Monday, May 30, 2005
Bad for Good
I was recently reading the CS Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew (The first book in the Chronicles of Narnia, and it was there that I was struck with a new message. In 1977 (I think) Meat Loaf brought out the album that made him famous, Bat Out of Hell. The follow up album to that was supposed to be released in 1981. Somewhere along the way some complications developed and the album ended up being released by his songwriting partner Jim Steinman instead. The album didn't go very far, but I never forgot the title, Bad for Good. This brings forth a question is it possible for Christian to be bad for good. To do the wrong thing for the right reason. Digory, the main character fron The Magician's Nephew gets the answer. Through a series of misadventures, Digory ends up releasing an evil queen (Satan?) from a spell and unleashes her on the newly formed land of Narnia. To make things right Aslan the mighty lion (Jesus?)sends Digory on a quest to get a special apple from a special tree to be planted to protect the land of Narnia (tree of life).
While at the tree, Digory is confronted by the evil queen and tempted to eat the apple, which will give him long life and the ability to rule the land of Narnia as King. He quickly rejects this temptation. He has seen Aslan and the greed motive doesn't work. Then the queen hits him below the belt. She tries to get Digory to steal an apple and take it home to heal his dying mother. All of the sudden the choice is much harder. She plays the Bad for Good card. I'm not going to say how the story ends, but please read the book. I can only say that he makes the right decision. You can't be bad for good no matter what. Proverbs 14:12 tells us that there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. This is the end of being bad for good. Don't measure the rightness of you actions by your results. A seemingly good outcome may turn out to be anything but. Measure your actions against the Word of God. After all we were created in the image of God and we are being molded into the likeness of the sinless Christ. Are you trying to be bad for good? Check yourself against the Word!
I was recently reading the CS Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew (The first book in the Chronicles of Narnia, and it was there that I was struck with a new message. In 1977 (I think) Meat Loaf brought out the album that made him famous, Bat Out of Hell. The follow up album to that was supposed to be released in 1981. Somewhere along the way some complications developed and the album ended up being released by his songwriting partner Jim Steinman instead. The album didn't go very far, but I never forgot the title, Bad for Good. This brings forth a question is it possible for Christian to be bad for good. To do the wrong thing for the right reason. Digory, the main character fron The Magician's Nephew gets the answer. Through a series of misadventures, Digory ends up releasing an evil queen (Satan?) from a spell and unleashes her on the newly formed land of Narnia. To make things right Aslan the mighty lion (Jesus?)sends Digory on a quest to get a special apple from a special tree to be planted to protect the land of Narnia (tree of life).
While at the tree, Digory is confronted by the evil queen and tempted to eat the apple, which will give him long life and the ability to rule the land of Narnia as King. He quickly rejects this temptation. He has seen Aslan and the greed motive doesn't work. Then the queen hits him below the belt. She tries to get Digory to steal an apple and take it home to heal his dying mother. All of the sudden the choice is much harder. She plays the Bad for Good card. I'm not going to say how the story ends, but please read the book. I can only say that he makes the right decision. You can't be bad for good no matter what. Proverbs 14:12 tells us that there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. This is the end of being bad for good. Don't measure the rightness of you actions by your results. A seemingly good outcome may turn out to be anything but. Measure your actions against the Word of God. After all we were created in the image of God and we are being molded into the likeness of the sinless Christ. Are you trying to be bad for good? Check yourself against the Word!
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