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"Do not let evil defeat you; instead conquer
evil with good." Romans. 12;21.
"Many have puzzled themselves about the origin
of evil; I observe that there is evil, and that there
is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end."
John Newton
"Amazing Grace" was his singable experience of
sin and grace. Few of us can be unfamiliar with that much
used hymn.
Good and evil are everywhere like shadow and substance. Good
people are well intentioned and actioned. Bad people are ill
intentioned and motivated by evil designs. They hurt, damage
and destroy to confirm the maxim:
"An evil intention perverts the best actions, and makes
them sins."
It is a lesson we learn early, the good and the bad interact
one on the other.
There is the constant tension between good and evil, righteousness
and sinfulness. St Paul recognised that when he said:
"I don't do the good I want to do; instead I do things
I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one
who does it, instead it is the sin that lives in me."
The reality is if we lose control of ourselves we abdicate
the power within ourselves to a power outside ourselves and
it affects our thinking and doing to make us ashamed of ourselves.
It is the promise of the Christian faith that those who go
astray can get the strength to get back on track when they
recognise the dangers they are in and do something about them.
Direction changing, life changing, is the effect on those
who turn to God and seek strength from Him.
In his appeal to people to do that the prophet Isaiah warned
them against wrong attitudes and actions.
He said:
"You are doomed. You call evil good, and good evil:
you turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You
make what is bitter sweet and what is sweet you make bitter."
Isaiah 5:20.
Doomed unless and until they sought the help of God to think
right and to do right in His sight. The cry of Isaiah is echoed
by preachers in these days when the Christian influence in
society is weakened by the secularism and materialism that
lower the standards of behaviour for people.
We are constantly aware of the struggle, good and evil. There
are the heights of goodness and the depths of depravity. There
is for everyone the inner struggle that Paul experienced in
his life. He got straightened out by his faith in Christ and
his determination to live by what He had for him to do.
The effects of Paul's conversion to Christ are as incredible
as they are encouraging and life changing to people here and
now and everywhere. He remains the persuader of Christians
to have that commitment to Jesus which shows clearly in their
character and conduct that they belong to Him.
Sin with its estrangement from God was to Jesus darkness
in the soul.
H R Palmer the hymnist put the subject in line with :-
"Yield not to temptation for yielding is sin.
Each victory will help you some other to win.
Fight manfully onward dark passions subdue.
Look ever to Jesus He will carry you through." …..
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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