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Pairs of Opposites
By Mark Morgan | Miscellaneous
We like using pairs of opposites.
Up and down; yes and no; right and wrong; left and right; male and female; to and fro; first and last; plus and minus; night and day; these are all examples of pairs that roll smoothly off our tongues. We feel comfortable with them and they help us to locate ourselves in a world full of choices and contradictions. Many, like left and right or up and down, are physical opposites. Others are more abstract concepts like right and wrong or good and bad. Some, like ups and downs, sweet and bitter, or black and white, describe physical opposites, but are also often used as representations of more abstract or spiritual concepts.
The Bible is full of word pictures and parables and uses many of these opposites to help us locate ourselves in the world of spirituality.
Some of them present a delightfully black and white picture of variation, making it easier for us to assess spiritual matters. Describing things simply as “good” or “evil” makes it much easier to distinguish between right and wrong. By contrast, measuring everything on a wide and fuzzy spectrum allows descriptions such as “slightly good”,“questionable”, “less bad”, or even “more wrong” – and tends to muddy the waters, leaving us unsure of distinctions that God intended to be simple.
In this article, we will look at how a few of these “linguistic dipoles”[1] are used in the Bible. We will mostly concentrate on cases where they are used together in pairs as opposites, but will consider some others also.
Our list of opposites will be:
It goes without saying that usage of any words will depend on the Bible translation used, so I’ll state up front that my examples will be from the English Standard Version (ESV), which is more consistent than most other translations (or paraphrases).
The Bible is full of many delightful uses of these antonyms, so let’s look at them now.
The conflicting themes of light and darkness fill the Bible from creation to the end of the book of Revelation.
God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all,[2] and he has existed from eternity past.
Yet when God first created the physical universe, it was filled with darkness until God said, “Let there be light”[3]
Light flooded the physical cosmos and God saw that the light was good, but he kept both light and darkness. On earth he separated the light from the darkness, calling the light “day” and the darkness “night”. Perhaps this is our first hint in scripture that the universe was to be a place of conflicting ideals.
Each day of creation added more wonders to God’s lovely world until it was finished, whereupon God declared it “very good”.[4] The world was full of living things that were dependent on both light and darkness, and nothing would continue to live without that ongoing rhythm of day and night.
Yet in the heat of the day, we will often seek out a patch of cool darkness under a tree or roof, while at night we often carry a torch to dispel the inconvenient darkness.
In fact, most animals carry around with them their own personal tools to exclude the light. We call them eyelids and they block out the light when it is inconvenient. We’ll talk more about that later.
Although God is light, he created both light and darkness[5] and uses them as object lessons to teach us about right and wrong. Many writers in the Bible acknowledge this link, referring to both light and darkness together.
For example, when David says that light comes from God he acknowledges what light can do:
“For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.”
David’s son, Solomon, aligns the extremes of light and darkness with those of wisdom and folly:
“Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.”
In the Law of Moses, the annual Day of Atonement was a day for people to make themselves right with God by acknowledging their sins and denying themselves (which included fasting). Over the years, it seems that their self-denial became a sham, a way of looking righteous instead of being righteous. God condemns this hypocrisy in Isaiah 58 and describes a better way:
“…if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”
Actively helping the underfed and troubled shines light in the darkness of a world that doesn’t care. Not only so, but it causes light to flourish in us so that even the darkest parts of us will be light. Jesus also exhorted his followers to do their best to give glory to God, not themselves.[6] It is easy for us to lose our focus on God’s light and focus on ourselves instead.
John 3:16 is a very well-known verse, but it is closely followed by a less well-known but incisive assessment of our world:
“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”
Jesus is the light of the world[7] and was crucified for exactly the reason given above – evil people saw his light and hated him. People who loved light, however, followed Jesus and soon spread the light all over the world.
In physical terms, however, light is something positive; darkness is nothing. As long as the light keeps shining, darkness will never win.[8]
There are those who pervert light and darkness. Their goal is to stop the light shining. If they succeed, darkness can spread everywhere:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
This approach is something we are familiar with from the last century. We even see it in colloquial language where the meanings of words are deliberately reversed (eg. wicked to mean excellent; bad to mean good; sick to mean very good). As shown by Isaiah, writing 2,700 years ago, this concept is nothing new. After all, if you manage to confuse the meanings of words enough, God’s unchanging words from long ago lose their meaning and can be ignored! This is a sign of people choosing not to see, deliberately closing their eyes to the light of truth.
When writing to believers in Corinth, Paul asked a simple rhetorical question:
“…what fellowship has light with darkness?”
There can be no cooperation between the two. At creation, God made light in the universe, and when someone chooses to follow the light of God, they are a new creation:[9]
“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.”
God’s ultimate plan is to fill the universe with light and remove darkness completely.[10] But we don’t have to wait until then to join in his plan: the true light is already shining, so let’s revel in – and reflect – its brilliance.[11]
For the upright, this is the beautiful direction of life:
“…the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
We often use the expression “black and white” – another pair of opposites, but this time based on colour. We discussed “light and darkness” in the last newsletter, and “black and white” presents a similar contrast. The Bible, however, doesn’t use “black and white” at all. Instead, the most similar colour contrast is between red and white, with red representing sin and white meaning purity or sinlessness. We find it at the start of Isaiah when God roundly condemns the sin of his people[12] and encourages them to wash themselves. The section starts with God’s statement that he will ignore their prayers (and makes it fairly clear why):
“When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land…”
The passage uses three synonyms: scarlet, red and crimson. All are associated with sin – particularly the blood on their hands.
If the people want to, however, they can wash themselves of sin, which would leave them clean, as white as snow or wool. Revelation describes the paradoxical way in which people can make themselves clean:
“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ”
Jesus is the Lamb referred to, and his blood – which can wash away sins – is symbolised in the cup taken by believers in remembrance of him.[13]
A scarlet mark on a brilliant white garment cannot go unnoticed. Not only so, but we would expect it to leave a permanent stain. This is how our sin appears in God’s eyes: it can’t be missed and it can’t be removed without special treatment. After we decide to commit our lives to God through Jesus, he applies this extended treatment throughout our life.
This example shows the contrast between God’s attempts to clean us (and keep us clean), and the efforts of the world around us to stain and tarnish us instead.
Let’s look at a couple of examples of our progress as described by Daniel. First, one where he describes the final result – either purification or complete contamination:
“Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.”
Secondly, an example describing possible false starts or temporary setbacks, but still with cleanness as the final result:
“…and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.”
“The time of the end” is an appointed time when God’s ongoing process of purifying us will end with the return of Jesus.[14] Until then, or until our death, we make a choice every day between the red of sin and the white of righteousness.
If you want to meditate on the subject of spiritual whiteness, here are a few passages from Revelation to think about: Revelation 1:14; 2:17; 3:4-5, 18; 7:9; 14:14; 19:11, 14; 20:11. You will need to consider the context of each and note that this is not an exhaustive list of the use of “white” in Revelation.
When the outside of a house starts to decay or deteriorate, we often paint it to cover up the effects of time. The paint doesn’t make the house new, but makes it look better for the time being.
Can we do the same sort of thing with our appearance of godliness? Could we put on a veneer of godliness, rather than being genuinely godly? Can godliness be only skin-deep?
In the Bible, applying such a veneer of godliness is sometimes described as smearing something with whitewash. It doesn’t change the underlying structure or content, but it makes it look better for a while.
In Matthew 23, after the Pharisees and teachers of the law conspired together to trap Jesus through tricky questions they would have refused to answer themselves, Jesus reflects on their insincerity:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
A thin coat of paint on the outside can hide many defects for a while – which is why it is so common for people to paint houses just before they sell them. However, all it does is cover up problems or paper over the cracks, it doesn’t make any deep change.
Ezekiel uses the same analogy when describing false prophets in Judah:
“Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, Peace, when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall!”
These dishonest prophets falsely claimed to have messages from God, but really just told the people what they wanted to hear. When the people believed them and spurned God’s warnings – described here as building a wall, intended to keep out the punishment God had threatened – the prophets gave them support, symbolically painting their pathetic wall with whitewash.
The coating of whitewash might make a wall look well-built and impregnable, but since it was not built on God’s foundations, it would soon collapse. God’s judgement would be poured out on the false prophets and the people alike, just as the genuine prophets like Ezekiel had announced. In the end, only the foundation would matter, not the gleaming whitewash that looked so nice.
In the same way, our righteousness must be genuine, not just about appearances.[16]
“Good” and “evil” are an obvious pair of contrasting words and it’s not surprising that they occur together quite often in the Bible.
Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat from one particular tree in the Garden of Eden – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[17] They disobeyed the command and death came as a result.[18]
It’s hard for me to imagine how fruit can give such knowledge because I’m used to thinking of eating food as similar to filling up a car with petrol or recharging a battery – the effects aren’t permanent. Clearly this tree was different. A single dose of its fruit had a permanent effect, not only on Adam and Eve but on their children and all of us as their descendants.[19]
We all know what it is like to have the niggling feeling in our mind that something is right or wrong, good or evil. And none of us can remember a time in our life when we didn’t feel our conscience in this way, as an urge that pushes us to do some things because they “feel” right and not to do others because they “feel” wrong. This niggling feeling is also independent of the laws of our country. Our conscience will often stop us from doing things that are quite legal, but don’t seem right, and allow (or even sometimes drive) us to do things that are not legal but seem necessary.
At the same time, although our conscience is independent of law, there is normally a wide overlap between the laws of our country and the laws of our conscience.
Experience also shows that individual consciences are different. Just as our height, build, strength, skills and ability vary from person to person, so does our conscience. And our conscience is not unchangeable: it can be tweaked, twisted, ignored or nourished. It can even be cauterised into silence, or pampered until it becomes hypersensitive, attacking us like an auto-immune disease.
The Bible helps us to avoid these extremes by providing fine tuning for our knowledge of good and evil. You could say that God has given us a conscience for built-in day-to-day navigation, and the Bible to keep our conscience healthily calibrated.
As God said to his people:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil… Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live”
And to the prophet Amos:
“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate;…”
In our earlier discussion of light and darkness, we saw that some people will rebel against God’s definitions of good and evil and do their best to reverse them.[20] We can subvert the operation of our conscience over time, if we form a habit of ignoring it or listening to others who try to convince us that its guidance is wrong. The end of this path is to join the group God describes as:
“you who hate the good and love the evil…”
Overall, what we do shows whether our consciences are well-calibrated or badly out of adjustment. As Jesus said,
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Notes
| ↑1 | A dipole is a pair of equal and oppositely charged or magnetised poles separated by a distance. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | 1 John 1:5 |
| ↑3 | Genesis 1:1-3 |
| ↑4 | Genesis 1:31 |
| ↑5 | Isaiah 45:7 |
| ↑6 | Matthew 5:14-16; 6:22-23; Luke 11:33-36; John 15:8 |
| ↑7 | John 8:12; 9:5 |
| ↑8 | Psalm 27:1; Psalm 36:9; Psalm 56:13; Isaiah 58:8; John 1:5; 16:33; Romans 13:12 |
| ↑9 | See also John 12:46; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:5. |
| ↑10 | Isaiah 60:19-20; Revelation 21:23-24; Revelation 22:5 |
| ↑11 | 1 John 2:8 |
| ↑12 | Isaiah 1:4 |
| ↑13 | Matthew 26:27-28; 1 Corinthians 11:25-26 |
| ↑14 | Daniel 12:1-4, 8-13; Acts 1:3-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 |
| ↑15 | See also Ezekiel 13:14-15 and Ezekiel 22:28. |
| ↑16 | See Paul’s confrontation with the high priest in Acts 23:1-5. Paul admitted a mistake; not so the high priest. |
| ↑17 | Genesis 2:9, 17 |
| ↑18 | Genesis 3:19 |
| ↑19 | Genesis 3:20 |
| ↑20 | Isaiah 5:20 |
