Good And Evil (Eccl. 7:15-28)

So we must try to act now according to the good. Yet we cannot really know whether any action we take is wholly good or wholly evil. When we imagine we are acting righteously, wickedness may creep in, and vice versa (Eccl. 7:16-18). For “surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning” (Eccl. 7:20). The truth of good and evil “is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?” (Eccl. 7:24, emphasis added). As if to emphasize this difficulty, the characteristic phrase “not found” is repeated again twice in Eccl. 7:28.

The best we can do is to fear God (Eccl. 7:18); that is to say, to avoid arrogance and self-righteousness. A good self-diagnostic is to examine whether we have to resort to twisted logic and complicated schemes to justify our actions. “God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes” (Eccl. 7:29). Work has many complexities, many factors that have to be taken into account, and moral certainty is usually impossible. But ethical pretzel logic is almost always a bad sign.

There is No Way to Find Out What is Good to Do (Eccl 6:10-8:17), Theology of Work Project, Copyright © 2014 Theology of Work Project, Inc. Also find this article in Theology of Work Bible Commentary, Volume 2: Joshua through Song of Songs. For additional resources, please see The Theology of Work Project Series.