Good and Evil, Black and White

There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. 2 Samuel 3:1

I have always loved the movies because in the movies, the world is often divided into good and evil. Those on the side of good always act nobly and those on the side of evil never doing anything but evil. Any questionable behavior from the good guy is justified because he’s obviously good. I like this kind of movie because it makes sense to me – It’s how I want the world to be. Black and white is easy.

In my black and white perspective, I obviously see myself as a good guy. I’m on the side of good, and my side does only good things. In this world view, I’m prone to defend any behavior committed by my family, my church, or my political party. I remember back during one of the gulf wars, when some politician on TV criticized a decision made by the president, the political commentator whom I was watching claimed that the critical politician was a blame-America kind of person. The message was this – America is good. American can’t be wrong. Anything we do (under that Republican president) is righteous.

I like this world view. It’s clean and it’s easy. This is the nature of the conflict laid out in today’s passage. In the story, there was the house of David (clearly the good guys) and there was the house of Saul (clearly the bad guys), existing in perpetual conflict with each other. In reading the story, I find myself cheering for David, because he’s the good guy. But I know what’s coming. I know that when David later commits murder and adultery, my worldview is going to be upset. I don’t like that part of the story because it challenges my black and white perspective.

I want to be on the side of good and I want to be able to believe that whatever I do is good. In any conflict now, at work for instance, I see myself as the good guy and anyone who disagrees with me as the bad guy. It becomes a moral issue in which my opponent is not just incorrect, he or she is evil.

The lesson from David’s life though, is that I can believe in God and still do bad things. Believing in God doesn’t mean my behavior is always righteous. The line between good and evil doesn’t run between me and others. That line runs through me. If I’m not careful, I can – in my black and white thinking – commit and justify terrible things, believing myself to be righteous. I’m flawed enough to know that if I desire to remain on the side of good, then I cannot simply assume that all my impulses are good. Daily, I must scrutinize my thoughts, words, and actions, holding them up to God. Only he is always good and if I want to be good, then I must continually make sure I’m following him, not me.