by 
…Because the dark doesn’t really exist.
One of the things that I muse on from time to time is the whole way we represent the world around us, and how accurate or inaccurate our descriptions are. Here are some others:
- Dark: Absence of Light
- Cold: Absence of Heat
- Vacuum: Absence of Air
- Evil: Absence of Good
I’m sure you can name others. What’s interesting is that when you get to that last one. I have to admit that the last one is one I struggle over. Is evil really the absence of Good– or a degree of missing good. And I have to agree with it.
And here’s why:
In the statement that Paul makes in Romans 3:23 he doesn’t say that all have sinned and are evil, he says that all have sinned and have fallen short. Now, I’ve heard this likened to archery, where there is a target and the arrow doesn’t even make it to the target. But it did leave the bow.
You see, whether it’s how closely you adhere to a theology or whether it’s trying to question how the God of the world can allow evil, we tend to fall into the trap that draws lines for many different reasons. Lines give comfort. They allow us to group things. However, they’re dangerous in that they are often contrived.
I am a sinner saved by grace, but I’m not yet perfected– I’m not yet what I will become. Therefore, as I continue to progress towards that end, I will fail, and I will not be perfect until that time. So, all along the way I could be judged by people on both sides as failing. I could be judged in some people’s eyes as evil.
We must be careful, as believers, that in our zeal to proclaim all that is holy that we also realize that we are all human. We must exhort with the aim to edify, whereas I believe that we can sometimes get so caught up in the moment that we only correct– and we do so with a spirit of superiority.
This is dangerous, and definitely something to be afraid of.
