Choose Good Instead Of Evil

Have you noticed that very few people care about God and His ways? Only a few people truly desire to live by what He commands, actually doing what He wants us to do and following His ways. Let me explain what I mean by laying out examples of how the Lord wants each of us to live.

God desires all mankind to do good to one another instead of evil. When they do this, they will honor Him as a son honors his father by obeying the father’s rules. A quick look at the Ten Commandments clarifies how we should live, and by looking at the behaviors of our society, we can see that people are not following God’s ways.

Here are excerpts taken from Exodus 20 when the Lord told Isreal His commands;

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.”

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, servant, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

These above commandments tell us to honor God, not to worship anything other than Him, take a day of rest, not to use His name as a cuss word, obey our parents, not to murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or greatly desire anything that is not yours. But these are not the only things God has told us so that we know right from wrong and how to live. He also told us to be kind, patient, loving, giving, compassionate, tenderhearted, forgiving, honest, forthright, humble, lowly of heart, and many more rules for our benefit and others.

Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Yet, we see people every day being downright nasty, sarcastic, insincere, selfish, ignorant, self-centered, self-absorbed, hateful, destructive, and living in the chaos that comes from living the ways that honor the Devil and not God. God wants you to be good instead of evil because it is good for you and others to be at peace, and it brings reward from His hand. But if you continue to live out your life with an evil mind, mouth, and heart, it will only receive pain, strife, suffering, and, in the end, punishment.

God gives us more instruction in Philippians 2:1-5, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”

We are truly seeing firsthand what the Lord told His prophets would happen. People will be lovers of money instead of lovers of God. They will be arrogant, boastful, prideful, desiring to do evil instead of good. They will even call the things that are obviously good evil and things that are evil good.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Does your character display any of the above behaviors? Examine your ways to see if you are obeying or disobeying the Lord God’s Commandments, Laws, rules, precepts, and ways. There are only two ways to go: obey Him, do good, or disobey Him and do what is evil. It is straightforward, just like a child will be punished or rewarded for their actions by a good father. God will reward those who obey and punish those who rebel. One’s destination will be Heaven or Hell, a good place of happiness and joy or pain and suffering.

It is your choice; choose today to believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, believing He died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, rose again defeating sin and death that you may live and be able to obey God, or refuse and miss out on His reward and be punished instead. Not only that, but your faith in Jesus must be genuine. As Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.”

This is no laughing matter. It is eternally serious because what you do here in this life will ripple into eternity. What you dwell upon in your mind will be displayed for all to see by your words and actions. It is not the approval of mankind that matters. It is the approval of God. What you speak and how you act come from the condition of your heart, and only the Lord can change your heart to do good instead of evil through the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 6:43-45

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

I am extending God’s warning to you today. Turn to Jesus Christ today, repent, turn away from your sinful ways, and obey the Lord God and His commands so that it may go well with you. Repentance of your sins is the only way to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. It is the only path to be changed: heart, soul, mind, and spirit. Faith in Jesus is the only way to obtain favor and honor from God, to receive reward instead of judgment, and to go to Heaven instead of being punished in Hell for all eternity. Listen one more time to the words of Jesus, turn, and do good instead of evil.

Luke 6:46-49: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”