📖 Biblical Definition
Evil, biblically, is moral corruption, malice, harm, or active opposition to God. Augustinian theology (with deep biblical warrant) understands evil privatively: not an independent substance God created, but the privation and perversion of the good He made. The serpent is evil. The heart of fallen man is evil: "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5; cf. Mark 7:21-23). The Day of the LORD destroys evil. And the kingdom of God advances by overcoming evil with good: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). Christ on the cross took the full force of evil and turned it back upon itself. The accuser was disarmed at his own moment of triumph.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
E'VIL, a.
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1. Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good. 2. Wicked; corrupt; perverse; wrong.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 6:5 — "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Isaiah 5:20 — "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness."
Romans 12:21 — "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
Matthew 6:13 — "Deliver us from evil."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern moral inversion calls good evil and evil good; Isaiah 5:20 names the woe.
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Isaiah 5:20 may be the verse most precisely written for the twenty-first century: woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. The moral inversion Isaiah named in his day is the operating system of late-modern Western culture. Marriage, gender, life in the womb, the family, the natural order — each line has been crossed; each darkness called light.
The believer's task is double. First, refuse the inversion privately and publicly. Speak good as good and evil as evil; let no fear of being labeled prevent the basic alignment of words to reality. Second, overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21). Do not just denounce; build alternatives. Strong marriages, gospel-loving children, generous neighborhoods, biblical churches. Evil is parasitic; the good is fruitful. Outbuild the inversion.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew ra (H7451); Greek poneros (G4190).
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Usage
"Isaiah 5:20 is the operating manual for the twenty-first century — the moral inversion is named by name."
"Refuse the inversion publicly; build alternatives privately."
"Evil is parasitic; the good is fruitful — outbuild the inversion."