Yeshua forewarned that just before the End of Days, “many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matt. 24:10). What dreadful people, you might imagine… what terrible depravity will mark that time! And yet here we are today, with so many crusading for their own personal sense of victimhood, demanding special treatment, and threatening retaliation for being treated unfairly… It must be remembered, however, that whenever we decry offence in others, we may be reflecting the evil within ourselves (Matt. 7:1-5). What is this evil within you ask? How about being intolerant toward those who differ from us? How about be impatient – refusing to allow others to share their perspectives? Indeed, how many of us make the demand that others be “perfect” but turn a blind eye to our own imperfections? And what about the sin of unforgiveness? What about our attitude of suspicion — using the “evil eye” regarding others’ motives – looking for something impure – rather than extending to them the benefit of the doubt? Do you carry resentment with your heart? Do you hold on to a grudge over a real (or imagined) insult from the past? Do you harbor the desire to seek revenge? All of these evil attitudes reveal a hard heart – and failing to remember that all that is good in your life comes exclusively by the mercy of God alone… When you feel offended, look within and carefully consider the assumptions at work in your thinking. Ask whether your indignation is based on the truth of God or something else. Are you demanding: “My will be done, in heaven as it is on earth?” Are you seeking your own vision, or surrendering to the truth of Reality?
Someone might object by saying that it is not right to overlook the evil we see in others, for example, the unjust practices of deceptive and immoral politicians, or the actions of criminals who commit acts of lawlessness. When we see evil, how do we see the good instead? Should we ignore wickedness and close our eyes to what is happening?
Well of course we should uphold law and the prosecution of criminals, and we should admonish (and sometimes even rebuke) our brothers and sisters when they sin, but in an ultimate sense, we have to see past the evil, to let it pass, in trust that God is sovereign and orders all things according to his sovereign purposes — and that implies understanding that God suffers evil to exist in order to demonstrate his judgment, as it says: “The LORD has made all things for its purpose — even the wicked for the day of evil” (Psalm 16:4).
