Light and Darkness, Good and Evil - The problem of dualism.

Are we a good person or a bad person?

This is a tricky question. If we think of life as duality - either there is Good or Evil then this may present some problems for us. Some people think God and Satan are equal but that is not true as God has already won the war with the sacrifice on the cross, God will throw Satan into Hell eentually.

In truth we all have good and bad within us, but it is how we act that defines us.

This clip from Harry Potter and the order of the pheonix explains quite clearly that we all have good and bad within us and that it is how we choose to act on these that defines us.

In Romans 7:15-25 St Paul explains how he is torn between the bad and good that is within us, and how the battle is making a choice with the mind.

Romans 7:15-25

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Jesus says "But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

So stop worrying whether you are good or bad and put all your worries on Christ.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”