"But we are caught off-guard when what we feel deep within us as unadulterated good turns bad. The temptations that use the raw material of good for evil can continue unrecognized for a long time with out awareness sometimes until it is too late and the resultant evil is in full spate. 'Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds' (Shakespeare). We have little or no imagination for comprehending the evil that originates in our desire to do good, to serve God, to help our neighbors, to make the world a better place... The story of Eve in the garden tells us that a person in a completely unspoiled, attractive, and beautifully idyllic place, with everything anyone could ever want or even dream of, can be deceived into making good into evil... I am no longer surprised that great evil finds its formation in places where people come to worship God yet are seduced into the pleasure of playing God. I am no longer surprised to recognize great evil in places of power, in business and government, for instance, where people have access to enormous resources to do good and yet are seduced into using the power to be powerful themselves. I am no longer surprised to come across great evil in families and marriages, where the opportunities for intimacy and affection are most accessible, and find that those opportunities have been squandered into seductions of depersonalized manipulation and control. Far more evil takes root in the places where goodness abounds than in desperate slums and the criminal underworld. Why should that surprise us? It got its start, after all, in Eden."
~ Peterson, Eugene H. (2008). Tell It Slant: A conversation on the language of Jesus in his stories and prayers. Grand Rapids, MI: www.eerdmans.com, p.193-194
A Bible passage to ponder...
Matthew 6:13
"And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one."