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Though You Are Evil

            “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke11:13)

Trigger Alert! You have just been judged and found to be evil. You may not see Jesus pointing His finger at you, but the people at whom He was pointing saw themselves as good. Your believing you are good doesn’t magically make you so. You’re evil. Try not to get too upset. Emotional paralysis won’t help matters. If it’s any comfort, so am I.

Part of the problem here is my favorite – D.E.F.I.N.I.T.I.O.N. We tend to think that mass murderers, serial killers, greedy megalomaniacs, and those who abuse children, the elderly, or animals are evil. The rest of us are good. Not perfect, but good enough. I’ve shared this idea before. Suppose I put one part Botulinum Toxin A into 19 parts of your drinking water. The source I found about dangerous substances says that 0.03 ounces can potentially kill 8 million people. Ninety-five percent of the solution is good water. Just five percent is poison. Would you say the water is pure? Would you drink it?

What if I decreased it to 2%? 1%? 0.1% ? At what point does the poison not matter anymore? You might be more courageous and daring than I, but I would say that even if there is only one Botulinum Toxin A molecule in the water, it’s poisonous. The same is the case for evil.

But, Jesus deals with reality. Those who are evil know how to do good. A serial killer may help a little old lady cross the street or pick up litter. Even Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Jack the Ripper probably did at least one good thing in their lives. Part of the problem is that evil deeds, large and small, don’t just happen. They are the result of evil thoughts, feelings, and choices that get made inside, where no one can see. Someone may harbor evil intentions for decades before any clearly evil act is committed.

Returning to Jesus’ point, since evil people can do good, even if we would foolishly declare God to be evil, He must still be capable of doing good. If we (wisely) maintain that God is good, how much more is He able to do good? And the best good is to give us the Holy Spirit – to give us Himself. Isn’t that what love means? How often do we ask for the Holy Spirit? I’m not going Pentecostal here, I’m just asking where asking for God Himself fits in our hierarchy of prayer needs.

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