SIn and Evil
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
(Matt 6:13)
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
The Apostle Paul writes: ”All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) Augustine (Foley 2006, 9) argued that we are born in sin. The early church routinely practiced exorcism as part of the baptismal service because: “The exorcisms [meant] to face evil, to acknowledge its reality, to know its power, and to proclaim the power of God to destroy it.” (Schmemann 1973, 70-71)
Sin Defined
Sin is a broad term encompassing several related ideas: sin, trespass, and iniquity.
In New Testament Greek, sin is an archery term that means to fall short of the mark. When we strive to do good, but give into temptation, we sin.
Trespass is a legal term that implies the breaking of a rule or law. Driving at ninety miles per hour on a road with a posted speed limit of fifty-five miles per hour is a trespass.
Iniquity, like sin, can also take a broad meaning but it is helpful to think of iniquity as failing to do something good. The most famous case of the bystander problem occurred in New York City (Queens) in 1964 when thirty-eight people witnessed the stabbing death of Kitty Genovese and no one came to her aid or even bothered to call the police (White 2004, 155). Watching someone get murdered may not be illegal, but it is an iniquity.
The Importance of Purpose
James K. A. Smith offers an interesting ethical insight into the nature of evil. An instrument (or person) is good when it is used with its purpose in view and evil when it is not.
Smith asks how one would evaluate a flute used to roast marshmallows over a fire— we flinch this image of a misused flute. Why? The measure of a flute is how it is used to play music, not how well it roasts marshmallows. Smith (2016, 89) observes: “Virtue is bound up with a sense of excellence: a virtue is a disposition that inclines us to achieve the good for which we are made.” Being created in the image of God implies that we are on a mission in worship to develop the virtues through ritual and sacrament that match God’s intent for our lives (Smith 2016, 88).
Rick Warren (2002, 17) put it this way: “You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.” (Col 1:16)
Pejorative Evil
Evil is often defined today as the absence of good. When God created light, he declared it to be good (Gen 1:3). The absence of light, darkness, could be thought of as evil—the absence of good without a pejorative inference. True evil is, however, never simply the absence of good.
Viktor Frankl (2008, 92) was a Jewish psychiatrist interned in the concentration camps by the Germans during the Second World War. His tips to prospective camp inmates on how to survive the camps offer insight into the nature of pejorative evil:
Don’t draw attention to yourself from sadistic guards.
Shave daily, walk briskly, and stand up straight to look healthy enough for work.
Applaud profusely when sadistic guards read poetry.
In walking in formation, stay in the middle or the front to avoid those that stumble and the beatings that follow.
Offer free psychiatric counseling to guards in need of it.
The key term in this description is sadistic. Evil pollutes those that touch it encouraging further evil—those abused often themselves become abusers.
This cycle of evil is not an urban legend. Stanfard (2008, 204) reports that: “Approximately 70 percent of borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients report that they were sexuality abused as a child.” The male BPD patients are the classic wife beaters, while the female BDP patients specialize in emotional abuse. In either form, spouses of BPD patients are at a high risk of suicide.
Besetting Sin
Besetting sin—chronic sin—begins to capture the true nature of evil. Evil begins to reveal itself when sin becomes part of our identity. The evil person cannot help themselves because we all live out our identities. When evil becomes institutionalized, some people practice it openly while others advert their eyes. Denying the reality of evil is on par with denying the Holocaust.
In the context of institutionalized evil, many people avoid making decisions hoping that they can escape accountability for their actions. Hannah Arendt was a student of Martin Heidegger and German Jew who, having escaped Nazi death camps before coming to America, was asked to cover the Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem (1961) for the New Yorker magazine. Eichmann was the German officer who organized Adolf Hitler’s program of extermination of the Jews known as the Final Solution.
Arendt attended the trial, expecting to see a hateful, anti-Semite, only to discover that Eichmann appeared as more of a petty bureaucrat. The face of evil at the Eichmann trial was that of someone unable or unwilling to think for themselves (Arendt 1992, 97–101).Blamires (2005, 27) observed: “Eichmann is the archetype of our age, the supreme Organization Man. He kept the system going.” The discovery of interviews that Eichmann gave before he was captured that suggested Arendt had been duped, another aspect of the truly evil (Rosenthal 2011).
Satan in the Bible
Satan’s role in tempting us and promoting evil in the world is found throughout scripture. In the Garden of Eden, Satan is pictured as a snake who rebels against God and tempts others to sin by rebelling with him (Kline 2006, 302). God later advises Cain to be good because, otherwise, sin will strike like a snake crouching at your door (Gen 4:7).
Another important image of Satan is given in Job 1, where Satan is depicted as a ruthless prosecuting attorney in God’s court. Satan’s cruel lies slandered righteous Job. Still, Satan cannot afflict Job without first seeking God’s permission (Job 1:6-12). In spite of Satan’s cruelty, Job remains faithful. In the end, God not only acquits him of all of Satan’s charges, Job is rewarded for his faithful perseverance (Job 42:10).
In the synoptic gospels, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert where the devil tempts him (e.g. Luke 4:1-13). Much like Adam and Eve are tempted with food, the devil starts by trying to goad a hungry Jesus to turn a stone into bread. The devil tempts Jesus three times. Jesus cites scripture in response to each temptation. In the final temptation, the Devil’s temptation starts by misquoting scripture, but Jesus corrects the deception and resists the temptation (Nouwen 2002, 7–8).
Unlike Adam, Jesus remains faithful to God’s will in life and in death. Jesus’ death on the cross then fulfills the prophecy of Satan’s defeat (Gen 3:15) and pays the penalty for sin, so that we have been redeemed (Rom 5:12-14). Because the curse of sin is broken, the death penalty for sin has been rescinded (1 Cor 15:22). The resurrection, accordingly, proves that we have been reconciled with God.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus asks us to pray that we not be tempted and that we be delivered from evil. Because Satan must ask permission to tempt us, God can deny that petition and our deliverance is within his power. King David writes: “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” (Ps 16:1) Jesus has promised us that when we turn to him in weakness our salvation is secure (John 10:29).
References
Arendt, Hannah. 1992. Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1995. The Cost of Discipleship (Orig Pub 1937). New York: Simon and Schuster.
Arendt, Hannah. 1996. The Life of the Mind: The Groundbreaking Investigation of How We Think. New York: Harvest Book.
Blamires, Harry. 2005. The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? (Orig Pub 1963) Vancouver: Regent College Publishing.
Foley, Michael P. [editor] 2006. Augustine Confessions (Orig Pub 397 AD). 2nd Edition. Translated by F. J. Sheed (1942). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Frankl, Viktor E. . 2008. Man’s Search for Meaning: A Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust (Orig Pub 1946). Translated by Ilse Lasch. London: Rider.
Kline, Meredith G. 2006. Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers.
Nouwen, Henri J. M. 2002. In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.
Rosenthal, Alan. 2011. “Eichmann Revisited.” The Jerusalem Post. April 20. Online: https://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Jewish-World/Eichmann-Revisited. Accessed: December 3, 2018.
Schmemann, Alexander. 1973. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Smith, James K. A. 2016. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
Stanford, Matthew S. 2008. Grace for the Afflicted: Viewing Mental Illness Through the Eyes of Faith. Colorado Springs: Paternoster.
Warren, Rick. 2002. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
White, James Emery. 2004. Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
Sin and Evil
Also see:
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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