Week 8—Thursday 1 John 3:4-8
1 John 3:4-8
EVIL, A PARASITE UPON THE GOOD
When the politician mentioned yesterday said to me, “Oh, no, we couldn’t do that, it wouldn’t work,” my reply was, “Then you’ve given away the case. The only way to keep evil going is to throw enough good around it to make it work. For evil is an attempt to live life against itself, and it cannot be done. So evil is not only bad—it is stupid.” I challenge you to build a society on absolute dishonesty, no one would trust another; on absolute impurity, it would rot; on absolute selfishness, no one would think in terms of others; on absolute hate, it would be so divisive, so centrifugal, it would not hold together.
Then what conclusion must I come to? This: that every dishonest person is a parasite upon the honesty of some honest person whose honesty holds together that situation long enough for the person to be dishonest in it. Every impure person is a parasite upon the purity of some good person whose purity holds together that situation long enough for the person to be impure in it. Every selfish person is a parasite upon the unselfishness of some unselfish person whose unselfishness holds together that situation long enough for the person to be selfish in it. And every person of hate is a parasite upon the love of some loving person whose love holds together that situation long enough for the person to be hateful in it.
The universe is not built for the success of evil—evil sooner or later destroys itself. The Tamils of South India have a saying, “The length of the life of the best concocted lie is just eight days.” A projectile is so made that if it misses its target it explodes of its own accord. Life is made like that: if it misses the mark (Jesus), it goes to pieces. So we can say with Passmore:
When all its work is done
The lie will rot,
The Truth is mighty
And ill prevail when none
Care whether it prevail or not.
The nature of things sees to it that the lie rots and the truth prevails.
O God, we thank you that you have made it so. So your laws are not planted on us like a stamp, they are implanted within us like the watermark in paper, part and parcel of the paper itself. So we can give ourselves to you with all our beings, for our beings are made for you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The universe backs only the good; therefore, if I am sensible I will be good.