Resist Not Evil

To exemplify: All great teachers have taught “Resist not evil”, that non – resistance is the maximum moral ideal. We all know that if a certain number of us attempted to put that maxim fully into practice, the whole social fabric would fall to pieces; the wicked would take possession of our properties and our lives, and would do whatever they liked with us. Even if for only on day such non – resistance were practiced, it would lead to disaster. Yet, spontaneously, in our heart of hearts we feel the truth of the teaching, “Resist not evil “. This seems to us be the highest ideal; yet to teach this doctrine only would be equivalent to condemning a vast portion of mankind. Not only so, it would be making men feel that they were always doing wrong, and cause in them scruples of conscience in all their actions; it would weaken them, and that constant self-disapproval would breed more vice than any other weakness would.

To the man who has begun to hate himself the gate to deterioration has already opened; and the same is true of a nation. Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God. Therefore the only substitute remaining to us is to recognize that duty and morality vary under different circumstances; not that the man who resists evil is doing what is always and in itself wrong, but that in the different circumstances in which he is placed it may become even his duty to resist evil.