Evil called Good

SUMMARY: In a world filled with corruption and injustice, do not be overcome by evil. Instead, overcome evil with good. Fight hatred with love, for that is the way of true victory.

Beloved, we live in a world that is often turned upside down. The Prophet Isaiah, with eyes washed by tears and fire, looked upon his own nation and saw a monstrous inversion. Do not imagine for a moment that this "calling evil good" was a mere slip of the tongue or a private vice. Nay, it was a public rot. It was the magistrate taking the bribe and calling it "justice"; it was the wealthy land-grabber moving the ancient boundary stone to steal the widow's acre and calling it "enterprise"; it was the luxuriant reveler drinking away the wages of the poor and calling it "prosperity."

When the very structures of society are painted with these false colors, when the ideological superstructure supports a corrupt economy, the soul of the righteous man is vexed within him. We see the darkness and we are told to praise it as light. The temptation in such an hour is to let the iron enter into our own souls—to meet hard-heartedness with hardness of heart, and to meet the lie with a counter-lie.