A Different Kind of Evil

Most people think evil is something sinister and malevolent, and it is. But, in the Greek, Jesus speaks of a different type of evil: favlos.

Favlos means the easy, worthless way out. Jesus said that people who take the easy, worthless way out don't come to the light for fear that their works will be exposed. But that people who practice truth come to the light; all the light does for them is confirm that their works were done in God.

"For everyone who does evil (favlos) hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." John 3:20,21

Jesus says this is the reason people shy away from Him. God did the unthinkable, He gave His Son for the salvation of the world, and then people decided they rather have something worthless instead.

Here is the paragraph in its entirety:

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His ^[only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. ^20 (K)For everyone who does evil [favlos] hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”