THE WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL
God is saying that we are not to give back evil to those who do evil to us. Justice is not our responsibility, but God's. He will repay or give back evil to those who do evil to us. We are not to take it into our hands to do so. It is up to us to let God take care of justice.
I was in a church in Pennsylvania where a youth pastor decided to rebel against the preacher. He took about 50 people and started a church across town. The week prior to that, I was in another church where 40 or 50 people took off and started another church because they were disgruntled with the pastor. Three weeks earlier I was in a church where about 30 people had become upset and left to start a church. In most cases, the people involved were sorry, and the churches that they started have done almost nothing! One of those three churches no longer has a pastor.
Who are these evil people that caused trouble in these churches? They are people just like you and me. They are people who were once happy with their church. They are people who followed the Devil's progression of evil and did not win the battle against evil. These are not usually wicked people. They once loved their church and their pastor, but something happened, and they lost the battle between good and evil.
Evil is that which injures someone else. Good is that which benefits someone else. You are not a good person because of what you are. You are a good person because of what you do. There is a battle going on now between good and evil. It is a battle going on in your life.
1. This battle has been going on since the Garden of Eden. In fact, it started in the Garden of Eden when God said to Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That means that Adam and Eve did not have the knowledge of how to hurt anybody. They knew only how to benefit each other. Adam could only benefit Eve, and Eve could only benefit Adam because they had no knowledge of anything, but of benefiting each other.
2. Satan promised in Genesis 3:5 that if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, they would know both good and evil. Satan was trying to introduce them to know how to do evil. They had not had that capacity before, but by eating of the tree, they would know how to hurt each other and to do evil.
3. God saw it. Genesis 3:22, "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man Is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." God realized that they had eaten of the tree and had the capacity to do evil. The war between good and evil began in the Garden of Eden, and from that day until now, everybody has had the capacity to either benefit each other or hurt each other. There is a constant warfare in your life either to be of benefit in people's lives or to hurt them.
4. Joseph fought the battle between good and evil benefiting people or hurting people. Of course, he did good to his brothers, even though they had done evil to him.
5. When entering the Promised Land, God told His people that those who knew good and evil would never see the Promised Land, so no adults ever saw it, except for Joshua and Caleb.
Deuteronomy 1:35, "Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers."
6. David fought the battle between hurting people and helping people. I Samuel 25:21, "Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good."
7. Paul fought a battle between benefiting people and hurting people. He did not say that it was a battle between sin and righteousness but between good and evil. Romans 7:21, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."
8. The battle between good and evil increases. Hebrews 5:14, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
9. The battle continued in the New Testament church over whether to hurt people or to benefit them. III John 11, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."
Sin is not evil. Evil is a form of sin, but all sin is not evil. Evil is that part of sin which wants to hurt somebody. We know that good causes evil. We know that good is the only thing that overcomes evil, and that causes more evil and creates a need for more good. It keeps going. Now consider these three things: (I) Evil cannot conquer you. I John 4:4b, "...greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Ultimate good will conquer ultimate evil; (2) No one can destroy you, except you; (3) No one's actions can destroy you; only your reactions can cause you to self-destruct. You are the only person who can destroy you. Someone can provoke you to self-destruct. You self-destruct when you lose the battle between good (helping people) and evil (hurting people). Only you can cause that to happen. As long as you keep on doing more good when evil comes your way, evil can never destroy you, for doing evil has a limit, but doing good has no limit!
Let me show you how Satan works to cause you to react in a way that will cause self-destruction. If you can figure out how to react, you can never be destroyed by evil. Satan has certain ways he uses to get you to react wrongly. If you can find out what he does and correct it, you can keep from being destroyed by his evil.
If you are doing good, there are several things the Devil cannot do. He cannot defeat you from within because "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Satan cannot conquer you. You are doing good. In response to your doing good, people will try to do harm to you. One reason is, you put them in a bad light. You make them look bad. If a church is experiencing great success, another church that is struggling may begin to do harm to the successful church, because the church that is succeeding is making the other church look bad. The evil comes from the outside to try to destroy you. Remember, overcome evil with good.
This may shock you, but the Bible does not say to overcome evil with prayer. I am for prayer, but the way you overcome evil is with good or by benefiting people. The Bible does not say to overcome evil with Bible study. It does not say overcome evil with meditation. You overcome evil by doing good. Good not only conquers evil, but you will be so busy doing good that you will not have the time to do evil. The time you would have used to do evil will be used up for good.
2. Next comes the "inside evil." If you wait before you do good in order to conquer outside evil, evil will gain a partner — inside evil. You will be tempted to render evil for evil. A desire to do evil will come if you do not quickly do good in order to conquer the evil. When someone does you evil, QUICKLY rush for the good to overcome it. The longer you go before doing good to quench evil, the harder it is going to be to quench it.
I know good Bible students and teachers who have evil in their hearts and are trying to hurt people. The Bible alone is not the answer in this case. I have known brilliant Bible teachers who have tried to destroy men of God. They did not do good to benefit people, and they did not overcome the eternal evil that makes them want to hurt somebody.
3. Next comes "spoken evil." It will come if the previous one is not overcome with good. It begins by whispering evil too often about someone. The same person who once would have taught a Sunday school class against speaking evil and would have been against those who did speak evil suddenly is speaking evil. What happened? He did not overcome evil with good. It came inside, and he began to hate, envy, get angry, and then he began to speak evil himself. Many good people are now speaking evil of someone because they rendered evil with evil instead of with good.
4. Next comes "group evil." When you get to the group evil, it is almost always too late to overcome. Your time for doing good is used in doing evil. You have attempted to destroy someone else, and in so doing, you have helped to destroy yourself. You are the one who is going to be destroyed, unless you can cause the person you are trying to destroy to self-destruct.
You do good, and evil comes, so you do more good, and more evil comes. You keep doing good to keep yourself from self-destructing. The destruction will not come by those trying to do you evil. You can prevent your destruction entirely if you can keep yourself from self-destructing.
Wherever you are in this progression, stop before you self-destruct! The progression will either be good, evil, more good, more evil, more good, more evil, more good, etc. Or, it will be good, outside evil, inside evil, spoken evil, group evil! If you are in the wrong progression, quickly get busy doing much good. It's your only way out of evil! Do you know why it is almost impossible to cure someone involved in group evil? Before it is evil, you can change it by yourself. Once it becomes group evil, you have to go against your peers to change. That is almost impossible to do!
1. We know that we all are sinners. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
2. Nobody wants to become an evil person.
3. We cannot live above sin, but we can live above evil.
4. Becoming an evil person is like becoming addicted to any sin. Sin is the drink. Evil is the alcoholic. Evil is the result of constant sin. Nobody chooses to be a drug addict. A person chooses to take drugs one time. Nobody chooses to be an alcoholic. A person chooses to take one drink. Nobody chooses to be "hot headed." A person chooses to lose his temper one time. Becoming an evil person is to be addicted to evil like one of these is addicted to his sin.
5. As with all of the other sins, becoming an evildoer does not happen overnight. A person does not become a drug addict overnight. It takes a long time of trying the drugs over and over a little at a time to become addicted. The same is true in becoming evil. You do not become an evildoer overnight. You sin and sin until it becomes evil and you want to hurt somebody.
6. No one plans to become an evildoer. Nobody takes a drink to become an alcoholic. Nobody takes drugs to become a drug addict. Nobody sins to become an evil person. It never starts out as the intent.
7. As with other sins, there is a progression in becoming an evildoer. Therefore, for the rest of this chapter I want to explain how this progression takes place. I am going to explain how you begin as a sinner and end up as an evil person, or as the Bible calls it, "an evil man." There is nothing worse than that. None of us want to do evil, but there is a road to becoming an evil person just as there is a road to becoming alcoholic or drug addict. Let me tell you how it happens.
A sinful man is one who misses the mark, stumbles and falls and makes mistakes. An evil man is one who is bent on hurting someone and who has a lifestyle of injuring others. No Christian should ever want to hurt anybody. Consequently, we want to avoid becoming evil. If you do not want to get to a destination, the best thing to do is to avoid the road that gets you there. Every evil person at one time was just a sinner. What is the next step from where we are as sinners to where we do not want to be as an evil person?
2. You start being with evil men. The first step you will take toward becoming an evil man will be to be around evil men. If you spend your time with people who criticize and hurt people, you are on the road to becoming an evil person.
Proverbs 4:14-1 6, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall."
3. You hear the evil report. This is what you will get around evil men — evil reports. If you are around evil men, they will criticize or slander and try to destroy somebody. The Bible says that we are to be the friend of sinners, but it never says we are to be friends with evil men! It says to stay away from them! Being around evil men is the first step to being like them.
When people try to tell me evil about someone, I tell them I do not want to know because I do not want to get on the road that leads to becoming evil. These evil men may act like they are trying to help the person they are slandering, but what they really want to do is to give you their evil report. You had better run from them!
4. You will have an evil heart. Somehow we think that we can get around evil men and listen to evil reports without getting an evil heart. Eventually it will get inside of you, and you will start thinking about the evil report and wondering whether or not it is true. Finally you begin to logic it into being true. Soon you become a suspicious and judgmental person. Jeremiah 3:17, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart."
You do not want to be the kind of person who hurts people. You want to help people, but you are on the road to evil because your heart is beginning to be affected. It is not good enough to guard yourself from their reports; you should guard yourself by staying away from the evil people! Just as God's Word can be hid in your heart, evil reports likewise can be hid in your heart. When you hear evil, it does not leave. It is stored in your mind and heart!
5. You then start evil speaking. Evil speaking is not cursing someone; it is saying something that is going to hurt another person. I Peter 4:4, "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you."
Evil men will think that it is strange that you will not associate with them. They assume that you think you are better than they are. You are better. A sinner is better than an evil man! You are too good to run with them! The wise thing for you to do is to worry about getting your sin forgiven and not to speak evil of what you see or hear about somebody else.
You do not have to want to hurt somebody to do evil. You can simply repeat what someone who is evil told you. People who do not want to hurt often hurt more than others because of a desire inside of us that makes us want to be the first one to tell something bad about another person.
6. Then you do evil deeds. II John 11, "For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." The Bible says that if you even put a blessing on the evil man, you become guilty of partaking in his evil deeds. You are not evil yet, but you are on the way by partaking in the evil deeds of others. Do not say, "God bless you," to the evil man, for his deeds are cursed, not blessed!
7. You now walk an evil way. Now that you are on the path toward becoming evil, evil begins to be a way of life for you. Evil has become a habit, even though you never intended for it to happen. Maybe you started out only intending to help an evil person. He does not need your help. He needs you to shun him.
Proverbs 8:13, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."
8. You then walk in evil ways. Soon you will not just be involved in hurting one person. You will be trying to hurt many people. You never intended to give your life to hurting people, but you started hanging around evil men and listening to their evil reports. That evil report lodged in your heart; you told it to others, joining the evil men in trying to destroy that person, and it became a way of life. Now, you are the type of person who actually enjoys hurting people.
II Kings 17:13, "Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
9. Then you become an evildoer. I Peter 4:15, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters."
Do you want to run around with an unrepentant murderer? God puts evildoers in the same bracket with murderers and thieves. I would enjoy running around with a bank robber as much as I would with a critic. If you have ever really been slandered, you know that it would be no worse for a man to take a gun and shoot you than to slander you. Yet, now you have become one of these evildoers, and you never intended for it to happen!
10. You are now an evil person. You did not have to become evil, but you followed the progression. Think about your heart. Are you trying to hurt anybody? You may justify it because he tried to hurt you first, but the Bible says not to render evil for evil. You are to render good for evil.
Where in this progression are you? Once you get started on this road, it becomes harder and harder to stop because one leads to the next.
11. It will become worse and worse. II Timothy 3:13, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse...." Once you have become an evil person, you will not stop. You will get worse and worse. It will never stop!
For your Christian testimony and for your own spiritual growth, stay only a sinful person. Every time you sin, confess it, ask God to forgive you, and forsake it immediately! Do not allow that sin to lead you to evil. You cannot start down the road without arriving at the destination!
Where are you in the progression of evil?
No doctrine will change your outlook on the Bible more and throw more light on other Bible doctrines than an understanding of the difference between sin and evil. The words for "sin" are never crossed with the word, "evil," in the Bible. If you understand that, it will drastically affect almost all of the other doctrines in the Bible. Let me show you 12 examples.
1. It will change your outlook toward sin in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:9, 'And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
Genesis 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 3:5, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:22, 'And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever."
Notice that it was not the tree of the knowledge of "good and sin," but of "good and evil." Satan wants you to sin, but much more than that, he wants you to keep sinning until you begin to do evil by conspiring to harm others. He wants you to do wrong to others, not just to yourself.
2. It will change your outlook on David's sin. Psalm 51:4, 'Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." In a moment of passion, David sinned with Bathsheba; yet, in a premeditated act, he plotted to do evil by having Uriah killed.
3. It will change your outlook toward the flood. Genesis 6:5, 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
God saw the wickedness of men on the earth. That was sin. Yet, God also saw that the imaginations of man's heart were evil continually. God chastens sin to correct man, but He hates evil even more. In churches all across America, an evil is committed against those who sin. God hates the sin; but even more, He hates the evil committed against the one who sinned.
Consider the story of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees brought her to Jesus and accused her to Him. She had sinned, but they were trying to have her killed. Their act was evil and was worse than her sin.
Jesus saved His most scathing remarks for those who were doing evil and trying to hurt somebody. He severely reprimanded the Pharisees!
Why did God send the flood? He did so for two reasons: sin and evil. Anytime God destroyed a people, He did so, not because they were sinning, but because they were doing evil. If they had just been sinning, they would not have been destroyed.
4. It will change your outlook toward ecclesiastical or church separation. Revelation 2:1, 2, "Unto the angel of the church of
Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars."
The stars are the preachers, and the candlesticks are the churches. The word, "bear," means "to hold up." They could not hold up under the load of those who were evil. The church at Ephesus would not associate with those who were evil. They would not allow them to be deacons or Sunday school teachers. They could not bear them! The Bible says that we are to be the friend of sinners; yet we are told not to tolerate those who are evil.
The church is to reach every sinner we possibly can. We are to lift up all of the fallen we can. We are to reach every drunkard, harlot, drug addict and fallen sinner we can, but we are not to bear those who are evil nor associate with them.
God commended the church at Ephesus for refusing to bear those who are evil. Those who are trying to hurt people should not be respected by the church; yet there are pastors by the hundreds who are trying to hurt each others. That is always wrong. Even our chastening is to be for the sake of correction.
Romans 16:17, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them." We are to avoid people who cause divisions. A dear, sweet, Christian lady who was a member of our church in Garland, Texas, ran into an evil couple one day who had slandered our church, spread vicious lies and left the church. They said to her, "We understand that you have lost some members recently."
She replied to them, "We do not consider everybody who leaves our church to be a loss." She turned and walked away from them. That is exactly what the Bible teaches us to do!
5. It will change your outlook toward fellowship. Proverbs 2:11, 12, "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things." Discretion and understanding should deliver you from being associated with evil people. The Bible says that if you have any common sense, you will not run with them. That is clear enough; you should not have to be told again!
Proverbs 4:14-1 6, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall."
Who are these evil men? These are people trying to hurt somebody for whatever reason. That is evil and we are not to associate with those types of people.
6. It will change your outlook toward child discipline. If your child loses his or her temper, that is sin. However, if your child tries to hurt another child, that is evil. When your child does wrong, decide if it was sin or evil before you punish him. If it is evil, you have probably not punished him properly for sin. Always punish evil more severely than sin.
7. It will change your ideas about sanctification. A person cannot live above sin, but he can live above evil. That is a great goal for us. We cannot reach the place in our lives that we do not sin, but we can determine not to do evil!
II Timothy 4:18, 'And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
9. It will change your ideas on the unpardonable sin. In Mark 3, these men knew that Jesus did not have an unclean spirit. They had seen Him feed the 5,000; yet they said that the Devil made Him do these works. It was a premeditated desire to hurt the Saviour. Jesus stopped them and proclaimed it to be the one thing that would not be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come.
10. It will give you hope when you have sinned.
11. It will give you incentive to forsake sin quickly before it becomes evil.
12. It will give you hope in your thought life. If you have an evil thought that harbors in your mind, soon it will lead you to do something premeditated which makes it evil. Get all sinful thoughts out before that happens!
The conclusion of all these things is simple: (1) Forsake all sin immediately; and (2) Do not associate with evil people.
Mercy does not replace justice. If you show mercy to your child, it does not mean that you do not punish the child when he has done wrong. Mercy does not take away punishment, nor does it take away justice. Mercy is a part of justice. Let me give you six truths concerning mercy. These statements are almost synonymous.
1. Mercy does not operate in the place of justice.
2. Mercy and justice never oppose each other.
3. Mercy always operates within the boundary of justice.
4. Mercy is not overlooking or withholding punishment. If mercy were overlooking judgment, then mercy would not be just. God is never for anything that is not just. The greatest characteristic of God is not His love, but His righteousness and justice. If mercy were the withholding of punishment, then mercy would be unfair to all of those who had been punished for the same deed.
God never acts unjustly!
An unenforced rule is no rule at all. Friends of mine will sometimes ask me to help get their child out of some trouble at the college. I cannot do it because it would not be just. It would be unfair to others who had been punished for the same offence. I cannot break a rule in order to do someone a favor.
5. Justice always comes before mercy. Micah 6:8, "He hath shewed thee, Oman, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Notice how the Christian life is wrapped up into one package in that passage. God requires three things of us: (1) Do justly; (2) Love mercy; and (3) Walk humbly. Justice comes first. It always does!
6. Mercy and truth always go together. Mercy never operates outside the boundary of justice. Mercy is the proper treatment one receives when justice is administered. Mercy is the adverb that describes the way justice is given. Mercy is the method. It is the way you do right.
Mercy is that which prevents us from inflicting judgment on someone for a rule which was created after the offence was committed.
2. Mercy is that which does not automatically believe an accusation made against someone. When someone on my staff comes to me with an accusation against another staff member, I always defend the accused. Why? I want to be merciful.
3. Mercy prevents premature punishment. Mercy gives someone a chance for a fair trial before he is punished. It is what causes us to follow a process of fairness before administering punishment. It is what gives a child an opportunity to tell his side of the story before being spanked. Mercy gives a teenager an opportunity to explain why he came home late before being yelled at. Mercy is the restraint that makes you wait to make your decision until the trial is over. It prevents you from "blowing your stack" at someone. Mercy gives someone who has been accused of doing something wrong a fair trial before judgment is passed.
4. Mercy does not want to punish.
5. Mercy does not look for guilt. Anytime a public official is accused of doing some wrong, or is on trial, I hope he is innocent.
An accusation is not a guilty verdict! Mercy gives the accused the benefit of the doubt. Mercy does not believe it just because an accusation has been made. Mercy does not condemn someone until that person has had a fair trial and has been proven to be guilty. Mercy does not anticipate guilt or desire guilt.
6. Mercy watches to prevent excessive punishment. Mercy prevents you from punishing your child too severely for doing something wrong. Mercy keeps you from reacting harshly in anger. If a child breaks a vase, the cost of that vase should have nothing to do with the punishment of the child. If you told the child not to touch it, then touching it is the crime, not breaking it. The punishment should be the same whether the vase is expensive or inexpensive. The value would not be an issue in the judgment.
Mercy is what restrains you from over punishing because you are personally offended, and it keeps you from overreacting while you are offended.
7. Mercy is kind and loving treatment while justice is being administered. It is the way justice is administered. It is a weeping parent spanking a disobedient child and then hugging him after the punishment has been finished. It is the manner and method that justice is inflicted.
8. Mercy is helping the punished one during his punishment. It is not forsaking a person during his time of punishment.
9. Mercy allows for self-inflicted punishment when no law has been broken. Elaine Colsten is the proofreader at our church. There is no law concerning making a proofreading error; yet, if she makes a mistake, she inflicts severe discipline upon herself. I never need to correct or judge her because she inflicts judgment upon herself. There are others who make mistakes and do not repent that quickly. I have to go to them and seek repentance for their mistake. Mercy allows for self-inflicted repentance when an error has been made but no law is violated.
10. Mercy is the restoring of the punished after the punishment is complete. Mercy is not branding a child for the rest of his school years for something he did in the second grade. Mercy is the restoring of an individual after the punishment is complete.
Hosea 6:1-3, "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth."
The writer is saying that we have sinned and God has torn us; yet, after He has torn us, He will heal us. He has smitten us for our sin, but He will bind us back together. God punishes us for sin, but when that punishment is over, God heals that which He has broken.
Mercy keeps you from holding it in your heart. It gives the child who has been expelled from school a chance when he returns. Mercy is not always pronouncing judgment on someone for a crime or a sin for which he has already been punished.
11. Mercy ends the punishment when the payment is complete. One of the greatest injustices in America's history is the way President Nixon has been treated. He paid the penalty for what he did; yet, people continue to beat him like a dead dog. He did many good things, and he should be judged for all he did, not just for his mistakes. When I saw him say good-bye to his staff, get into the helicopter, and fly away, I said in my heart, "He has paid the penalty! Now, we should forgive him." He should not be consigned to exile for the rest of his life. That is not mercy!
God wants everyone to receive justice, but never out of the vengeance and hatred of men's hearts. As long as a person can be handled decently and respond properly, we are to judge him with love and dignity.
At Hyles-Anderson College we have a system called "the host system." We did not always have that plan in effect. Several years ago a group of area young men decided to infiltrate our college in an attempt to ruin our young ladies. Somehow they got onto our campus and began to hang around some of the girls. I did not know about it until we had to expel a young lady for misbehaving with one of the boys.
The expelled young lady's father was a pastor, and shortly after she was expelled, I was to preach in his church. I really dreaded going and having to face this pastor whose own daughter we had expelled. When I arrived, I had lunch with the pastor and his daughter. She had already been punished and did not deserve to be punished more!
After we finished eating, I asked the pastor if I could talk to his daughter. He excused himself and left me alone with his daughter at the table in the restaurant. I told her that I wanted her to help me by telling me how she got into trouble and how we could prevent it from happening to others. That young lady helped me draw up the initial plans for the host system designed to protect the young ladies at our college. Mercy allowed me to turn her punishment into a positive plan of action.
People who have made mistakes must be penalized, but they deserve to be treated with mercy. Mercy is a wonderful Saviour Who looks down and says in I John 2:1, 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." God in His mercy will run to our side, pick us up and love us, even after He had to knock us down.
Let me define several of the words in this passage. "Recompense" means "giving back." If someone does you evil, you are not to give it back to him. "Avenge" means "justice." We are not to seek our own justice. "Vengeance" has the same root word as "avenge," and so it also means "justice." Justice is up to God. "Repay" refers back to the word "recompense," which means "to give back."
'Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12.1 7-21
God is saying that we are not to give back evil to those who do evil to us. Justice is not our responsibility, but God's. He will repay or give back evil to those who do evil to us. We are not to take it into our hands to do so. It is up to us to let God take care of justice.
I was in a church in Pennsylvania where a youth pastor decided to rebel against the preacher. He took about 50 people and started a church across town. The week prior to that, I was in another church where 40 or 50 people took off and started another church because they were disgruntled with the pastor. Three weeks earlier I was in a church where about 30 people had become upset and left to start a church. In most cases, the people involved were sorry, and the churches that they started have done almost nothing! One of those three churches no longer has a pastor.
Who are these evil people that caused trouble in these churches? They are people just like you and me. They are people who were once happy with their church. They are people who followed the Devil's progression of evil and did not win the battle against evil. These are not usually wicked people. They once loved their church and their pastor, but something happened, and they lost the battle between good and evil.
Evil is that which injures someone else. Good is that which benefits someone else. You are not a good person because of what you are. You are a good person because of what you do. There is a battle going on now between good and evil. It is a battle going on in your life.
1. This battle has been going on since the Garden of Eden. In fact, it started in the Garden of Eden when God said to Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That means that Adam and Eve did not have the knowledge of how to hurt anybody. They knew only how to benefit each other. Adam could only benefit Eve, and Eve could only benefit Adam because they had no knowledge of anything, but of benefiting each other.
2. Satan promised in Genesis 3:5 that if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, they would know both good and evil. Satan was trying to introduce them to know how to do evil. They had not had that capacity before, but by eating of the tree, they would know how to hurt each other and to do evil.
3. God saw it. Genesis 3:22, "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man Is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." God realized that they had eaten of the tree and had the capacity to do evil. The war between good and evil began in the Garden of Eden, and from that day until now, everybody has had the capacity to either benefit each other or hurt each other. There is a constant warfare in your life either to be of benefit in people's lives or to hurt them.
4. Joseph fought the battle between good and evil benefiting people or hurting people. Of course, he did good to his brothers, even though they had done evil to him.
5. When entering the Promised Land, God told His people that those who knew good and evil would never see the Promised Land, so no adults ever saw it, except for Joshua and Caleb.
Deuteronomy 1:35, "Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers."
6. David fought the battle between hurting people and helping people. I Samuel 25:21, "Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good."
7. Paul fought a battle between benefiting people and hurting people. He did not say that it was a battle between sin and righteousness but between good and evil. Romans 7:21, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."
8. The battle between good and evil increases. Hebrews 5:14, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
9. The battle continued in the New Testament church over whether to hurt people or to benefit them. III John 11, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."
Sin is not evil. Evil is a form of sin, but all sin is not evil. Evil is that part of sin which wants to hurt somebody. We know that good causes evil. We know that good is the only thing that overcomes evil, and that causes more evil and creates a need for more good. It keeps going. Now consider these three things: (I) Evil cannot conquer you. I John 4:4b, "...greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Ultimate good will conquer ultimate evil; (2) No one can destroy you, except you; (3) No one's actions can destroy you; only your reactions can cause you to self-destruct. You are the only person who can destroy you. Someone can provoke you to self-destruct. You self-destruct when you lose the battle between good (helping people) and evil (hurting people). Only you can cause that to happen. As long as you keep on doing more good when evil comes your way, evil can never destroy you, for doing evil has a limit, but doing good has no limit!
Let me show you how Satan works to cause you to react in a way that will cause self-destruction. If you can figure out how to react, you can never be destroyed by evil. Satan has certain ways he uses to get you to react wrongly. If you can find out what he does and correct it, you can keep from being destroyed by his evil.
The Progression of
Self-Destruction
1. First comes the "outside
evil." Can the outside evil destroy you? No! Only you can destroy yourself.
However, if the evil can cause you to do evil, then you have rendered evil for
evil. That is when you must do good. As soon as evil comes from the outside,
that is the time to stop it. If you do not stop it, the Devil has other evil to
follow it. That is the time to pour on the good, not just on them but on
everybody. If you render evil for evil, you have
self-destructed. Your reaction to
evil's action is all that can destroy. Nobody can destroy a church except the
church.
If you are doing good, there are several things the Devil cannot do. He cannot defeat you from within because "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Satan cannot conquer you. You are doing good. In response to your doing good, people will try to do harm to you. One reason is, you put them in a bad light. You make them look bad. If a church is experiencing great success, another church that is struggling may begin to do harm to the successful church, because the church that is succeeding is making the other church look bad. The evil comes from the outside to try to destroy you. Remember, overcome evil with good.
This may shock you, but the Bible does not say to overcome evil with prayer. I am for prayer, but the way you overcome evil is with good or by benefiting people. The Bible does not say to overcome evil with Bible study. It does not say overcome evil with meditation. You overcome evil by doing good. Good not only conquers evil, but you will be so busy doing good that you will not have the time to do evil. The time you would have used to do evil will be used up for good.
2. Next comes the "inside evil." If you wait before you do good in order to conquer outside evil, evil will gain a partner — inside evil. You will be tempted to render evil for evil. A desire to do evil will come if you do not quickly do good in order to conquer the evil. When someone does you evil, QUICKLY rush for the good to overcome it. The longer you go before doing good to quench evil, the harder it is going to be to quench it.
I know good Bible students and teachers who have evil in their hearts and are trying to hurt people. The Bible alone is not the answer in this case. I have known brilliant Bible teachers who have tried to destroy men of God. They did not do good to benefit people, and they did not overcome the eternal evil that makes them want to hurt somebody.
3. Next comes "spoken evil." It will come if the previous one is not overcome with good. It begins by whispering evil too often about someone. The same person who once would have taught a Sunday school class against speaking evil and would have been against those who did speak evil suddenly is speaking evil. What happened? He did not overcome evil with good. It came inside, and he began to hate, envy, get angry, and then he began to speak evil himself. Many good people are now speaking evil of someone because they rendered evil with evil instead of with good.
4. Next comes "group evil." When you get to the group evil, it is almost always too late to overcome. Your time for doing good is used in doing evil. You have attempted to destroy someone else, and in so doing, you have helped to destroy yourself. You are the one who is going to be destroyed, unless you can cause the person you are trying to destroy to self-destruct.
You do good, and evil comes, so you do more good, and more evil comes. You keep doing good to keep yourself from self-destructing. The destruction will not come by those trying to do you evil. You can prevent your destruction entirely if you can keep yourself from self-destructing.
Wherever you are in this progression, stop before you self-destruct! The progression will either be good, evil, more good, more evil, more good, more evil, more good, etc. Or, it will be good, outside evil, inside evil, spoken evil, group evil! If you are in the wrong progression, quickly get busy doing much good. It's your only way out of evil! Do you know why it is almost impossible to cure someone involved in group evil? Before it is evil, you can change it by yourself. Once it becomes group evil, you have to go against your peers to change. That is almost impossible to do!
"But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them." II Timothy 3:10-14We already know that there is a difference between sin and evil. In this chapter let me give you seven statements concerning the progression of evil.
1. We know that we all are sinners. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
2. Nobody wants to become an evil person.
3. We cannot live above sin, but we can live above evil.
4. Becoming an evil person is like becoming addicted to any sin. Sin is the drink. Evil is the alcoholic. Evil is the result of constant sin. Nobody chooses to be a drug addict. A person chooses to take drugs one time. Nobody chooses to be an alcoholic. A person chooses to take one drink. Nobody chooses to be "hot headed." A person chooses to lose his temper one time. Becoming an evil person is to be addicted to evil like one of these is addicted to his sin.
5. As with all of the other sins, becoming an evildoer does not happen overnight. A person does not become a drug addict overnight. It takes a long time of trying the drugs over and over a little at a time to become addicted. The same is true in becoming evil. You do not become an evildoer overnight. You sin and sin until it becomes evil and you want to hurt somebody.
6. No one plans to become an evildoer. Nobody takes a drink to become an alcoholic. Nobody takes drugs to become a drug addict. Nobody sins to become an evil person. It never starts out as the intent.
7. As with other sins, there is a progression in becoming an evildoer. Therefore, for the rest of this chapter I want to explain how this progression takes place. I am going to explain how you begin as a sinner and end up as an evil person, or as the Bible calls it, "an evil man." There is nothing worse than that. None of us want to do evil, but there is a road to becoming an evil person just as there is a road to becoming alcoholic or drug addict. Let me tell you how it happens.
Stages in the
Progression of Evil
1. You are a sinner. Everybody is even
at this point. Everything we do that is righteous is tainted by sin. We cannot
help but live there. Even the Bible says that all of us are there. This is where
we are trying to stay. At this point we are trying to keep from becoming evil.
We cannot help being where we are. We cannot help being sinners, but we can keep
from becoming evil.
A sinful man is one who misses the mark, stumbles and falls and makes mistakes. An evil man is one who is bent on hurting someone and who has a lifestyle of injuring others. No Christian should ever want to hurt anybody. Consequently, we want to avoid becoming evil. If you do not want to get to a destination, the best thing to do is to avoid the road that gets you there. Every evil person at one time was just a sinner. What is the next step from where we are as sinners to where we do not want to be as an evil person?
2. You start being with evil men. The first step you will take toward becoming an evil man will be to be around evil men. If you spend your time with people who criticize and hurt people, you are on the road to becoming an evil person.
Proverbs 4:14-1 6, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall."
3. You hear the evil report. This is what you will get around evil men — evil reports. If you are around evil men, they will criticize or slander and try to destroy somebody. The Bible says that we are to be the friend of sinners, but it never says we are to be friends with evil men! It says to stay away from them! Being around evil men is the first step to being like them.
When people try to tell me evil about someone, I tell them I do not want to know because I do not want to get on the road that leads to becoming evil. These evil men may act like they are trying to help the person they are slandering, but what they really want to do is to give you their evil report. You had better run from them!
4. You will have an evil heart. Somehow we think that we can get around evil men and listen to evil reports without getting an evil heart. Eventually it will get inside of you, and you will start thinking about the evil report and wondering whether or not it is true. Finally you begin to logic it into being true. Soon you become a suspicious and judgmental person. Jeremiah 3:17, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart."
You do not want to be the kind of person who hurts people. You want to help people, but you are on the road to evil because your heart is beginning to be affected. It is not good enough to guard yourself from their reports; you should guard yourself by staying away from the evil people! Just as God's Word can be hid in your heart, evil reports likewise can be hid in your heart. When you hear evil, it does not leave. It is stored in your mind and heart!
5. You then start evil speaking. Evil speaking is not cursing someone; it is saying something that is going to hurt another person. I Peter 4:4, "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you."
Evil men will think that it is strange that you will not associate with them. They assume that you think you are better than they are. You are better. A sinner is better than an evil man! You are too good to run with them! The wise thing for you to do is to worry about getting your sin forgiven and not to speak evil of what you see or hear about somebody else.
You do not have to want to hurt somebody to do evil. You can simply repeat what someone who is evil told you. People who do not want to hurt often hurt more than others because of a desire inside of us that makes us want to be the first one to tell something bad about another person.
6. Then you do evil deeds. II John 11, "For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." The Bible says that if you even put a blessing on the evil man, you become guilty of partaking in his evil deeds. You are not evil yet, but you are on the way by partaking in the evil deeds of others. Do not say, "God bless you," to the evil man, for his deeds are cursed, not blessed!
7. You now walk an evil way. Now that you are on the path toward becoming evil, evil begins to be a way of life for you. Evil has become a habit, even though you never intended for it to happen. Maybe you started out only intending to help an evil person. He does not need your help. He needs you to shun him.
Proverbs 8:13, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."
8. You then walk in evil ways. Soon you will not just be involved in hurting one person. You will be trying to hurt many people. You never intended to give your life to hurting people, but you started hanging around evil men and listening to their evil reports. That evil report lodged in your heart; you told it to others, joining the evil men in trying to destroy that person, and it became a way of life. Now, you are the type of person who actually enjoys hurting people.
II Kings 17:13, "Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
9. Then you become an evildoer. I Peter 4:15, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters."
Do you want to run around with an unrepentant murderer? God puts evildoers in the same bracket with murderers and thieves. I would enjoy running around with a bank robber as much as I would with a critic. If you have ever really been slandered, you know that it would be no worse for a man to take a gun and shoot you than to slander you. Yet, now you have become one of these evildoers, and you never intended for it to happen!
10. You are now an evil person. You did not have to become evil, but you followed the progression. Think about your heart. Are you trying to hurt anybody? You may justify it because he tried to hurt you first, but the Bible says not to render evil for evil. You are to render good for evil.
Where in this progression are you? Once you get started on this road, it becomes harder and harder to stop because one leads to the next.
11. It will become worse and worse. II Timothy 3:13, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse...." Once you have become an evil person, you will not stop. You will get worse and worse. It will never stop!
For your Christian testimony and for your own spiritual growth, stay only a sinful person. Every time you sin, confess it, ask God to forgive you, and forsake it immediately! Do not allow that sin to lead you to evil. You cannot start down the road without arriving at the destination!
Where are you in the progression of evil?
No doctrine will change your outlook on the Bible more and throw more light on other Bible doctrines than an understanding of the difference between sin and evil. The words for "sin" are never crossed with the word, "evil," in the Bible. If you understand that, it will drastically affect almost all of the other doctrines in the Bible. Let me show you 12 examples.
1. It will change your outlook toward sin in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:9, 'And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
Genesis 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 3:5, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:22, 'And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever."
Notice that it was not the tree of the knowledge of "good and sin," but of "good and evil." Satan wants you to sin, but much more than that, he wants you to keep sinning until you begin to do evil by conspiring to harm others. He wants you to do wrong to others, not just to yourself.
2. It will change your outlook on David's sin. Psalm 51:4, 'Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." In a moment of passion, David sinned with Bathsheba; yet, in a premeditated act, he plotted to do evil by having Uriah killed.
3. It will change your outlook toward the flood. Genesis 6:5, 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
God saw the wickedness of men on the earth. That was sin. Yet, God also saw that the imaginations of man's heart were evil continually. God chastens sin to correct man, but He hates evil even more. In churches all across America, an evil is committed against those who sin. God hates the sin; but even more, He hates the evil committed against the one who sinned.
Consider the story of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees brought her to Jesus and accused her to Him. She had sinned, but they were trying to have her killed. Their act was evil and was worse than her sin.
Jesus saved His most scathing remarks for those who were doing evil and trying to hurt somebody. He severely reprimanded the Pharisees!
Why did God send the flood? He did so for two reasons: sin and evil. Anytime God destroyed a people, He did so, not because they were sinning, but because they were doing evil. If they had just been sinning, they would not have been destroyed.
4. It will change your outlook toward ecclesiastical or church separation. Revelation 2:1, 2, "Unto the angel of the church of
Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars."
The stars are the preachers, and the candlesticks are the churches. The word, "bear," means "to hold up." They could not hold up under the load of those who were evil. The church at Ephesus would not associate with those who were evil. They would not allow them to be deacons or Sunday school teachers. They could not bear them! The Bible says that we are to be the friend of sinners; yet we are told not to tolerate those who are evil.
The church is to reach every sinner we possibly can. We are to lift up all of the fallen we can. We are to reach every drunkard, harlot, drug addict and fallen sinner we can, but we are not to bear those who are evil nor associate with them.
God commended the church at Ephesus for refusing to bear those who are evil. Those who are trying to hurt people should not be respected by the church; yet there are pastors by the hundreds who are trying to hurt each others. That is always wrong. Even our chastening is to be for the sake of correction.
Romans 16:17, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them." We are to avoid people who cause divisions. A dear, sweet, Christian lady who was a member of our church in Garland, Texas, ran into an evil couple one day who had slandered our church, spread vicious lies and left the church. They said to her, "We understand that you have lost some members recently."
She replied to them, "We do not consider everybody who leaves our church to be a loss." She turned and walked away from them. That is exactly what the Bible teaches us to do!
5. It will change your outlook toward fellowship. Proverbs 2:11, 12, "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things." Discretion and understanding should deliver you from being associated with evil people. The Bible says that if you have any common sense, you will not run with them. That is clear enough; you should not have to be told again!
Proverbs 4:14-1 6, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall."
Who are these evil men? These are people trying to hurt somebody for whatever reason. That is evil and we are not to associate with those types of people.
6. It will change your outlook toward child discipline. If your child loses his or her temper, that is sin. However, if your child tries to hurt another child, that is evil. When your child does wrong, decide if it was sin or evil before you punish him. If it is evil, you have probably not punished him properly for sin. Always punish evil more severely than sin.
7. It will change your ideas about sanctification. A person cannot live above sin, but he can live above evil. That is a great goal for us. We cannot reach the place in our lives that we do not sin, but we can determine not to do evil!
II Timothy 4:18, 'And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
9. It will change your ideas on the unpardonable sin. In Mark 3, these men knew that Jesus did not have an unclean spirit. They had seen Him feed the 5,000; yet they said that the Devil made Him do these works. It was a premeditated desire to hurt the Saviour. Jesus stopped them and proclaimed it to be the one thing that would not be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come.
10. It will give you hope when you have sinned.
11. It will give you incentive to forsake sin quickly before it becomes evil.
12. It will give you hope in your thought life. If you have an evil thought that harbors in your mind, soon it will lead you to do something premeditated which makes it evil. Get all sinful thoughts out before that happens!
The conclusion of all these things is simple: (1) Forsake all sin immediately; and (2) Do not associate with evil people.
'Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps." Psalm 85:10-13Most people think that mercy is an evasion of justice. They think that mercy is not giving a person what he deserves. That is totally untrue! Mercy has nothing to do with evading or avoiding justice. Justice and truth go together, and truth and mercy meet together. They do not conflict with one another.
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face." Psalm 89:14
Mercy does not replace justice. If you show mercy to your child, it does not mean that you do not punish the child when he has done wrong. Mercy does not take away punishment, nor does it take away justice. Mercy is a part of justice. Let me give you six truths concerning mercy. These statements are almost synonymous.
1. Mercy does not operate in the place of justice.
2. Mercy and justice never oppose each other.
3. Mercy always operates within the boundary of justice.
4. Mercy is not overlooking or withholding punishment. If mercy were overlooking judgment, then mercy would not be just. God is never for anything that is not just. The greatest characteristic of God is not His love, but His righteousness and justice. If mercy were the withholding of punishment, then mercy would be unfair to all of those who had been punished for the same deed.
God never acts unjustly!
An unenforced rule is no rule at all. Friends of mine will sometimes ask me to help get their child out of some trouble at the college. I cannot do it because it would not be just. It would be unfair to others who had been punished for the same offence. I cannot break a rule in order to do someone a favor.
5. Justice always comes before mercy. Micah 6:8, "He hath shewed thee, Oman, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Notice how the Christian life is wrapped up into one package in that passage. God requires three things of us: (1) Do justly; (2) Love mercy; and (3) Walk humbly. Justice comes first. It always does!
6. Mercy and truth always go together. Mercy never operates outside the boundary of justice. Mercy is the proper treatment one receives when justice is administered. Mercy is the adverb that describes the way justice is given. Mercy is the method. It is the way you do right.
How Mercy Works
Within the Framework of Justice
1. Mercy is a guard to prevent
punishment when there is no law or rule. When I first came to pastor the First
Baptist Church of Hammond, there was no rule against Sunday school teachers or
deacons smoking. Soon after I came, a rule was instituted that they could not
smoke. There were already those who smoked who were deacons or Sunday school
teachers before the rule was made. It would not have been just to enforce that
rule upon them because there was no such rule when they were enlisted. I allowed
them to continue in their positions, although no new deacons or teachers were
enlisted who smoked. Soon, the others quit smoking or drifted away.
Mercy is that which prevents us from inflicting judgment on someone for a rule which was created after the offence was committed.
2. Mercy is that which does not automatically believe an accusation made against someone. When someone on my staff comes to me with an accusation against another staff member, I always defend the accused. Why? I want to be merciful.
3. Mercy prevents premature punishment. Mercy gives someone a chance for a fair trial before he is punished. It is what causes us to follow a process of fairness before administering punishment. It is what gives a child an opportunity to tell his side of the story before being spanked. Mercy gives a teenager an opportunity to explain why he came home late before being yelled at. Mercy is the restraint that makes you wait to make your decision until the trial is over. It prevents you from "blowing your stack" at someone. Mercy gives someone who has been accused of doing something wrong a fair trial before judgment is passed.
4. Mercy does not want to punish.
5. Mercy does not look for guilt. Anytime a public official is accused of doing some wrong, or is on trial, I hope he is innocent.
An accusation is not a guilty verdict! Mercy gives the accused the benefit of the doubt. Mercy does not believe it just because an accusation has been made. Mercy does not condemn someone until that person has had a fair trial and has been proven to be guilty. Mercy does not anticipate guilt or desire guilt.
6. Mercy watches to prevent excessive punishment. Mercy prevents you from punishing your child too severely for doing something wrong. Mercy keeps you from reacting harshly in anger. If a child breaks a vase, the cost of that vase should have nothing to do with the punishment of the child. If you told the child not to touch it, then touching it is the crime, not breaking it. The punishment should be the same whether the vase is expensive or inexpensive. The value would not be an issue in the judgment.
Mercy is what restrains you from over punishing because you are personally offended, and it keeps you from overreacting while you are offended.
7. Mercy is kind and loving treatment while justice is being administered. It is the way justice is administered. It is a weeping parent spanking a disobedient child and then hugging him after the punishment has been finished. It is the manner and method that justice is inflicted.
8. Mercy is helping the punished one during his punishment. It is not forsaking a person during his time of punishment.
9. Mercy allows for self-inflicted punishment when no law has been broken. Elaine Colsten is the proofreader at our church. There is no law concerning making a proofreading error; yet, if she makes a mistake, she inflicts severe discipline upon herself. I never need to correct or judge her because she inflicts judgment upon herself. There are others who make mistakes and do not repent that quickly. I have to go to them and seek repentance for their mistake. Mercy allows for self-inflicted repentance when an error has been made but no law is violated.
10. Mercy is the restoring of the punished after the punishment is complete. Mercy is not branding a child for the rest of his school years for something he did in the second grade. Mercy is the restoring of an individual after the punishment is complete.
Hosea 6:1-3, "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth."
The writer is saying that we have sinned and God has torn us; yet, after He has torn us, He will heal us. He has smitten us for our sin, but He will bind us back together. God punishes us for sin, but when that punishment is over, God heals that which He has broken.
Mercy keeps you from holding it in your heart. It gives the child who has been expelled from school a chance when he returns. Mercy is not always pronouncing judgment on someone for a crime or a sin for which he has already been punished.
11. Mercy ends the punishment when the payment is complete. One of the greatest injustices in America's history is the way President Nixon has been treated. He paid the penalty for what he did; yet, people continue to beat him like a dead dog. He did many good things, and he should be judged for all he did, not just for his mistakes. When I saw him say good-bye to his staff, get into the helicopter, and fly away, I said in my heart, "He has paid the penalty! Now, we should forgive him." He should not be consigned to exile for the rest of his life. That is not mercy!
God wants everyone to receive justice, but never out of the vengeance and hatred of men's hearts. As long as a person can be handled decently and respond properly, we are to judge him with love and dignity.
At Hyles-Anderson College we have a system called "the host system." We did not always have that plan in effect. Several years ago a group of area young men decided to infiltrate our college in an attempt to ruin our young ladies. Somehow they got onto our campus and began to hang around some of the girls. I did not know about it until we had to expel a young lady for misbehaving with one of the boys.
The expelled young lady's father was a pastor, and shortly after she was expelled, I was to preach in his church. I really dreaded going and having to face this pastor whose own daughter we had expelled. When I arrived, I had lunch with the pastor and his daughter. She had already been punished and did not deserve to be punished more!
After we finished eating, I asked the pastor if I could talk to his daughter. He excused himself and left me alone with his daughter at the table in the restaurant. I told her that I wanted her to help me by telling me how she got into trouble and how we could prevent it from happening to others. That young lady helped me draw up the initial plans for the host system designed to protect the young ladies at our college. Mercy allowed me to turn her punishment into a positive plan of action.
People who have made mistakes must be penalized, but they deserve to be treated with mercy. Mercy is a wonderful Saviour Who looks down and says in I John 2:1, 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." God in His mercy will run to our side, pick us up and love us, even after He had to knock us down.
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