When Jesus was tested in the wilderness by Satan, Jesus did not hate the fact that evil was in the world.
Jesus did not organize his disciples to go protest the Romans, who believed that they were the world’s master race.
Jesus did not publicly condemn the people who served Satan, such that he never carried a bag of stones, to hurl at evil people the next time he found such presence.
No. Jesus simply told the evil of the world to get out of his face. (“Out of sight, out of mind.”)
The lesson there is that if you want to search out evil and point fingers at it, you then become a reflection of that which you condemn. You become a reflection of the evil you face, because you have then turned your back to God.
Thus the confession so many say is necessary for evildoers. Evildoers confess for the sin of not having loved God with a whole heart and not having loved one’s neighbors (regardless of their evil) as extensions of oneself. That confession comes by recognizing that, without God, one is just as evil as is anyone else in the world who is without God. It means one cannot forgive trespassers of any kind.
Without a whole heart committed to focus only on God, then one prays not to be forgiven by God. (“And lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil.”) Saying the LORD’s Prayer without pure intent to live up to expectation then becomes the words of a mouth that defiles. The confession recited in church is then admitting a failure to live up to the instruction to be sent out into the world in peace with a singleness of heart.
One fails to love only God because one delights in the evil the world presents us … as entertainment. The world becomes the playhouse where we can act as a god. Without actors portraying evil, there is no drama and no need to the gods of self-righteousness. Instead of a whole heart in love with the peace of Yahweh, one yearns to be distracted by the evil that always comes to greet the faithful.
Evil comes to test one’s faith, just as Satan came to Jesus at his time of preparation to ministry. Evil comes to sway the minds of those who say they love God, in order to turn one away from Him. We are promised a world full of Charlottesvilles.
Evil won in Charlottesville Virginia; and evil gloats at pointing out how much evil there is in the world.
Get behind me all those who proclaim to be self-righteous … on both sides of the evil street, and all who gaze upon it.