In a world where personal guilt is considered a toxic concept, justice cannot flourish.
Guilt exists as a consequence of evil. The words for ‘evil’, in both testaments stress ‘’an inherent inferiority that causes pain’’.*
The consistent truth is that the wrongness, or “inferiority”,* in us, even if we don’t think it wrong, causes and sows pain into other’s lives. Guilt is the built in consequence aimed at adjusting our lives so we don’t hurt others. Guilt then, is the needle of one’s moral compass.
If we hurt others, especially with patterns of behaviour we refuse to curb, we need to feel guilty. We should feel guilty. God wants us to feel guilty….so we will take responsibility and STOP causing others pain.
Evil and guilt; the two go hand in glove. And when guilt is treated as nothing more than an emotion to get free of, moral decay and injustice will rule.
It’s as if every man can just do what is right in his own sight. But, there is a cure for guilt, and shame both for that matter….by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.
*All quotation marks above enclose direct quotes from the ‘discovery bibles’ word studies. Those phrases were not my own. *