Good and Evil 

Jesus became a close friend of Mardus, the leader of the Cynics in Rome, during his six-month stay in this city of two million inhabitants. The two men had many long conversations, and in one of them, Mardus asked Jesus about the nature of good and evil. In paraphrase, Jesus explained the following:

Good and evil are just words used to describe how people understand the world around them. If one is not interested in ethics and societal concerns, they may choose to conform to current social norms to determine what is considered good. Similarly, those who lack spiritual inclinations and moral progress may follow the religious practices and traditions of their time. However, the soul that is meant to survive beyond this life and enter eternity must personally choose between good and evil based on the true values established by the divine spirit that dwells within every person. This divine spirit sets the standard for our survival.

Goodness like truth is always relative and contrasted with evil. It is the understanding of these qualities of goodness and truth that allows our souls to make personal choices essential for eternal survival. However, those who blindly follow scientific, social, or religious authorities are in danger of losing their moral freedom and spiritual liberty. They become like intellectual parrots, social robots, and slaves to religious authority.

Goodness is always growing, leading to greater freedom of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment – the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling spirit. An experience is good when it heightens the appreciation of beauty, strengthens moral values, enhances the discernment of truth, increases the capacity to love and serve others, uplifts spiritual ideals, and aligns our human motives with the eternal plans of the divine spirit within us. All of this leads to a greater desire to do God's will and become more like him.

As you progress in your spiritual development, you will experience increasing goodness and decreasing evil according to your capacity for experiencing goodness and discerning truth. The ability to make mistakes or experience evil remains until your soul reaches the final spirit stages of your journey.

Goodness is a living and progressive experience. It is always personal and connected to the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found when we recognize the positive values of the spiritual level which must be contrasted with the negative shadows of potential evil during our human experience.

Until you reach Paradise, goodness will be more of a pursuit than something you possess. However, as you strive for righteousness, you will also find satisfaction in the partial attainment of goodness. The existence of both goodness and evil in the world proves the reality of our moral free will and its ability to identify these values and choose between them.

When Paradise is reached, a personality’s capacity to identify with true spiritual values becomes so profound that they achieve perfection and become unified with the supreme qualities of goodness, beauty, and truth. Such a spirit personality no longer has any potential for evil when exposed to the divine light of the rulers of Paradise. In these spirit personalities, goodness is no longer partial or comparative; it becomes complete and approaches the purity and perfection of the Supreme.

The potential for evil is necessary for moral decision-making, but it doesn’t need to become an actuality. A shadow is only relatively real. Actual evil doesn't have to become a personal experience. Evil acts as a stimulus for moral progress on the lower levels of spiritual development and only becomes a reality when a moral mind chooses to embrace it.

During Jesus' final conversation with a young truthseeker named Gadiah, they discussed the concept of good and evil. Gadiah was troubled by the existence of evil alongside the good in the world and felt it was unjust. He asked Jesus why God allows us to suffer from the sorrows of evil if he is infinitely good and wanted to know who created evil. In those days, many people believed that God created both good and evil, but Jesus didn't teach that.

Jesus explained that God is love, which means he is inherently good. His goodness is so immense and real that it cannot coexist with the small and unreal things of evil. God's goodness is so absolute that there is no room for negative evil within him. Evil arises from immature choices and thoughtless missteps made by those who resist goodness, reject beauty, and are disloyal to truth. Evil is the result of immaturity or the destructive influence of ignorance. It is the inevitable darkness that follows when one foolishly rejects the light of goodness. Evil is that which is dark and untrue, and when consciously embraced and willfully endorsed, it becomes sin.

Jesus further explained that the heavenly Father has given us the power to choose between truth and error. He created the potential for the negative aspects of light and life, but these evils don't truly exist until an intelligent being brings them into existence by making wrong choices. And when such evils are knowingly and deliberately chosen by a rebellious person, they become elevated to the status of sin. This is why our Father in heaven allows good and evil to coexist until the end of life, just as nature allows wheat and weeds to grow together until harvest time.

Gadiah found Jesus' answer satisfying, especially after their subsequent discussion clarified the profound meaning behind these statements.

Jesus explained to Ganid that the human mind struggles when it tries to serve both good and evil. It's a great burden for the soul to experience this conflict of double allegiance. The happiest and most unified state of mind comes from fully dedicating oneself to doing God’s will. When we have unresolved conflicts and refuse to make a choice, it can destroy our inner unity and even lead to mental breakdown. However, the survival and growth of our souls are not achieved by seeking peace of mind at any cost, by giving up our noble aspirations, or by compromising our spiritual ideals. True peace is attained when we firmly assert the triumph of what is true and right. We achieve this victory by overcoming evil with the powerful force of goodness.

Jesus knew that many of his followers were slowly but surely preparing their minds to reject him before delivering his Epochal Sermon in Capernaum. He also was aware that many of his disciples were slowly but surely passing through that training of the mind and that discipline of soul which will eventually empower them to overcome uncertainty and confidently express their unwavering belief in the good news that we are all children of our Creator, brothers and sisters in the family of God. Jesus also knew that people develop their ability to make important decisions in a crisis and act courageously in critical moments through a gradual process of repeatedly choosing between good and evil in everyday situations. He put his chosen messengers through repeated rehearsals in disappointment and frequent opportunities for choosing between the right and the wrong way of meeting spiritual challenges. Jesus had confidence that his closest followers, when faced with the ultimate test, would rely on these established patterns of thinking and spiritual responses to make their decisions.

During the teaching at Tyre, Nathaniel asked Jesus why we pray for God to ‘lead us not into temptation’ when we know from his teachings that he never leads us into it. Jesus told him that it’s understandable that he had these questions because he is starting to understand God the way Jesus did, not as the early Hebrew prophets did with their limited understanding. Jesus went on to say that in past ages, people believed that every natural event and unusual experience had the hand of God behind it, associating God with both good and evil. When people felt a strong urge to do something, whether good or evil, they attributed it to God's command. As a result, whenever they faced temptation, they believed it was God's way of testing, punishing, or strengthening them. Now it is better understood that people are often tempted by their own selfish desires and animal instincts.

Jesus went on to advise Nathanial about facing temptation, saying it is best to recognize it for what it truly is, and consciously redirect the spiritual, mental, and physical energies toward higher purposes and more idealistic goals. By doing so, temptations can be transformed into opportunities for uplifting service while avoiding unnecessary conflicts between the animal and spiritual natures that only lead to wasted energy and weakness.

In coming to a better understanding about good and evil in the faith of Jesus, it helps to examine what happens when we make moral judgments from a religious perspective. Basically we use our spiritual insight to choose between good and evil, truth and falsehood, material and spiritual, human and divine, and the concerns of this life and eternity. Our ability to survive greatly depends on dedicating our will to choosing the values selected by the divine presence within us – the interpreter and unifier of spiritual worth.

Personal religious experiences have two phases: first, we discover spiritual truths in our own minds; and second, these truths are revealed to us by the indwelling divine spirit. Due to evolving complexities within societies and the irreligious behavior of those who claim to be religious, it sometimes occurs that individuals or even entire generations may decide to stop their efforts in seeking the God who dwells within them. They may fail to progress and experience divine revelation. However, such stagnant spiritual attitudes cannot last for long because of the presence and influence of our inner divine spirit.