Continuing on the topic of what evil is, it makes sense to see what the New Testament says about evil and what Jesus has done to take care of it in our lives.
Paul writes in Romans 8:15:
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
Notice how Paul states that we are not slaves, but we are sons. Jesus is the authority by which we are sons. We are in Jesus, so we have union with God.
We are not bound by the evil systems of the world. Now that asks another question, what is the world?
I believe the world system is the one that changes your mind about the image you have in Christ. When you engage in sin, you are partaking in destructive living as you forget who you are in Jesus; your true identity. That destructive behavior is called sin. When we look up sin in Strong's it comes from this word:
ἁμαρτία (hamartia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 266: From hamartano; a sin.
hamartia: a sin, failure
Original Word: ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: hamartia
Phonetic Spelling: (ham-ar-tee'-ah)
Definition: a sin, failure
Usage: prop: missing the mark; hence: (a) guilt, sin, (b) a fault, failure (in an ethical sense), sinful deed.
When Jesus was confronted with satan in Matthew 4, what did satan do? He attacked Jesus identity as the son of God. "If you are the son of God...."
Matthew 4:6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “’He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
I believe satan tried this because he had heard what God proclaimed about Jesus previously at the Jordan river:
Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Jesus knew who he was, and didn't have to do things to prove it. So you see, the whole world lies under "ponerous"/evil. It's what religion as well as the secular world tells you to do. Do stuff and work to prove who you are and so you can become something better.
Conversely, God says you don't have to do things because He has done them and provided them to you. He has placed you in his kingdom as well as put his kingdom inside you even though we are living in a world that works against that and claims the opposite.
Matthew 6:13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from evil...
So what do we do about this? Remain spirit led. Adam failed, but Jesus succeeded and cancelled out our sin. Think about yourself the way God has declared you to be already. You are his son or daughter, not a slave.
Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Revelation 13:8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.
Paul writes in Romans 8:15:
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
Notice how Paul states that we are not slaves, but we are sons. Jesus is the authority by which we are sons. We are in Jesus, so we have union with God.
We are not bound by the evil systems of the world. Now that asks another question, what is the world?
I believe the world system is the one that changes your mind about the image you have in Christ. When you engage in sin, you are partaking in destructive living as you forget who you are in Jesus; your true identity. That destructive behavior is called sin. When we look up sin in Strong's it comes from this word:
ἁμαρτία (hamartia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 266: From hamartano; a sin.
hamartia: a sin, failure
Original Word: ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: hamartia
Phonetic Spelling: (ham-ar-tee'-ah)
Definition: a sin, failure
Usage: prop: missing the mark; hence: (a) guilt, sin, (b) a fault, failure (in an ethical sense), sinful deed.
When Jesus was confronted with satan in Matthew 4, what did satan do? He attacked Jesus identity as the son of God. "If you are the son of God...."
Matthew 4:6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “’He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
I believe satan tried this because he had heard what God proclaimed about Jesus previously at the Jordan river:
Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Jesus knew who he was, and didn't have to do things to prove it. So you see, the whole world lies under "ponerous"/evil. It's what religion as well as the secular world tells you to do. Do stuff and work to prove who you are and so you can become something better.
Conversely, God says you don't have to do things because He has done them and provided them to you. He has placed you in his kingdom as well as put his kingdom inside you even though we are living in a world that works against that and claims the opposite.
Matthew 6:13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from evil...
So what do we do about this? Remain spirit led. Adam failed, but Jesus succeeded and cancelled out our sin. Think about yourself the way God has declared you to be already. You are his son or daughter, not a slave.
Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Revelation 13:8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.