The Days are Evil
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
-Ephesians 5:15-16
Indeed, the days are evil!
On October 7th, Hamas’ militants slaughtered over 1,300 Israeli civilians (even babies) in a surprise terrorist attack. On October 18th, Lebanon’s Hezbollah held “a day of unprecedented rage” against Israel and the United States. On October 20th, President Biden requested over $100 billion from Congress – not just to support Israel’s fight against Hamas, but also to continue funding for the Ukrainian war effort against Russia and to counter China’s latest hostility toward Taiwan.
We live in an evil world, and lately, it seems that the forces of darkness are particularly aggressive. We all feel the need to do something – to fight back in some way. However, before we launch a counter offensive, we need to give a little more thought to the actual source of all the evil in the world. What actually drives men to malice and murder?
Jesus said: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:18).
And James claims: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice” (James 3:16).
In other words, evil does not originate in some faraway place. It does not come from Gaza, Moscow, Beijing or even Washington DC. No, all evil begins in the human heart. It begins in our own hearts… in our own bitterness and selfishness. The hatred and violence that we see on the streets in the Middle East right now is a reflection of what is happening in each of our own hearts.
“…all evil begins in the human heart. It begins in our own hearts… in our own bitterness and selfishness. The hatred and violence that we see on the streets in the Middle East right now is a reflection of what is happening in each of our own hearts.”
One man who understood this well was Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Solzhenitsyn was a Russian author who was arrested in 1945 for writing derogatory comments about Joseph Stalin in a private letter to a friend. He spent the next 8 years in the Soviet prison camps. In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn offers this insight on the source of evil and why it is impossible to eradicate:
“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” (emphasis added)
In other words, the Great War of Good versus Evil is not restricted to a few dozen hot spots around the globe. No, this War continuously rages on 8 billion individual battlefields… in every single human heart.
This is why the Apostle Paul instructs Christians who are living in evil days to “look carefully then how you walk” (Ephesians 5:17). That means we must first address the evil in our own hearts: we must confess and grieve over our own wretchedness and cry out to Jesus Christ to save us from our own sins (see Romans 7).
So, let us make the best use of our time. We are in no position and have no power to eradicate the evil in the world. (That’s why we must fervently pray!) However, we can begin the work of searching out and destroying the evil in our own hearts. As Solzhenitsyn might have said in this slight rewording from his 1972 Nobel Lecture:
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the [evil] come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
Michael John is the pastor of Market Street Baptist Church in Amesbury, MA.
