Fight Evil! Yes! But, Don't Mock Fallen Evil.

Fight Evil! Yes! But, Don't Mock Fallen Evil.

By Craig M. Szwed

It is very easy to say we need to fight against the evils of this world. It is more difficult to do so effectively. It is most difficult to be an effective and compassionate fighter and laborer for just causes, one who strives to please God even as one combats evil.

It is a very good thing to be on God's side and to labor or fight diligently for the many good and just causes that there are in this world, wherein we seek to resist the devil and evil, as well as the sin nature of humanity. Yet, there is always our own tendency to sin, even while we seek to do what is right (Romans 7:9-25). We, too often, rejoice in the destruction of the wicked who have sinned and perpetrated evil. When we revel in the destruction and suffering of the wicked, our pleasure does not please God, for even God takes no pleasure in their death (Ezekiel 33:11), because He wanted them to repent and be saved. He did not want them to choose to die in their sins.

God calls for guardians and laborers and fighters to do their respective parts in this life. Once we trust Him for His salvation we are all called to action, to fulfilling His desires, His works. We are not called to an easy life of pajamas and sleep. Instead, God gives us combat gear (Ephesians 6:10-17). How we act and think about our godly duties defines who we are, and will be evaluated accordingly by God, for reward, not for salvation. One is not a Christian or true believer in God's ways, as the Apostle Paul said, until one turns in "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). The thing that we must work toward first and foremost is calling one another to repentance and active faith in Christ. For without repentance and faith in those things to which God calls us, there is no pleasing Him (Hebrews 11, and Romans 1, 2, & 8), for faith is followed by salvation, which is followed by godly works.

God's calling to repentance touches us all, and yet we still respond our own way, affected by our experiences and desires, not necessarily in accord with God's wishes, as He points out in Ezekiel 33:1-20 (where He tells Israel to be careful about their responses to what He is saying):
¹Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
²Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
³If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
⁴Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
⁶But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
⁷So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
⁸When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
⁹Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
¹⁰Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
¹¹Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
¹²Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
¹³When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
¹⁴Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
¹⁵If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
¹⁶None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
¹⁷Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
¹⁸When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
¹⁹But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
²⁰Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.

It IS urgent for those of us who respond to God's call to be ready and willing to do whatever He has called us to do, whether spreading His Gospel, being a healer, a laborer, an administrator, or a soldier. We still need to check our motivations, for, because of our inclination to revel in the destruction of others, and particularly in that of evil-minded souls, God warns us all in Proverbs 24:17-18:
¹⁷Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
¹⁸Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.    

In other words, yes, we need to do that to which God calls us, which includes fighting and destroying evil. BUT, it is imcumbent upon everyone who abides in God, His Christ, and His Word, that we all seek to be of the same mind as God about the sad situation, when other souls have embraced evil and rejected the counsel of God, to their own destruction and torment. If, therefore, God is saddened by the death of the wicked, because they have rejected Him and His ways. It is incumbent upon us, who claim to believe in God and His Christ, that we be of like mind as God, about the death or destruction of evil-doers. We must remember that God warns us that our own sin nature causes us to rejoice in the death and destruction of wicked souls. No matter how needful their destruction may be, if we do not like to look at this the way that God does, then our argument is with Him alone.

How then should we express ourselves about the death or destruction of evil works and evil workers among us? We must look to God, to Christ, in humility and thanksgiving to Him for relieving us of the evil that was done to us, or in our midst, even as Jesus implied in what we call the "Lord's Prayer" (Matthew 6:13 & Luke 11:4), or in Psalm 23. Even when we are used by God as a selected instrument to stop evil works, we dare not take credit. God's use of us is only by His will, not our own. In the truth of His victory we are humbled. All praise and glory is due Him for stopping the evil, against which He used us.