Chapter 18

Why People Do Bad Things

WOULDN’T it be wonderful if everyone were good?⁠— Then no one would ever hurt anyone else.

But is there anyone who really is good all the time? What do you think?⁠— The Bible tells us that Jehovah God is always good. And Jesus, the Great Teacher, always does what is right. But none of us are good all the time.

We may try to be good. But there are times when we think bad things, aren’t there?⁠— And at times we do bad things. The first man, Adam, disobeyed God on purpose. What he did was very bad. As a result, we were all born imperfect. We are all the children of Adam. That is one reason why people do bad things, even though they don’t want to be bad.

But some people do bad things on purpose. They hate other people and do things to hurt them. Do you think a person like that could ever change and learn to be good?⁠—

The Bible gives examples of bad persons who changed. I am going to tell you about one of them. And, together, let’s see if we can figure out why he was bad.

The man’s name was Saul. Saul was a very religious man. He belonged to a religious group  called the Pharisees. They had God’s Word, but they paid more attention to the teachings of some of their own leaders. Do you think that was wise?⁠— It could lead to much trouble.

One day when Saul was in Jerusalem a disciple of Jesus named Stephen was arrested. They took him to court. Some of the judges on the court were Pharisees. Even though bad things were said about him, Stephen was not afraid. He spoke right up and gave the judges a good witness about God and about Jesus.

But those judges did not like what they heard. They became very excited. They grabbed hold of Stephen and took him outside the city. They knocked him down, and threw stones at him until they had killed him.

Saul was right there watching while Stephen was being put to death. He thought it was good to kill him. But how could he think such a bad thing?⁠—

Well, Saul had grown up  as a Pharisee. All his life he had been taught that they were right. He looked to these men for his example. So he copied them.

Now that Stephen was dead, Saul wanted to get rid of the rest of Jesus’ disciples. He began going right into their homes and dragging out both men and women. Then he would have them thrown into prison. Many of the disciples moved away from Jerusalem to get away from Saul. But they did not stop preaching about Jesus.​—Acts 8:1-4.

This caused Saul to hate Jesus’ disciples even more. So he went to the high priest and got permission to arrest Christians in the city of Damascus. But on the way to Damascus an amazing thing happened.

A light flashed from heaven so bright that it made Saul blind. And a voice said: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” It was the Lord Jesus speaking from heaven! So Saul was led blind to Damascus.

Three days later Jesus appeared in a vision to one of his disciples named Ananias. Jesus told Ananias to visit Saul to take away his blindness and to talk to him. Saul was now ready to listen. When Ananias spoke to him, Saul accepted the truth about Jesus. His eyes got back their sight. His entire way of life changed. He became a faithful servant of God.​—Acts 9:1-22.

Now do you see why Saul used to be so bad?⁠— He had been taught wrong things. He  was following men who were not faithful to God. And he belonged to a group of people who put the ideas of men ahead of the Word of God. But Saul changed because he did not really hate the truth.

There are many people today who are like Saul. They can change, but it is not easy. One reason is that someone is working hard to make everyone do bad. Do you know who that is?⁠— Jesus talked about him when he spoke to Saul from heaven. He told Saul: ‘I am sending you to open people’s eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.’​—Acts 26:17, 18.

Yes, it is Satan the Devil who has caused all the teaching of bad things. He wants people to be bad. So if we do what is bad, then the Devil is pleased. But we want to please Jehovah, don’t we?⁠— How can we be sure to do this?⁠—

We will please God if we always pay attention to the Bible and do what it says. When the Bible shows that we have been doing something bad, we should stop doing it. When we learn from the Bible about things that God wants us to do, we should be eager to do them. When we do what pleases God we are doing good things, because God is good.

(For help in avoiding what is bad, read together Proverbs 3:5-7; 12:15; 2:10-14; Psalm 119:9-11 [118:9-11, Dy].)