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Using evil to accomplish good?
Can you envision any scenarios where it would be right to use evil to accomplish good? Are evil actions that produce good results justifiable?
47 Comments »
1. Comment by Rachel
Case in point…the viral fad of women posting their bra colors in the name of breast cancer awareness. This frustrates me to no end and it disappoints me when I see Christian women and teenage daughters of Christian families posting their bra colors! It’s not surprising when unsaved women do this…while I’d rather they didn’t, they are lost and we can’t expect them to understand the morals we hold because of our belief in Scripture. We are to view fellow Christian men as our brothers and we should want them to succeed at being godly men, husbands, fathers and witnesses! In a world that is sexually charged, we should do nothing to cause them to stumble! Causing this burden to be placed on Christian men does not justify creating awareness for breast cancer!
I think Ephesians 5:1-17 really addresses this well!
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
God tells us to be imitators of Him, to not partner with the lost, to walk in the light, to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, to take no part in unfruitful works of darkness and instead expose them, and to not be unwise and foolish!
And in regards to the bra issue and similar issues, verse 4 says
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
So, I do no think there is any circumstance where evil is justifiable! The means does not justify the ends! Would God do anything evil to bring about good? We are to be imitators of Him!
Maranatha!
2. Comment by Mark
OO. I’ll play this game! And I fully expect to be chastised and blasted, but here goes.
If I’m on a plane and get out of my seat and beat a guy up, that could be considered evil. The actions are evil. If that guy just happened to be trying to light an explosive, I’m a hero. Same action. Different motive, but same evil action.
If I shoot someone, that is evil. If that person was robbing my house threatening my family, is that justifiable? Same evil action, different motive.
Is smuggling an evil action? Breaking the laws of a country? How about if your smuggling Bibles into a communist country, fulfilling the great commission to spread the gospel? Do the evil actions justify the good results.
Ok, let it fly!
3. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
Evil is necessary, no (wrongly self percieved) good man responds to God – they think they dont need Him!
I’d do all of those things bar the third spontaneously and in an instant Mark. The third I’d do too, but not spontaneously.
What is evil?
Very often, i will deliberately set up a blog appearing to be absolute mad before going into a site belonging to a cult leader or one with false prophets within because i know upfront as soon as their fallacies are hit, pride is hit or they see the fact the others under their evil powers are beginning to listen, Truth is coming out, they will accuse you of being mad or demon inflicted. Doing this (appearance of madness) elsewhere upfront removes the ball from them, so they have to try harder cos you are emptying their evil toolbox upfront. Thats calculated, its premeditated, but if it is getting people out of bad clutches and to the God that is, is it Evil?
If i have an irate mother arrives at my door cos ive protected her child from abuse and she is then in trouble for that and she comes with violence….i could very well just send her out the gate, or slap her back, but if i just walk out and let her give me a severe beating, she has exposed herself, she can no longer persistantly get off with it from authorities by perpetual lying and saying it is the child that starts it – when i know it is not! Calculated and premeditated again, she is getting a rap for it by the police as well as exposed when authority or a slap or two would send her running. Evil?
How often do people sychophantically play nice to each other with non Truths rather than deliver Truth? Thats evil, but it appears people like this evil and seem to do it all the time for some bizarre satan filled reasoning…:-)
4. Comment by Susan
Rachel, what does bra color have to do with morality? You are using your own & contemporary moral beliefs, not GODS. I doubt if He cares one whip whether anyone reveals the color of their bra or any other article of clothing. Also, who are you to judge who is or is not lost? Isn’t that GODS decision based on what is in their heart during their life and at the time of their death? Do not assume someone is lost because they do not fit YOUR idea of faith and belief. To put it another way, do you have a TV, car, any modern appliance not conceived, invented or used during Biblical times? Do you wear makeup, color your nails, wear any attire that was not in fashion at the time of Christ, work outside the home, cook on the Sabbath, watch movies, read books, etc? Do NOT constrain your beliefs by what you think GOD wants as no one knows GODS full plan but leave judgement to GOD. To get back on the subject and one of Marks questions. Is it evil to smuggle Bibles in to another country, not looking at the type of government they have but looking at the act itself. Yes, we are to spread the word of God but do we use ANY means to accomplish this including beating and constraining anyone who gets in our way? My answer to this is no as we are causing harm to another. If smuggling the Bible to another country causes harm to ANYONE regardless of their religious beliefs this is evil. It’s the results that come from any action that decides whether it is wrong or not. My personal belief based on what is said in the Bible and many other religious documents is that GOD is the inventor of all and has given the knowledge of how to create what HE has invented. It is only the USE that makes it good or evil. A knife can be both good and evil depending on the use. Many so called Christians would say it is OK to kill someone who has committed murder but doesn’t that type of belief mean that many of the heroes and rulers in the Bible are condemned? Isn’t that why Jesus was given to us? To take our sins into HIM so we may be forgiven and made clean. My question is always who’s law are you referring to and do we really know all of God’s commandments? One of the commandments is thou shalt not kill but did God not tell HIS people to to to war and kill? Reading the Bible it is clear that HE does not change but reveals as we mature and are able to handle things. The ends do NOT justify the means as we do not KNOW if the evil person we are killing will go on to do more evil or will become a believer at some point in the future and save many many more then they harmed. This is a very tricky question as there are ramifications in every action and choice we make and no one but GOD knows if it is correct. Do we kill a doctor who aborts a fetus to save the mothers life? We don’t know this as we can never know what purpose HE has for either life. Is the mother who HE chose to fulfill some action GOD wants or is it the aborted child who has the destiny. Too many times we place restrictions on actions because of a belief that many times is based on one sentence, paragraph or chapter of the Bible.
5. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
“what does bra color have to do with morality? You are using your own & contemporary moral beliefs, not GODS.”
She is quite right because the motive of revealing such information is not a good one!!! Why would anyone want to know such things for good reasons? That is just one step removed from the evil of jennifer hawkins who claims to be blazing a trail for women all over the world to take their clothes of – for charity! How evil does it have to be before you see Truth?! Evil operates with good intent! Like oxfam running escort agencies by running auctions for dates with celebs. Is that good, not evil, charitable? I dont see it is her idea of Faith at all but in keeping entirely with scripture!!!
” To put it another way, do you have a TV, car, any modern appliance not conceived, invented or used during Biblical times? Do you wear makeup, color your nails, wear any attire that was not in fashion at the time of Christ, work outside the home, cook on the Sabbath, watch movies, read books, etc? ”
Whilst i do not do many of those things, makeup, nails, read books, watch movies, tv or work outside of the home. What Bible are you reading exactly? There is nothing that disallows a Christian to cook on the Sabbath, an end came to that in Christ/from Christ. We are not Jewish!
And there is nothing in scripture to suggest we should be wearing figleaves still either is there? We are told how to present ourselves, with modesty and nothing to draw attention to ourselves – time, era and fashion is irrelevant! There are not many shops near me sell figleaves!
I drive too, there is nothing biblical to say i should not drive and unfortunately there is a distinct lack of donkeys in my local neighbourhood too! How do evangelists travel and people travel to Church, would you like us all to go back to walking and reach few places?
6. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
Susan what is that mark of the beast on forehead/hand? 
Our foreheads are our minds and what we are is written on them, or hands are out deeds and by our actions shall we be known!
We are very carefully warned not to be accepting of the beasts mark!
Rachel is talking Truth!
7. Comment by Douglas Summers
Hi,
This is a question for the visible church…not the body of Christ, for this is something that antagenizes the flesh…not the Spirit.
But the Bible say’s that good can be spoken of as evil. Anything that causes one that is weak to fall can be sin. But the weak are not a permanent position in the body.
The weak are babes in Christ, and will mature at some time. The warnings in the Scripture’s are not to the mature…but to those that are self-willed, self-righteous, and tares. It is also that God wants all to have every opportunity to have the witness of Christ (grace)to the end, even as Judas did.
But know this, it is “SIN” that bringts us to Christ. For the sting of death is sin, but the strenght of sin is the “LAW”…..So yes, in that respect, evil is used to bring about righteousness. For God uses the “Law” to condemn evil, bringing condemnation on us and turning us to Christ to obtain righteousness by substitution….or rconciliation to God the Father throught faith in the work of Christ in our behalf.
To the body of Christ, anything not done by faith is sin…The mature understand this….not evryone is mature.
In Christ
Doug
8. Comment by Hank McClenning
Simply put God is “Holy” and all His actions are based on His Holy
character and being. All sin and actions that do not measure up to
to the Holiness of God is Evil and unacceptable to God. All sin, evil
and unholiness fall into the camp of Satan. The two are not and never
will be compatible. The is never, never, any time that God will
accept the evil of a person no matter what the outcome is.
Hank
9. Comment by BiblosLXX
Comment #7 nailed it on the head.
Should a husband kill a man to save his family? No, the Bible teaches that a man is to lay his life down for his wife, not take a life for their wife. In other words, “over my dead body.” This teaching is consistent with what Jesus taught and did, for never did Jesus physically fight for his disciples, yet he lost NONE of them. Instead, he laid his life down for them, as husbands are to do for their wives.
Jesus destroyed the Devil without becoming the devil, without succumbing to his way of doing things because he trusts in the Father’s providence. The same goes for us; it is like a phrase I once heard, “how do you get rid of Ceaser without becoming Ceaser?”
If you believe in the fruit of faithfulness, you will honor faithfulness by being faithful and helping others be faithful. But if you are a woman or man who adorns themselves to draw attention to their bodies then you are a stumbling block to others and not practicing the fruit of faithfulness. Clothing should be an adornment to the face, not the body. The body is God’s Holy Temple, and you are not to share it or show it to anyone but God and your spouse—anyone that purposely puts on clothing that draws attention to the body is not practicing love. Grant it, this area of discussion is immensely contextual, and differs from place to place, but the principle is the same: YOU must keep your conscious clear by deliberately choosing clothes that do not draw attention to your body as to how YOU see fit. I can already see how easy people will deceive themselves over this, but then they do not have the love of God in them.
Get rid of Ceaser without becoming like him, that is what Jesus did to the forces of evil.
10. Comment by Anonymous
Using evil to accomplish is trying to push Gods timetable, instead of wait on the Lord to His work which would be far better using fleshly means to His will and His good work.
As far as clothing goes, anything can cause a Christian bother or sister to stumble is wrong, this includes underwear, outerwear, swimsuits exercise wear,etc.. A christian needs to keenly aware of the other eyes and flesh when putting any attire on. Using the flesh is something I seen single Christians use to attract the opposite gender. In a sense, using evil to accomplish they think good.
11. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
Amen Biblos re Clothing! And the face that should be seen through our non face is Christs/Gods!
Anonymous, im going to disagree with you on a point…my life has been one that causes the most beautiful of flesh women to grit their teeth at me with jealousy and envy to the point i literally have had a room full of women try to tear me to bits, physically, more than once. I destroyed everything about myself that would cause that, to no avail, it is worse now than ever, there is nothing left of me, but their evil towards me is worse, initially, cos nothing can be seen in me now bar the salvation on my sleeve and the indwelling spirit, so it is far, far worse – dark hates light.
But, there is an upside, they all come round in the end now, to Him!:-)
12. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
and yes biblos, a women that displays her body for all men is spent up and has removed her husbands gifts and dignity too. She is an adulterous if she parades around for others. A good case of this currently is Tiger Woods adultery case, everyone misses the fact his wife is an adulterous too and one that invites adultery, totally!
13. Comment by Nicole
I’d like to point out something to Biblos…”If a thief is caught in the act of breaking into a house and is killed in the process, the person who killed the thief is not guilty” (Exodus 22:2 NLT). Obviously this only applies to home invasion. Also Rachel needs to take a step off the high horse no one is perfect and #1 rule as Christian is not to judge so I don’t think you should be so “disapointed”. Let GOD be the judge. Maybe posting bra colors is stupid but I will say that until people started doing it I didnt know it was breast cancer awareness month. Also I realize that men are visual creatures and appearently have problems controling their thoughts but Jesus was a man and was often tempted and used self control so I suggest any man seeing bra colors posted should do the same. Plus its not like they are displaying bra size now I would agree that would be most inappropriate and would cause more of a visual/mental temptation. I get that we are supposed to be on fire for God and stick to the rules but part of what drives non christians away is this judgmental and obnoxiously overzealous attitude that some people take on.
14. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
why do we have kill over murder debatacles if taking a life is never wrong? Why did God instruct such things? Ive got to be fair here, taking a life would be a very last option to me, ie if under rape id endure it and only ever take the life if mines was gonna be snuffed out and ten pray for the rapist, druing and myself, not suffer from the offence….and Jesus is Judgement, but there is going to be an outright mess down here when that happens, and evil is contained on this Earth, we know that and i would give my life if under persecution for Faith, ive been tested with that one, my children have too, but for Evil – no!
15. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
nicole, belive you me a bra colour is more alluring to a fallen man than a bra size. Why men need the right milk before meat…only silly women think otherwise.
Why is it that people always think they are being JUDGED when they are not being judged, but steeled and strengthened with more iron!
I dont see rachel being judgemental at all, not in the slightest! There is only one judge!
Pride FEELS judged when it is not being judged but lovingly rebuked and God does not say, dont judge, but be careful how you do!
Sadly, there are an awful lot of very separated and fragile people around that feel judged over nothing.
Read what Rachel says again with the mud out of the eyes, she is not judging, but witnessing, very well at that! If she offends you, then the offence is in you, not her!
16. Comment by Mimi
Well I can honestly say I only read the first 2 comments and woooo… I must not be that much of a Christian, but thank God I never claimed to be. I only have claimed to love the Lord. Honestly Rachael, I am one of those ‘quote unquote’ woman that posted the color of my bra on Facebook. Yep, along with other Christian woman I know…gee, I really didn’t think much of it. I just said a color (lavender, haha)the color of my bra and it was for myself and other woman to be aware of Breast Cancer Awareness…I thought of it as a positive thing. I will never claim to be a Christian if everything I do has to be so stiff and rigid, no thank you. But I can’t help but love the Lord. So I guess I am someone in love with the Lord, but not a Christian.
Oh and as far as comment 2 goes woooooo…..Mark, what is your point?
You said “If I’m on a plane and get out of my seat and beat a guy up, that could be considered evil. The actions are evil. If that guy just happened to be trying to light an explosive, I’m a hero. Same action. Different motive, but same evil action.” Woooo again, you are way off here. The second astion to save lives, so it is NOT evil, so why do you say it is???? Same thing here with your second statement “If I shoot someone, that is evil. If that person was robbing my house threatening my family, is that justifiable? Same evil action, different motive.” Mark the second example is called SELF DEFENSE or Protecting your family,it isn’t doing EVIL for the sake of doing EVIL, so again what is your point???? Mark your third staement “Is smuggling an evil action? Breaking the laws of a country? How about if your smuggling Bibles into a communist country, fulfilling the great commission to spread the gospel? Do the evil actions justify the good results.” Now this is just silly, so I ask from all your comments here, what you are looking for, WHAT??? Oh, I know you said it yourself “And I fully expect to be chastised and blasted,” How did I do? Really Mark, what are you looking for, come on at least be logical, pleassssseeeee. Thanks! Suprise me with something tangable and I will be the first person to applaud you, sound good?
I don’t know but something feels like the Pharisees, time for me to lay down and hopefully I can read some more when I regain my strength. oy e yah.
17. Comment by Mimi
I made some oops, also known as “grammatical errors”, goes to show you, I didn’t proof read 
. I will try harder next time!!! ;D
18. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
the babies are upset again……someone heat the bottles, the pharisees are projecting.
19. Comment by matthew, mark, luke or john?
Mimi, You do not love the Lord because a woman who loves the Lord knows and confesses that her life before Christ has been filled with evil deeds and only he and redemption can stem and stop that flow of evil! Instead, your pride seeks for you to justify your evils and you act out like a still narcissistic child whenver prickled. There is one thing about becoming a Christian, the self has to die, get over itself and know that all they ever did before was wrong, not good – why cant you do that for Him if you Love him so much? I did that, but not cos i loved him so much, i was incapable of it, as we all are – we can only do it because of how much HE LOVES US!
20. Comment by Rachel
Susan,
I’m not quite sure why you seem so hostile in your response to me? If you had questions, then I would have been happy to answer them. It’s hard to have fellowship when one person comes out swinging and accusing. You say that I’m judging people, but I don’t see where you’d get that? Ultimately, we don’t know the hearts of people, only God does, but that doesn’t leave us completely in the dark. Most people that are unsaved, are happy to tell you that they are, so it’s a no brainer. But I do feel that you are trying to be the judge of me when you don’t even know me. I think my response to the bra issue was backed up properly with Scripture. Don’t be mad at me! My moral beliefs are not my opinion but derived from God’s word. He sets the standard of morality, not me and He’s quite clear about it in Scripture. Did you read Ephesians 5 in regards to the way Christians are to live their lives? Or did you just read my first paragraph and form a response off of that only? You say that I’m claiming to know what God knows, but in the same breath, you say that you don’t think God cares if people talk about their bras. How do you know that? I know He has an awful lot to say about women and modesty and the weakness of our flesh in the Bible and He wouldn’t have put it there unless it was important to Him.
Anyway, I’m not ashamed of my stance on the issue. I take seriously the warnings God gives and the obligations for godly women to not tempt our brothers in Christ, even in the smallest way. I think intimate details such as information about undergarments are to be between a husband and wife, period. My husband is very uncomfortable with seeing women he knows from church posting their bra colors. It’s too much information and he doesn’t want to read it. Personally, if all the men on my FB, especially men from church, started to post whether they wear boxers or briefs and the color, it would be uncomfortable for me!. I would find it awkward to look them in the face at church on Sunday. We did a small group study on the book, Love and Respect by Emmerson Eggerichs, and after doing that study, I can completely see how me divulging the color of my undergarments to hundreds of men would be disrespectful to my husband. The fact is, giving such information out is sensual, intimate and for some men, could be titillating.
It is just as important for the man to have self control, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without taking any responsibility.
And I’m the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, so I’m all for awareness, but it doesn’t have to be at the expense of protecting the hearts and minds of brothers in Christ. That’s a very small sacrifice to make because I love God with all my heart and would never want to be a stumbling block to any believer. Am I perfect, NO! But I will make my mistakes with a teachable heart and listen to other Christians with an open mind so that I can mature and grow. There are many women who feel the exact same way I do, so I am not alone in this and I’ve had several men thank me for standing up on this issue and thinking of their feelings. Women need to think past their own ideas of what they think is crossing the line of sexuality, because it’s different for men!
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
I personally don’t want to be responsible for such a thing and anyone that thinks men couldn’t stumble over something as minor as mentioning a bra color is being naive. Often, the smallest details are what make imaginations soar.
I really hope you ladies can have an open heart and mind to what I’m saying. I’m not judging, but sharing. What is the point of fellowship and addressing ALL aspects of God’s word if we don’t have a teachable heart and only want to pick and choose the topics we are willing to discuss? Just because I chose this as an example of using unholy means to achieve a (supposed) good outcome, doesn’t mean I’m legalistic. That’s a bit of a leap. A friend on FB posted today a fact about how breast feeding reduces the risk of breast cancer…now that is much more productive and respectable.
As far as the question about evil
