What Is Evil?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - All right, Pastor John, here's a doozy of a question

00:00:06.800 | for you that we get via email from time to time.

00:00:09.240 | So take a drink and a deep breath.

00:00:10.580 | Here it is.

00:00:11.780 | What is evil?

00:00:13.820 | Evil clearly is something.

00:00:16.040 | Is it merely the absence of holiness

00:00:18.360 | or is it the absence of God?

00:00:20.120 | Is there a way to explain the core essence of what evil is?

00:00:25.120 | - Wow. (laughs)

00:00:28.300 | Some of these questions, Tony, are just,

00:00:30.320 | I mean, they're just so ultimate, like philosophers.

00:00:33.300 | (laughs)

00:00:34.560 | We're supposed to do this in five minutes.

00:00:37.600 | Okay.

00:00:39.240 | The only reason I have any presumption

00:00:41.280 | to answer questions like this

00:00:42.560 | is because I have a Bible in front of me. (laughs)

00:00:45.400 | I mean, if God hadn't said anything, I would be so stupid.

00:00:50.160 | Okay, so I think, here's my answer

00:00:54.760 | that I'm gonna try to show from the Bible

00:00:56.280 | in just a few minutes.

00:00:57.800 | The core essence of evil is preferring anything

00:01:02.800 | more than God, loving anything not for God's sake.

00:01:08.100 | So evil is an act of preferring.

00:01:13.000 | Where there is no will, no volition, there's no evil.

00:01:17.500 | Evil is a function of willing.

00:01:21.780 | Satan's willing, demon's willing, human's willing.

00:01:24.920 | It's not a function of stuff.

00:01:26.860 | It's a function of willing.

00:01:29.580 | And evil is always defined in the Bible

00:01:33.580 | in reference to willing in regard to God.

00:01:37.320 | God is the supreme value in the universe,

00:01:39.940 | and therefore evil is defined in reference

00:01:42.840 | to this ultimate reality, this ultimate value,

00:01:46.140 | ultimate treasure.

00:01:47.580 | Failing to value the ultimately valuable appropriately

00:01:52.580 | is evil, that's what evil is.

00:01:56.100 | Now, here's a text, Jeremiah 2, 13.

00:02:01.100 | My people have committed two great evils.

00:02:06.780 | Number one, they have forsaken me,

00:02:09.660 | the fountain of living waters.

00:02:12.020 | Number two, they have hewed out for themselves cisterns,

00:02:16.540 | broken cisterns that can hold no water.

00:02:20.700 | So what is evil according to Jeremiah 2, 13?

00:02:24.300 | It is preferring broken cisterns to God.

00:02:29.300 | That's what evil is, preferring anything to God

00:02:34.220 | because anything measured against God is a broken cistern.

00:02:39.060 | God is the fountain of living waters.

00:02:42.360 | Or here's another one, Romans 3, 23.

00:02:45.860 | All have sinned, all have committed evil,

00:02:48.780 | and fall short of the glory of God.

00:02:51.420 | So sin is defined in relationship to the glory of God,

00:02:55.420 | and fall short of is literally lack, be without.

00:03:00.420 | Now, why would you lack the glory of God

00:03:02.940 | or be without the glory of God?

00:03:04.220 | And I think the answer is found earlier in chapter one,

00:03:07.060 | verse 23, where it says they've exchanged the glory

00:03:11.020 | of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man

00:03:13.940 | and birds and animals and creeping things.

00:03:15.740 | So the reason we lack the glory of God in Romans 3, 23

00:03:20.960 | is because we've exchanged it.

00:03:22.900 | That is, we preferred images,

00:03:25.460 | especially the one in the mirror.

00:03:28.300 | That'd be the 20th century one,

00:03:30.060 | rather than say an image of a snake on a pole or something.

00:03:33.780 | We love the one in the mirror,

00:03:37.140 | and we prefer getting praise for ourselves

00:03:40.580 | rather than getting praise for God

00:03:42.140 | and being made much of rather than making much of God.

00:03:46.100 | So sin is feeling, doing, and saying anything

00:03:51.040 | that reflects the exchange of God for lesser things.

00:03:56.040 | Sin is feeling, doing, saying anything

00:04:00.000 | that reflects the exchange of God for lesser things.

00:04:04.460 | So here's one more textual example.

00:04:07.640 | Take the 10 Commandments.

00:04:08.640 | Most people think the 10 Commandments

00:04:10.280 | are a good summary of what's right or what's good,

00:04:13.120 | and yet almost all of them are stated

00:04:16.040 | in terms of negation.

00:04:17.820 | Don't do this, don't kill, don't steal,

00:04:20.400 | don't commit adultery.

00:04:21.680 | So it is renouncing evils.

00:04:25.300 | Now here's the interesting thing.

00:04:26.720 | The first commandment,

00:04:28.620 | you shall have no other gods before me, Exodus 23,

00:04:32.440 | and the last commandment, you shall not covet,

00:04:35.200 | I think are virtually saying the same things,

00:04:38.320 | one negatively and one positively.

00:04:40.520 | Don't covet means don't prefer things you shouldn't prefer.

00:04:46.360 | Don't have other gods before me

00:04:49.080 | means don't prefer anything before me.

00:04:52.600 | So the beginning of the 10 Commandments

00:04:55.200 | and the end of the 10 Commandments

00:04:56.920 | are, I think, stating the essence of evil

00:05:01.920 | which underlies all the other evils

00:05:05.400 | that we have to turn away from inside the 10 Commandments,

00:05:09.360 | and the essence of that evil is wanting,

00:05:12.960 | preserving, preferring, desiring something

00:05:17.720 | that would cause God to look less than supremely valuable.

00:05:22.720 | So we start with God, He's good.

00:05:28.440 | Yes, He's good.

00:05:29.520 | By what standard is He good?

00:05:30.880 | By Himself, His own value.

00:05:33.180 | So God's moral goodness is always acting in harmony

00:05:36.460 | with His infinite value,

00:05:38.920 | and therefore our good is acting in harmony

00:05:42.320 | with His infinite value,

00:05:43.600 | or the essence of evil is feeling or thinking

00:05:46.960 | or speaking in any way at all

00:05:50.480 | that would make God treat God

00:05:53.400 | as though He were not supremely valuable.

00:05:56.720 | - Thank you, Pastor John,

00:05:57.680 | and thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:06:00.160 | Please email your very difficult questions to us

00:06:02.880 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:06:04.800 | At desiringgod.org, you'll find thousands

00:06:06.560 | of free books, articles, sermons,

00:06:07.880 | and other resources from John Piper.

00:06:10.040 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:06:10.960 | Thanks for listening.

00:06:12.000 | (upbeat music)

00:06:14.580 | (upbeat music)

00:06:17.160 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Is Evil?

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