Overcoming Evil

They say, “knowledge is power.” But sometimes it’s not good to have too much power. The 18th century historian, John Dalberg is best known for his quote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…” We read in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve discovered how self-destructive the knowledge of evil can be.

When God created the earth, He built an infrastructure that could support human life. Everything from oxygen, to water, food sources, and even human relationships. But God had given a command that they should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s hard to imagine what life would be like without any knowledge of good or evil.

They had seen God’s good creation, but perhaps they had never participated in doing “good” for one another. Jesus is quoted in Acts 20:35 that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Almost as if to say, there is something wonderful about doing good.

But the other side of that is that there is something awful about doing evil. Why is sin so attractive if it’s so awful? Time will answer that question best of all. In the meantime, most of us experience a lot of regrets and pain associated with poor decisions – things that God would categorize as “evil.”

God’s word helps us know how to deal with those feelings of disappointment within ourselves, as well as the feelings of guilt, depression, and grief that tend to accompany the choices of sin. This time of year, many people deal with all kinds of emotions; some good, but some bad. Although, not every bad, sad, or lonely feeling is the consequence of a sinful decision, they often have a similar solution.

It’s God’s intention that we would discover the beauty of turning to Him and His word for encouragement and support during the lowest times in our lives. Therefore, knowledge of Him actually serves as a powerful tool against the power of sin and death, as Paul states in the following passage:

Romans 6:1-11, “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him. When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. So, you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” (NLT)

Just recognizing what hope Jesus brought to earth when he came to live, die, and overcome death. Who he is, and the love and grace he revealed to us is a powerful tool to help us overcome the woes of this world – during anytime of the year!