My dear readers,

What characterises your life -- Evil or Good?

Proverbs 13:21: “Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.”

All of us are born sinners. All of us are born again righteous.

These marked differences are captured by Proverbs 13:21. Sinfulness and righteousness are invisible to the naked eye. We cannot penetrate beyond the surface of a person and see into his soul the way God alone can. Whether a person’s motives are pure or evil, we take everyone’s actions at face value and relate to all men with a big pinch of salt, called “the benefit of the doubt.” In this Christ-like manner, we do not behave like the world and be suspicious of every kind deed done in the church, or sceptical of every word spoken, thinking that behind that sweet smile lies the heart of a hungry wolf and that the service of everyone in the church is soaked in self-aggrandisement.

At the same time, we cannot be naïve and live as if we are already in heaven where there are no sins or sinners. Jesus warned that He sent all believers into the world as sheep among wolves! Jesus says in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” All believers must not be gullible. They must not let the witness of Christ in their lives to fall into sin because of their naivete. Jesus also warns us of dangerous men within the church who have cultic tendencies and will manipulate the lives of the gullible and lure them into cultic admiration. Acts 20:30: “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”

With the above explanation in mind, the Bible’s teaching is clear: as believers we must know our own heart to protect ourselves from deception and the evil prevalent in the world.

• Evil characterises a sinner’s life – It is not up to man to declare that he is not a sinner. Whoever makes such a declaration is arrogant, presumptuous, and, worst of all, delusional. Some sinners in the world know they are sinners but may not call themselves as such. They would rather consider themselves as either criminals or not criminals. They feel good about themselves as long as they are not criminal or do not get caught and be convicted as criminals. They walk as free men and might even sleep like babies at night. Sin, to them, is subjective. Since the world does not believe that absolute truths exist and everything is relative, who decides what constitutes a sin? Such a myopic perception of sin is understandable. The world is not a Christian world, but a very sinful one.

The problem does not lie in the world that is without God's Word, but in the Christian world that claims to know God and live by God’s Word. Sin has been bandied about for centuries in the Christian world. However, the Christian world is no longer Christian in heart and soul, but only in name. Therefore, her view of sin is warped and so watered down that sinful things are regarded as righteous. And righteous truths are regarded as sinful. Wrong becomes right, and right becomes wrong. The worst part is that these upside-down truths are accepted in most of Christianity, from church leaders with their titles and theological degrees, to the unsuspecting, and sadly very gullible, laity.

But God has an infallible way to convict man that he is a sinner! It is the truth that “evil pursueth sinners.” The sinner cannot outrun evil. Everywhere he goes, evil is present.

“Evil” is defined as all things that harm someone physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. Lies are evil, because they destroy the truth in a person’s life. Lies, in the context of Christianity, are the worst. For example, the false gospel is a lie that deceives the poor sinner into believing and thinking that he is going to heaven when the reality is that he is still heading toward hell. Unless he is awakened from this lie by the true gospel according to the Scriptures, he will remain a sinner and will die in his sin and be cast into hell. Some types of evil come from truthful lips that stem from an evil heart. They flatter with the view to lure the victim into their snare to capture the soul. There is an evil where help is rendered with strings attached. The list of evils in churches today is so long that they may circle the world twice.

The primary reason why sinners cannot outrun evil is not because he is living in an evil world surrounded by evil people. It is because sinners themselves are evil within. How can an evil person outrun himself? Sinners have evil motives. Therefore, everything they do, even some that may have the semblance of good, is also evil. Sinners do not have the capacity and ability to do anything good except evil, because they possess an evil personality. Then why is the world not in chaos if every sinner is incapable of doing good? It is not the “good” as defined by man or the world. Good is defined by the good God, who is all goodness. Romans 3:12-18: “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. ¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: ¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: ¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood: ¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways: ¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known: ¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The basis for why the world is not in chaos is because of God’s mercies and grace and the presence of believers in the world who, with the help of the Holy Spirit, are the salt that prevents the world's decay from worsening. Their holy witness that testifies of Christ is meant to shine beams of penetrating light into the spiritually dead and dark world.

Dear professing believer, is your life pursued by evil?

• Goodness characterises the righteous’ life – Conversely, the life of the righteous is characterised by good. Proverbs 13:21b describes the “good” as a repayment of the words and deeds of the righteous. How can good deeds repay good deeds? The motivation for doing good is not the repayment of good deeds, even though this is the assurance from the good God. The following are some of the biblical bases for doing good:

• The motive of Love – The motive of love is the love of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: ¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” Only believers are blessed with this love. God will bless all believers with this love at the point of their salvation. The reason is to protect them from the sin of bitterness or sinful motives when they witness for Christ and serve God. Romans 5:5: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” If the motive is not the love of Christ, God will not regard the believer’s good deed as good. God alone decides if a good deed is good or not so that He will repay good deeds with good.

• The way of Truth – When the motive is the love of Christ, then the good deed should be done according to the Scriptures. If the motive is the love of Christ, but the deed is not done rightly, God will not consider it as good. The reason is that the love of Christ must be in God’s truth. 1 Peter 1:22-23: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: ²³Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” The Love of Christ is not sentimental love where truth is rejected, or applied as and when it suits the professing believer.

• The goal of Glory – The goal is to glorify God and not man, especially not even the believer who did the good deed. Every good deed done by God’s children will bring blessings to God’s family and salvation to sinners. These are the spiritual impacts that transform lives, which is the spiritual work of the Holy Spirit. Christians’ good deeds alone cannot transform lives. The Holy Spirit must take these good deeds to bring conviction and conversion in every person’s heart. That is why the glory must be to God alone and never to man. God will reject every “good” deed the professing believer does if the goal is for self-aggrandisement.

God’s repayment to the righteous for their good deeds will be for their spiritual good, not materially. The New Testament witness of the church is only spiritual and not material, unlike in the days of the Old Testament when the witness for Christ was a nation that existed in the Promised Land. The term “church” refers to the people of God who assemble every Lord’s Day for fellowship and worship, and their church building (if any) is not located in any Promised Land. The spiritual blessings from God include: God’s peace that keeps the hearts and minds in Christ Jesus; believers who were never able to do any good can now do good that will impact lives for eternity; the joy of the Lord is their strength even in times of suffering for Christ; their lives are no longer measured by what they possess, thus freeing them from the dominion of the lusts of the flesh and eyes; to be blessed with the mind of Christ which is the mind of abject humility, enabling them to experience true humility and overcome the dominion of the pride of life; they serve God constrained by the love of Christ; and, counting all that they suffer on earth for Christ’s sake as they serve God’s people to be nothing compared to the glory that awaits them in heaven because Christ died for them at Calvary.