Series 2 - Lesson 10 - Annotation 6
Explain the scriptural passage "resist not him that is evil" (Matt. 5:39 A.R.V.).
6. To explain the statement "resist not him that is evil" (or, as the Revised Standard Version reads, "Do not resist one who is evil"), one must understand the meaning of "evil." If God is Absolute Good, it stands to reason that He could not or would not create something unlike Himself. What man terms "evil" is therefore an appearance of error which has resulted from the wrong application of thought power.
"'Evil" represents error thought combinations; that part of consciousness which has lost sight of true principles" (Mysteries Of Genesis 39).
These "error thought combinations" have produced inharmonious conditions that cause man pain. "Evil" is not real and enduring because God did not create it. Mankind is endowed with the power to form mind essence into concepts, beliefs, circumstances, conditions and things and then name them according to the pleasure or pain they bring to him. What man has formed by negative thought, he can change or reform by good thought. He does not need to fight or resist these formations, or even the person who seems to be responsible. He needs to understand these negative formations and take the right attitude toward them. Then, using his faculty of will, he may reform error formations through right thinking, right feeling, right words, and right conduct.
In taking a positive attitude toward the good, we are giving our attention to the One Presence and One Power in the universe, God, the Good Omnipotent.
"The greatest disintegrating element in the human consciousness is resistance. Beware of every form of fighting, and of all thoughts of a destructive character" (THE REVEALING WORD, Resistance).
________________________
Preceding Entry: What have the sayings of Jesus to do with the development of the will?
Following Entry: What does a state of "mental resistance" indicate?
