NOT PULLED DOWN BY EVIL
BUT LIFTED UP BY GOD
This week I saw and
experienced some corrupt, disgusting, and evil things. I wanted to see what the
Bible had to say about evil, but first I went to God in prayer. Only He can fully
deliver us from the evil around us. Jesus gave his disciples, including us, a
prayer and a promise in Matthew 6:13: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, for ever. Amen.” Knowing God delivers us from evil, I
could then look at what He says about it.
In that scripture, the word “evil” is the
Greek word “poneros.” It means “the active form of evil, in thoughts, speech,
and actions. It is used when the Bible talks about the deeds of devil spirits
and is used when talking about Satan as being “the malignant one.” We know what
a malignant cell is. It is a normal cell that has been perverted into something
else, something that grows, migrates, and destroys. Poneros is evil actions
that are “harmful, lewd, and malicious.” But we pray like Jesus said: “Pray to
thy Father. . .‘deliver us from evil’” (Matt. 6: 6, 13), and He does it.
Two other words that are used in the New
Testament for bad or evil are “kakos” and “sapros.” Kakos means that a person
or thing is “bad in character, morally, by way of thinking, bad company, bad
desires, and all kinds of evil just for the sake of evil itself.” It is used in
James 3:8 talking about a person’s tongue being a restless evil wanting to harm
and injure. It is used in Titus 1:12 talking about when people take on demons
having the nature of wild, vicious, biting beasts or venomous snakes, retiles
or other predatory animal spirits.
Sapros, another word for bad, means corrupt or
rotten, like rotting vegetables or dead, rotting carcasses. It expresses something
that is very bad quality and unfit for use, putrid, also like rotten fruit, old,
cooked chicken that’s been left out too long, or rotten fish. In Ephesians 4:29
the word “sapros” is used talking about “corrupt” speech, which tears away at a
person, rather than lifting them up, as the rest of the verse tells us we
should be doing.
God delivers us from these rotten and evil people
and things, and brings us around to believing in what we have and are in
Christ.
Here are some important verses that tell us
what we have in Christ. Let’s take the time to look some of these up this week.
I am called in Christ (Rom. 1:6).
I have redemption in Christ (Rom. 3:24).
I reign in life by Christ (Rom. 5:17).
I am alive unto God through Christ (Rom. 6:11).
I have eternal life through Christ (Rom.
6:23).
I am a joint heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
I am sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2).
I am part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15).
I have victory through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57).
I triumph in Christ ((2 Cor. 2:14).
I am a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
I am the righteousness of God in Christ (2
Cor. 5:21).
I have liberty in Christ (Gal. 2:4).
I am crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20).
I have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).
I am an heir of God through Christ (Gal. 4:7).
I have been blessed with spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
I have been chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that I should be holy and without blame before Him
(Eph. 1:4).
I have obtained an inheritance in Christ (Eph.
1:11).
I have been made alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5).
I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ (Eph.
2:6).
I have been created in Christ unto good works
(Eph. 2:10).
I have boldness and access in Christ (Eph.
3:12).
God supplies all my needs through Christ
(Phil. 4:19).
I am complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).
I am risen with Christ (Col. 3:1).
Christ is my life (Col. 3:4).
I have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
I am preserved and called in Christ (Jude
1:1).
Love, Carolyn
Read my other stories about the victories of applying
the Bible to our everyday lives:
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