using evil for good

As we mature and our trust in God grows, we discover that pain is maybe the primary means of getting to know God, be that self-imposed by chosing self-denial - i.e. taking up our cross and following Christ - or imposed on us through circumstances outside our control/choice. 

Through our pain and struggle, we find we must grow deeper roots in God in order to weather life's storms and overcome its challenges. We come to see our pain and struggles are used - even designed - to aid us in developing a stronger connection with God so we might ¹know and experience him who is love and life itself, more fully. The bigger the challenges are and the stronger the winds of life blow, the deeper our roots into God must grow to anchor us. This is not necessarily a fun process but it is a good one and ultimately in our best interest.

The more we see (believe/trust) this the more ²thankful we become in and even for our pain. To embrace pain in ³this way becomes the means by which we are able to more wholly embrace God.

Pain is bad

Ironically pain, in itself, is not good. It is the fruit of our rebellion. When Adam and Eve chose to be their own god, they rejected the only true God, resulting in their separation from him and ⁸loss of their continued participation in his unobstructed love and presence. Everything came "unglued" afterward. Thorns and thistles now existed in working the ground, causing pain and hindering our effort to be fruitful/productive - pain in childbirth - decay, death and destruction - alienation from ourselves (guilt and shame), each other through offences and unforgiveness and most importantly from God himself.

We get further indication of the destructive nature of evil if you look at the definition in the OT hebrew... 

H7451b  רַע - ra (948c); from the same as H7455; evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity: — adversity (7), calamity (4), disaster (2), evil (94), harm (2), harmful (1), hurt (1), ruin (3), surely (1), trouble (2), unpleasant (1), wickedly (1), wickedness (1).

Knowledge of good and evil

The following are key passages in Genesis using the word for evil (H7451b); all dealing with "the knowledge of good and evil" except Gen 31 which instead translates the word as "harm." There is clearly a direct connection between harm (suffering) and evil. To say it another way, that which causes harm/injury is evil and evil always causes harm/injury in some form or fashion i.e. either physically, emotionally or spiritually.

Gen_2:9  Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil^H7451b.

Gen_2:17  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil^H7451b you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." 

Gen_3:5  "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be ⁴like God, knowing good and evil^H7451b."

Gen_3:22  Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become ⁵like one of Us, knowing good and evil^H7451b; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—

Gen 31:29  "It is in my power to do you harm^H7451b, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.' 

Simply stated, pain in itself is not good but evil and was not part of God's original creation. It causes destruction and harm due to our disconnect from God and his presence. If it were part of his ongoing design God would allow it to ⁴continue instead of do away with it all together one day.

So how can something evil be used for good? 

Even though pain in itself is not good but bad (evil), causing harm/injury, it becomes the means of appreciating the good that is God i.e. the greater the absence of good, the greater the ⁶appreciation of its presence. As an old saying goes, the negative accentuates the positive. Evil/harm/pain reveals to us the desperation and injury that occurs from the absence of God thereby increasing our appreciation for the presence of God and all the good that flows from him. 

Though directly, evil is bad, indirectly it is good. Or to say it more precisely, it is the means by which God brings about our ultimate good i.e. our discovering and experiencing more of God, who is our ultimate good. But it does so indirectly, by being contrasted with good i.e. our appreciation for good is enhanced by experiencing the absence of good i.e. by experiencing harm/evil. Experiencing bad enables us to better appreciate its opposite.

The good news is evil does not thwart the good purposes of God but actually becomes a tool in his hands to help us see our need for him and bring us closer to him. It is the ongoing means of drawing us ever nearer to him if we let it. 

To say it simply, God is bigger than evil and uses evil for good, our good. The most dramatic example of this is recorded in Act 2:23  

"...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men..."

The highest purpose of God - revealing his infinite glory in sending Christ and restoring rebellious men and women to himself - was accomplished by means of the hands of lawless (evil or wicked in many translations) men. Consider this for a moment. The greatest good was accomplished by means of the greatest evil. When we "get" this, it shifts our entire view of suffering and life.

As Joseph said to his brothers who sold him into slavery - clearly an act of revenge and evil - "you ⁷meant it for evil (harm) but God meant it for good."

God is in perfect control and accomplishing his perfect plan even (maybe especially) through evil. 

For a further discussion of how we are in a constant state of pain click here.

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/grace click here.

For a further discussion of the significance of paradox click here.

Were Calvin and Arminius both wrong? Click here.

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¹The exact opposite of what we normally think. Normally, when we go through great pain we think God has abandoned us. He no longer cares or loves us. When in fact he loves us so much he desires we experience his love to even greater degrees and knows that is often best accomplished through pain. Pain causes us to press into him and his love more fully, which is ultimately for our greatest good because God himself is our greatest good i.e. our knowing and being in union with him is far more beneficial than immediate relief from pain or avoiding it all together. One day when we are fully in God's presence and face to face with Him, pain will no longer be needed but will have completed its purpose and done away with completely and forever "...for the former things have passed away.”

It is also the exact opposite of what we experience if we do not receive our pain in faith; faith that God is using it for our good, not our harm.

I once heard it said, pain can either make us better (press us closer to God) or bitter (cause us to turn further away from God). The difference is faith...in knowing and believing God is working for our good in and through the pain. 

²Actually we are not thankful for the pain itself, but the fruit of that pain i.e. the stronger connection with God that comes through the pain. In short, we are thankful for seeing and experiencing more of God. 

³If God allows you to experience great pain, it is only because he trusts your faith in him. He knows your faith in him and trust in his love for you is strong enough to ultimatetly press you closer to him, empowering and enabling you to handle it. 

1Co_10:13  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

God's desire is to increase your faith so that you might experience him even more and find in him greater comfort and joy than in what we lost. The greater your faith the greater your opportunity to experience more of God. 

If you know and believe this, pain will be the means of your advancement. If you do not, it will only be the means of your harm and destruction. 

This is why scripture says "all things work together for good of those who love God..." If there is no love in our heart for God, it is because there is no trust in God (he's already proven his love in Christ so now all that is left for us to do is believe Him). 

If no trust, then no gain from "all things" we go through. To gain, we must trust. To trust we must love. To love we must first believe in his love for us. For evidence of his love we look to Christ and all he did to restore us back to the Father.

⁴Though pain discontinues for us it still exists. Those who are separated from God will continue in this state of separation and the pain that comes from it. 

⁵Though experiencing ("knowing") evil in itself is not good, knowing (having a growing appreciation for) good contrasted to that evil is. 

This is why the knowledge of good and evil (evil contrasted with good) is a legitimate part of God's character.

⁶Victory is sweetest when the greatest adversity is overcome. The greater the adversity, the greater the sweetness and joy in overcoming it. 

Christs victory over death (caused by our rebellion and the evil it brought) is the ultimate victory. It is also our victory if we are in Him.

⁷This is the key to forgiveness. Joseph was freed of righteous anger towards his brothers and was able to let the hurt go (which was real i.e. it really happened with real consequences) because he came to see there was a much higher/bigger/ good purpose in the offense against him - he saw beyond the offense. God was involved and working for his good in/by the evil his brothers intended. 

This was also what enabled Christ to say, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" while in the throes of hanging on a cross and suffering the greatest evil/injury possible; an evil being committed by the very ones he asked his Father to forgive. He understood there was a much higher purpose in and through the evil he was experiencing which enabled him to embrace and overcome it. 

⁸Note, they hid from God not the other way around. God sought them out from the outset of their turning away from Him. The loss of His presence and everything else was the result of them turning away from God not him turning away from them.

God...concerned or not concerned about sin

God is not at all concerned about our sin and is totally concerned at the same time.

How?

God is not concerned…

Our sin has absolutely no effect on God's attitude and posture of perfect love, attention, and care towards us if we are in Christ. It is one of complete love and commitment to us no matter what we do or don't do because, first and foremost, it is based on the work of Christ not ours.

But also, because we are created in his image. He values his image in us and desires as His image bearer that we develop to the maximum of our potential, i.e. that we become all he intends and designed us to be for His glory and our joy. As his fully redeemed image bearers, God's commitment to us is fixed and unrelenting. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

God is very concerned…

The essence of sin is our alienation and separation from God due to our rebellious distrust of him. Even as his children, who are completely forgiven and fully loved, this alienation ¹still exists, is very real and has real effect/harm; but in Christ, it exists only on our side of the relationship, not God's side. As someone once said, "if you don't feel close to God, guess who moved. Hint... it wasn't God."

It is not that God is worried by our distrust, but he cares greatly about our experiencing all he has for us as well as our putting him on display so others might be drawn to him and also experience that love.

To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves is to be fully aligned and in harmony with the heart of God. To the degree which we are not loving God and our neighbor in this way (i.e. with everything we have) is the degree to which we are not in harmony and alignment with him. Again, this has nothing to do with God's love for us. This is totally settled if we are in Christ. But this has everything to do with our love for him and our properly displaying him in all his glory.

To be out of alignment with him is to not see and enjoy him fully or display him truly. He is relentless in uprooting those areas of unbelief in us that keep us from being closer to him, for our joy and his glory.

This alienation/ misalignment (by us) is completely separate from his alienation from us. His alienation was already fully addressed in Christ and no longer exists. As Christ shouted out, "it is finished." There can no longer be any separation from God's side. This separation is now only on our side. 

Our moving away from him in rebellious distrust does not keep God from loving us but keeps us from fully participating in the manifestation and experience of his love already totally and absolutely fixed upon us in Christ.
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*our alienation from God still exists because remnants of our rebellious unbelief still exist within all of us, even as his children. It is this unbelief God continually works to eradicate for our joy and his glory. 

Being diligent...motive is key.

Being thoughtful, careful, diligent, obedient, disciplined etc are all good and important things in themselves, not bad.

Though "obedience" can be legalistic and in fact often is, it does not have to be nor is it necessarily (true love driven faithfulness/obedience is never legalistic).

The question is why are we diligent and obedient. What is our motive/reason for being diligent, careful and thoughtful etc? 

Motive is the only difference between true God honoring behavior and feigned legalistic "obedience." Otherwise on the surface we can't tell the difference; they can look exactly the same.

There can only be one of two reasons (motivations) for our external obedience. Detecting the reason however, is not at all easy because we rarely know our own heart and the true motives behind our behavior. 

And what are those reasons? 

1.     To honor and bring attention to (glorify) God out of love and awe for him.

2.     To take care of myself. 

Everything we do, is done for one of these two reasons

Mixed motives

We complicate things however because our motives are #mixed. Rarely do we do anything with a pure (singleness of) motive. What is most important is which motive is primary i.e. leads/predominates. 

# being mixed doesn't mean there is a third motive, it simply means these two can be intertwined. They are still distinct nevertheless.

Self interest, good or bad?

Plus desiring both things (God's honor and our best) in itself is not necessarily bad. It's ok and in fact normal for us to desire our best. Christ assumes self interest (not condemn it) when he tells us to love our neighbors as (in the same way) we love ourselves  or care for (love) our wives as (in the same way) we care for our own body. 

In fact the appeal of the promises of God is to our best interest. The promise of eternal life is made to who? To me, to self i.e. a promise is a direct appeal to my self interest. I want life, not death and so do you. 

There is nothing wrong with our *wanting what is best for ourselves. Why would God appeal to it otherwise? It is no more wrong than it would be for God to want what's best for himself. Does God ever do anything that is ultimately against himself? It may appear so short term but never long-term. In fact our wanting what is best for us is because we are like God, who wants what's best for himself. This in part is what it means to be in his image. 


Gods glory and our best are not at odds 

The issue isn't us wanting our best, it is how is our best truly achieved; through independent self effort or as a result of pursuing God out of love for him in response to his love for us. 

Is our best the fruit of honoring God (which is legitimate) or the result of our **direct and independent pursuit of that best (which is not legitimate, since it involves trust in self as one's best provider, instead of God who is the only true provider and sustainer of all things)? 

The ***mystery of life (life as God originally designed it to be) is that pursuing and experiencing God, is in fact the best thing we can do for ourselves. And it is in him alone we find true life, joy, meaning purpose etc. 

Yet this is not the primary reason we are to pursue God. We pursue him simply because he's most glorious and worthy of our total pursuit. And because he is, our greatest joy is found in pursuing and knowing him. This is the "natural" (originally designed and intended) outcome of who God is and the way we are. To go contrary to this not only dishonors God, but is against us; our best interest and well being. 

To say it simply, desiring and pursuing God's highest glory is our greatest good and joy.

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*For an engaging article by Kyle Strobel (Professor of Spiritual Formation at Talbot Seminary) on whether self love is valid or not click here

**If pursuing a specific objective is honoring to God then we can and are to pursue it with all the energy God gives us. In this instance this would be a direct pursuit of something but it is something that God has told us to pursue. And since it is, that direct pursuit is obedience to God and therefore also honoring to him. Some examples would be to "go and disciple all nations" or "love God with all our heart soul mind and strength." Faithful obedience/direct action is the only legitimate response to these directions.

***true life, which is in God alone, is a mystery in the sense that it goes contrary to our fallen nature and therefore is not obvious, but mysterious to us in our present fallen condition. Who we were designed to be (i.e. those who find God to be our true life) and who we are "naturally" inclined to be (i.e. those who seek life apart from God due to our fallen state of rebellion) are contrary to each other.

This is true of both believers and unbelievers in the sense that we all are inclined away from God...even Christians. BUT as believers we have a new and additional dynamic within us i.e. the love of God shed about in our hearts by the Spirit of God. This new inclination empowers us to live once again as God originally designed us to live. And it is only by this new dynamic/power/love/Spirit that we can. 

How can God love the unlovely?

First we must be lovable i.e. there must be something about us that God cherishes (loves) deeply. While at the same time, there is also something unlovely about us that God opposes. How can this be? Can both be true? 

What does he cherish?

First and foremost, he cherishes (values) himself, for he is the greatest, most valuable, wisest, loveliest, most powerful, and beautiful being in the universe. There is no one more glorious, significant, or powerful.

And we are like God. And because we are, we are able to glory in and enjoy the beauty of who he is and to reflect back to him and out to others his greatness in a way no other created being can. Our capacity to appreciate, enjoy, and reflect the infinitely valuable God gives us value; makes us significant. Valuable both to others as well as to God himself.

What does he oppose?

God opposes anything that diminishes the recognition of His great glory/value.

Why does he oppose this? Because everything is from, through, and to him. For him or us to conduct ourselves contrary to this not only dishonors who he is but also brings harm to others as well as to ourselves. It is contrary to who we are as well as who God is. In short, it doesn't fit the way things are. For us to value anything above God most high (the most valuable) is to be misled and to mislead others; it is to live a lie. This ultimately leads to our eventual destruction and separation from the Source of life, love, and all things. 

So if both of these qualities (lovable and unlovely) are within us at the same time, how does God reconcile these two opposite characteristics? How does he love the unlovely?

He removes the consequences of our unloveliness by putting it on himself in and through his own son Jesus. Once the consequences are removed, by our rightful suffering being placed onto Jesus, he is free to focus only on who we are as his image bearers with the capacity to receive and give love, honor, and glory, and reflect him out to others. In short, to make us like his Son. Because of Christ, God is now for us, not against us. 

overcoming addiction

What enables us to successfully break away from an addiction?

Is it guilt and shame? 

That may play a temporary roll short term. But if the change is to last it must go beyond guilt and shame.

Long term change occurs only if ¹three things happen:

1. ²We realize the consequences of an addiction outweighs the benefits; that the ultimate rewards for discontinuing the addiction are greater then the ones gained by it.

This often takes time i.e. the pleasure of an addiction is usually immediate, whereas the benefits of turning away from it often don't appear right away but ³over time. 

This usually starts with a desire to get away from the harm the addiction is causing. The longer one continues life addiction free, the greater the benefits become. The short term benefits of the addiction are no longer as great as the long term benefits. 

2. We come to see/experience something more satisfying that overpowers our addictive desires (or severs it's pull) i.e. when we find something more desirable than what we are presently addicted to, it draws us to it instead of our being drawn to the former addiction. 

3. A desire to honor God because we understand how he has honored us. And how has he? By giving something of great value to us so he might have a relationship with us. This says something very significant about our value to God, does it not? 

For more on what motivates us to obedience click here. 

For more on our worth to God, click here. 

For a discussion on what is our greatest reward click here.

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¹We may experience short term change if the first or second reason occur. But the greatest chance for permanent change involves all three. 

Plus the 3rd reason never stops expanding. The more we understand what God has done for us, the greater our desire to honor him and the less likely we are to fall into former or new addictive behavior. 

²The significance of these three reasons is the reverse order, 3 being the most significant. I only list them this way because this is usually the order in which we discover and experience them organically.

³Or maybe not appear at all. Maybe only through confidence/trust that the eternal benefits far outweigh the temporary loses are what we must depend on to break away from addiction i.e. only the hope of (and belief in) a future reward for faithfully pursuing God - vs partaking in an addiction - is what enables us to avoid destructive/addictive behavior.