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Silence the Ignorant Talk

             For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.  (I Peter 2:15-16)

 

            There is a quote – though no one seems to know who is being quoted – that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The statement is as logically faulty as its attribution, but it does make a good point. The difference between good and evil isn’t that good is not evil and evil is not good. It is not enough to not do an evil deed in order to be good, or to not do a good deed in order to be evil. In fact, both the evil and the good do both good and evil. Writers are regularly advised to have the bad guy pet a dog or do something good, and have the good guy succumb to temptation to make them realistic.

            But just as between -1 and 1, there is zero, so between good and evil, there is nothing. Nothing, as in no action good or evil or an action that is neither good nor evil. In order to do good, we must do more than not do evil. And, as Jesus taught in His Sermon on the Mount, we must not do what we do to be praised by others. At the same time, John points out here that what we do is meant to be seen by others. Not so that they sing our praises but so that they have nothing bad they can say, or perhaps so they are speechless. How could someone they have treated so badly treat them so well? How can someone they hate love them?

 

 

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