Good and evil

Everyone agrees that a nurse who kills seven babies under her care in a hospital is guilty of horrible evil. Other examples of evil come readily to mind. Evil is real. But so is good. We all know some really good people, like the kind, reassuring and efficient nurses that have been taking care of me these last few days. 

Everyone knows the difference between good and evil; our conscience gives us this moral intuition. But when we complain about the wrong someone has done to us, they do not necessarily agree that what they did was wrong. They have a moral code different from ours. Indeed, with the rise of moral relativism, many think that what was considered immoral 50 years ago is perfectly okay now. Who is to say what’s right? Do good and evil alter over time? Can the individual just decide for himself? Are there no objective standards? 

The problem with moral relativism is that it tends to favour the easiest, most lax moral code for oneself – though one may have harsher standards when judging others! When a society as a whole has only relative standards to guide it, the tendency is therefore towards greater permissiveness. And if it continues unchecked, moral chaos will result. 

Neither atheism, nor science is able to move in and alter that downward trajectory. Moral reformers are generally religious people. In their efforts to uphold higher moral standards, they invoke God. It takes a prophetic voice to bring spiritual revival and ethical improvement. 

People in our generation in the West who enjoy the liberalising effects on moral values don’t want to listen to the challenge of Christian morality. But that is what is needed to stop the rot of a society where statistics show, in so many areas, the detrimental effects of liberalising moral norms.

We need both moral light and moral authority: God alone provides both. Whether we like it or not, we must face the fact that we are created by a good God to have an inner sense of good and evil. We have a God-given conscience that makes us understand that we ought to do good, and turn away from evil. Wisdom dictates that we listen to what God has to say in the area of good living.

It is a striking fact that Jesus’ first public preaching, recorded in Mark 1.15, is his call to “repent”. To repent means to rethink one’s moral situation, and to turn away from what is wrong. Or as Jesus also said, “Sin no more” (John 5.14). The call of the Christian gospel comes as a challenge to change one’s life-style, to commit to a better, purer, kinder and more righteous way of life, as Jesus defines it. The Gospel is much more than that – it centres on Jesus who, out of loving kindness towards us wayward sinners, came to give his life for us so that we might be forgiven. But the gracious offer of forgiveness is promised to those who repent and believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Maybe that’s something you need to do? Think about it. 

Clive Every-Clayton