LEARN TO UNDERSTAND AND IDENTIFY EVIL
Fear of the Lord and avoidance of evil yields understanding. To appreciate the significance of this, it is critical to know that evil is Defiled Religion.
This description of evil contrasts greatly with cultural and religious ideas of evil — especially in Christianity where it commonly considered to be a malevolent spiritual force usually associated with satan. The concept of evil has strong associations in modern culture with Satan, demons, witches, especially gross sins and people who practice divination. While all of these could be included in God’s concept of evil, he has a much more general definition of evil: Transgressing his covenant and failure to listen to and obey his voice.
Since being in covenant relationship with God is inextricably tied to obedience to the law, evil exists when the law is violated. But it is critical to know which law, or laws, God wants his people to honor.
The laws God wants his people to obey are his spiritual laws. He does not want them to obey man’s religious laws. Obedience to religious laws is evil.
It is critical to keep in mind that violation of the law occurs when we fail to do what God commands just like it occurs for doing what he prohibits. Thus we have sins of omission just like we have sins of commission.
In God’s eyes, both sins constitute evil which we are to avoid. That seems like a strong way to look at sin, and it may conflict with our modern understanding of evil, but that is what God says so we need to reconcile ourselves to it. The only way to do this is by learning to identify what is good spiritual food and what is evil.
The most important sin of omission for religionists is the failure to listen to God’s voice. Because people who hear God’s voice have his laws written on their hearts, their ability to discern good from evil is always at work guiding them and directing them in everything they do.