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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.”
In questionnaires or quizzes we use contrasting options like “Yes” and “No” or “True” and “False”. Our word choice highlights the fact that these are opposites: “Yes” cannot mean “No”; something “True” cannot be “False” and vice versa.
Truth is absolute. Truth is not relative. Claiming that something is true or “true for you” cannot make it true if it is false. And calling something false when it is true does not make it false either.
Yet there is one feature of truth that our legal systems concentrate on that has very little to do with truth itself. When people give an affirmation or take an oath in a court of law, they are required to commit to telling not only the truth and nothing but the truth; they must tell the whole truth.[21] This goes well beyond merely promising to speak the truth and tell no lies: it precludes the keeping of secrets.
Sometimes, this detail causes people to misunderstand God’s commitment to truth. We can feel that our legal requirement for testimony is somehow the definition of truth itself. It isn’t. God never lies, so that part of the commitment made by witnesses is covered. However, God has never said that he will tell us the whole truth. Just think about it: since God knows everything, past, present and future, if he were to tell us the whole truth, the world would be full of books describing everything that has ever happened or will happen. Apart from the fact that there would be no room on earth to move, there would also be no place for goals, ambition, aspirations, hope, faith or anything else that describes our efforts to direct our lives. Nothing would be under our control; our inescapable future would already have been written down, second by second. No pre-documented failure could be avoided; no event lauded as a surprise; no achievement welcomed with the common expression, “I had almost given up!”
How tedious life would be!
Fortunately for our enjoyment of life and our opportunity for satisfaction, God does not have any commitment to delivering “the whole truth” which our legal systems demand of witnesses. God knows better.
Where does this difference of approach to truth lead us?
I could write endlessly about the inconsistency of a society which compels court witnesses to tell the whole truth (while allowing them to claim only reasonable expenses) but rewards with highly-paid careers, clever people whose sole goal is to cast doubt on true evidence so that the guilty can escape scot-free. When a society abandons God,[22] the voices of evil shamelessly promote lies – and do their best to silence inconvenient truths. Statistics are twisted into lies; so-called news filters out unwanted information and only reports biased opinion; history is rewritten to suit current trends in society; innocent blood is shed; villains are honoured; heroes are villainized. Truth becomes an enemy of the state.
Enough said.
Now for the good news. The Bible tells us that truth is very important to God. God never lies – in fact, he hates lies.
In Proverbs 6:16-19 Solomon gives a list of things which God hates, and lies are mentioned more than once:
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
• haughty eyes,
• a lying tongue, and
• hands that shed innocent blood,
• a heart that devises wicked plans,
• feet that make haste to run to evil,
• a false witness who breathes out lies, and
• one who sows discord among brothers.”
Our legal systems insist that witnesses must tell the truth, which agrees with the ninth of the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”
Under God’s laws, witnesses must truly report what they saw. This principle is reiterated in Solomon’s book of Proverbs:
“Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.”
The book also likens a false witness to a dangerous weapon:
“A man who bears false witness against his neighbour is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.”
In the Old Testament, the first book of Kings tells us about a king called Ahab who sought to buy a vineyard near his palace, intending to turn it into a vegetable garden.[23] When the owner, Naboth, refused to sell it, King Ahab complained to his evil queen, Jezebel – who was never short of vindictive ideas for getting what she wanted. She promptly ordered the leaders of the town to honour Naboth, while at the same time arranging false witnesses to turn people against him. Jezebel’s plan worked: the witnesses lied about Naboth and he was stoned to death along with his sons. Ahab immediately took control of the vineyard, but his corrupt behaviour didn’t go unpunished. God promised that his dynasty would come to an end because of this travesty of justice and that Jezebel would die ignominiously and be eaten by dogs. She, and her henpecked husband, got what they deserved.
God had previously said in the law of Moses that if people were caught giving false evidence so as to convict innocent people, the false witnesses were to be punished with the same punishment as they had tried to bring upon their victims.[24]
That seems fair.
What about God himself, then? If God hates lies, does he ever lie himself?
The simple answer is: “No.” As Paul expressed it:
“…God, who never lies…”
As we have seen before in this series, such a point can be confirmed by using opposites. So, in a Psalm of David, God is described as the “God of truth”:
“Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.”
Interestingly, the first part of this verse is quoted by Jesus just before he died on the cross.
A message repeated frequently throughout the Bible is that truth is associated with God, and lies with idols or creature-worship (including the worship of our human intellect which is so common in science and society today). Paul explains the situation in Romans:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
As Paul said, creation truly shows a creator. Explanations of creation that deny a creator are lies. Imagine an explanation of the creation of a car or a bridge or a phone that denied a designer!
For God then, truth is a fundamental part of his character, and anyone who wants to please God has to develop their character along the same lines. In his letters, the apostle John says plenty about the value and importance of truth and contrasts it with the destructive nature of lies. One example from the first chapter is:
“If we say we have fellowship with [God] while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
Earlier, we looked at light and darkness as opposites, and John shows that the contrast between them is the same as that between truth and lies. In chapter 2, he makes it clear that he isn’t writing because his audience is ignorant, but because they know the truth, and that lies and truth will always be in conflict. They can never agree:
“I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”
John also warned his audience that there are plenty of people who will try to teach them lies:
“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from [Jesus] abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything—and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you—abide in him.”
Truth must be clung to, while lies are to be rejected.
There are plenty of examples of people telling lies throughout the Bible, sometimes even to protect others. On many occasions there is no immediate reflection on whether their lying was good or bad. However, God makes sure that we know exactly what he wants by spelling out the principles very clearly in many places in the Bible. He gives us life examples without a specified judgement so that we can exercise – and strengthen – our moral muscles.
Our society argues that lies are sometimes necessary, or at least excusable, but if so, does that mean God lies? Remember, God cannot lie.
Paul puts God’s requirement very simply:
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.”
For followers of Jesus, lies are not an option. Truth is the only option. Don’t forget, however, that there is no requirement to speak the whole truth:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…”
We do not need to answer every question we are asked. Diversion is allowable. Creative evasion can be a good idea. For sure, always speak the truth, but there is no need to speak the truth cruelly. Once again, God does not tell us everything about the future. Our questions are not all answered.
“White lies” – as they are politely called – are still lies.
If we know God, truth will grow strong in us and lies will wither. Jeremiah describes the converse of this in his society 600 years before Jesus:
“They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the Lord.”
Will you choose truth or lies? It’s up to you, but don’t flirt with lies if you want to please God or become like Jesus.
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 |
| ↑21 | Wikipedia: “Sworn testimony” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ |
| ↑22 | See Isaiah 59 for a stark description of just such a situation in Isaiah’s time. |
| ↑23 | For the full details, including God’s punishment of Ahab’s family and Jezebel, see 1 Kings 21:1-29 and 2 Kings 9:1-10:17. |
| ↑24 | Deuteronomy 19:16-21 |
| ↑25 | See also Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29. |
| ↑26 | See also Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 26:3; Psalm 86:11; Isaiah 65:16. Note that some translations use “faithfulness” instead of “truth” in these verses. The meaning is very similar, and considering the close association between the two can help us to understand God’s consistency and reliability a little better. It may also help us to see more clearly what faithfulness in marriage should look like. |
