a temporal sense, that’s good. He feels better. His distress has departed. He is sedate and calm instead of crippled by pain.


But what if the artificial sense of well-being induced by the drug dissuades him from receiving the therapy necessary to heal him? The morphine cannot correct the disease; it only covers it. If no further steps are taken, the malignancy eventually kills him.


Can we say that the morphine is really good if it eliminates the symptom, but the patient dies from the disease? No. Ultimately, it is destructive. If relief from pain keeps a man from remedial surgery, then the relief can’t be called good. Whenever a soothing remedy substitutes for health-giving therapy, evil results.


This is true of everything. A fine meal laced with arsenic is delicious, but deadly. The good is also evil. A casual sexual encounter may be stimulating, but with AIDS the apparent “goodness” is eclipsed by the ultimate result.


Here’s why this insight is important. As you expand your horizons as an ambassador for Christ, you will face the growing challenge of religious pluralism. Generally, those who promote the “goodness” of religion do not appreciate the good/evil tradeoff I’ve just described.


Alternate religions might offer effective guidelines to moral living. That’s good as far as it goes. It’s good to live righteously. Holy living contributes to spiritual health. Those who continually practice sin eventually suffer its consequences.


The problem is, it doesn’t go far enough. If a given religion is wrong about the eternal consequences, then it cannot be called “good” in spite of the short term benefit it offers. The final analysis is what really counts. Any temporally “good” thing, including religion, must be measured not by its immediate effect, but by its ultimate result.


The fact is, our most valiant attempts at goodness are met with failure because a deep-seated malignancy sucks the life from our efforts. No matter how hard we try, each of us is dying from a spiritual disease that no amount of righteous living can repel.


Therefore, every religious system that promotes righteous behavior as an ultimate end—Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, and even Christianity in certain forms—is treating the symptom and not the disease.


If the Christian view is accurate, then every human being, from the greatest to the least, has broken God’s law. That makes us all guilty, and guilty people must seek God’s surgery: the new birth that follows forgiveness. Agreed, some need more forgiveness than others—sometimes much more, just as disease can ravage one body more violently than another—but every person is fatally stricken, nonetheless.


Anything that grants a temporal benefit while robbing of an eternal deliverance is poison, no matter how good or decent it looks in the short term. Thus, we are never free to call religion good in the final sense. That which was good has become evil. To rephrase Karl Marx, false religion is the opiate of the people. It soothes, but does not cure.


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[Dee Dee Warren]

good post

[ELOWYN EL]

Very nice post. I agree with you fully. I also will like to add, that too much of anything no matter how good it may seem will end up being bad for you. For example;

Someone loves food, and just plain loves to eat. But they eat so much that they become overweight, and can end up suffering with heart disease, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure etc.

The key is to have balance in everything; Being able to see the good and the bad or the positive and the negative at all times regardless of the situation. A lot of times people are either too blinded by being so good that they can't see the bad in a situation before it is too late.

[justgin]

I have often wondered about this very thing as it relates to all medications and their intended effects. The short term benefit of high blood pressure pills is lower pressure, but there are many untoward effects too. Plus, most people don't make changes in their diet and lifestyle to lower their blood pressure because the pill is helping, so the impetus to change is gone.

[bartdanr]

Interesting...while I believe you are correct that something that appears good can be evil in the end, I was actually thinking the opposite when I saw the title of your post--that something that appears evil can actually be good. The most obvious example is good Friday, but since we all know that Sunday came, it's not the best example. However, many of us have experienced our "good Friday" and haven't yet experienced the Sunday. We are in the midst of God's work in us, and we can't see it's good end or purpose. In fact, this side of the Second Coming, we may never see the purpose.

Although, I'd be tempted to suggest that looking at the ultimate result as the important thing as ignoring the very important work that suffering has to play in life.

[Tanakh Keeper]

This concept exists in Judaism as well. Almost everything can be either good or evil depending on how it is applied. There’s an old saying “Everything in moderation”. Consider fire, is it good or evil? As a good, fire keeps us warm, provides protection, and gives us energy. As an evil, fire can be a powerful destructive force. Or consider our free will. G-d creates every human with a yetzer hara (selfish impulse). This impulse has us seeing to our own well being. Without our G-d given yetzer hara, no person would build a house, marry, have children, or engage in trade. In moderation, the selfish impulse is a good thing. However, if one of these drives becomes unbalanced, then our behaviors can become evil. The goal is not to destroy our yetzer hara, but to use our G-d given free will to control it and apply it for good. As the Talmud says “Who is strong? The one that controls their desires”.

[bartdanr]

Tanakh, I think it is present in most religions. I believe it was a Taoist story about a man whose horse ran away. His friend came to comfort him, and he said "who knows if this is bad or good?" The next day the horse returned, and with it came a beautiful wild horse, too! The friend came over to congratulate the man, and he repeated "who know if this is bad or good?" The next day the man's son tried to ride the new horse, and broke his leg. The friend came to comfort the man, and again he said "who knows if this is bad or good?" The next day the king's men came by to draft all young men into the army, and the man's son was exempted because of his broken leg. The man's friend came by to congratulate the man about keeping his son out of the army and safe, and of course the man again said "who knows if this is bad or good?"

The point is: no human ultimately knows the consequences of any event, and our perception of bad or good is based on a very limited perspective.

[Homer]

I think we often times over think matters and rely too much on our own understanding for why things transpire. Although I am educated and a devoted lover of Christ, in my wildest dreams I could never conclude that somehow I could or would understand the thoughts, desires, and ultmate decisions of the creator of the universe. For myself, I prefer to go back to the basics of trusting and believing that God does live in my spirit and will guide and direct our actions and thoughts iif we ask Him for wisdom and to do so.