How Can Evil People Do Anything Good?

Now, Contending for the Faith.In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here is this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom: I’m puzzled about Matthew:7:11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
See All..., regarding the depravity of man.Jesus said we are evil, but then He implies that we can do good things.That’s certainly evident in verse 12.How can we, who are evil, do something good?

Tom:

Dave, let me read Matthew Chapter 7, beginning with Verse 11.This is Jesus speaking, as the writer mentions:“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”Verse 12 as well:“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:for this is the law and the prophets.”First of all, Dave, it’s amazing for people today, the Episcopalians and anybody else who takes exception to the Scriptures.They say, Wait a minute, are you trying to tell us that we are evil?Well, Jesus said it, and we can give a lot of other verses to support that idea.It’s not exactly building one’s self-esteem.

Dave:

So, the question was, If we are evil how can we do any good?The Bible indicates we can.So, that relates to the “T” in T-U-L-I-P, of the Calvinist, total depravity.Because, in the Old Testament in Genesis Chapter 6, God looked down and He saw the imagination of a man’s heart was only evil continually.And then, if you went to Psalm 14, for example, it’s quoted in Romans chapter 3:“There is none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God, they are going out of the way.”So, you can’t seek God, you are totally depraved, you’re dead like a corpse, and somehow God is going to have to give you some life before you could even open your ears, and then He will give you the faith to believe the gospel.But Tom, right there in that passage that this person brought before us, we seem to have a contradiction.Because if we are totally evil, how can we do any good?You could go back to the Old Testament, a Philistine came, I think he was, Abimelech was his name, and after Abraham and Sarah, they pretend that she’shis sister, and he’s about to take her to be his wife, and he is warned of God in a dream.

Tom:

The king, that is?

Dave:

Yeah, the king is, and he says to Abraham:Why would you do this evil to me?You could have brought judgment upon my household, and here are his words:I have done unto you nothing but good.Okay.And here we have, Jesus said, You’re evil, but you know how to give good gifts to your children.You can do good things.We are exhorted to do good and to pursue peace with all men.

Tom:

Dave, Verse 13, 14, says:Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.In other words, we can make a choice, there are some good things that we can do.

Dave:

Exactly.So, all through the Bible we are commanded.So, what does the Scripture teach?Well, it’s the natural bent of my heart; I’m selfish, I’m going to take care of myself.

Tom:

So, we are evil?

Dave:

O, absolutely evil, there is none that doeth good, no, not one, and yet we are told to do good.Now Tom, then we would have to say, Well, even when we seem to do good things, we do it for selfish reasons, to receive the praise from men, or because I don’t really have a choice, or I want to get reciprocated, somebody to do good to me, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

Tom:

Oh, and part, isn’t it part of the golden rule, Dave?

Dave:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.So Tom, it’s not that we are totally incapable of doing anything good at all, because a mother will go into a burning building to sacrifice her life for her child that’s in there.But there are instances, and I think there are half a dozen or more.On, not too long ago, where an unsaved, as far as I know, soldier throws himself on a hand grenade to save the lives of his buddies.Now, I would say that that is a great goodness, self-sacrifice.Where would you get the motive for that?So, we have stories in history of men who rose to great heights of goodness and they got nothing out of it in order to benefit others.And yet, our hearts are deceitful, the Scripture says, above all things, desperately wicked.And David said, Search me O God, try my heart.So, we don’t even know our own motives for doing things, but to say that I am totally depraved, as Calvinism says, I can’t even respond, I can’t even believe the gospel.Well, we only need to go to Isaiah 55, for example, where it says:Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.Well, wait a minute! But Psalm 14, quoted by Paul in Romans 3, says:There is none that seeketh after God.But you can go through the Old Testament, dozens of Scriptures:I sought the Lord, and was found and I found Him.So, it says:Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him.So, it’s kind of a mixed bag, Tom.We are evil, but we can, we are not totally depraved to the point that we don’t recognize the difference between good and evil.We can do good, but that’s not going to save us, of course.

Tom:

No, and that’s the important thing.

Dave:

Because once you are a sinner, you’re a sinner.Once you committed a sin you can’t make up for sinning in the past by keeping the law perfectly in the future.There is a mixture there, but it’s not hopeless!In other words, the sinner can be aroused by the gospel, and his conscience can be smitten.God has written His laws in everyone’s conscience, and we can turn to the Lord.Otherwise, what’s the point?Jesus says, Come unto Me.Jesus weeps over Jerusalem---I wanted to bless you, but you would not.So, obviously, God wants man to come to Him, and it’s not something innate within man; if it were, and God had to cause man to come, then what is this weeping over man? You wouldn’t come to me.No, obviously, we can either believe, or reject Christ.