TOD 01.30.08

There are three basic kinds of people: the benevolent, the malevolent, and the just. The benevolent want people (or a particular person) to receive better than they deserve. The malevolent want people to receive worse than they deserve. And the just want people to get what they deserve. Most of us have a default setting of justice. We want wrongdoers to suffer and rightdoers to prosper.

Until recently, however, I had always made the mistake of thinking that wanting to see victims of evil restored to their prior condition was a way of emulating God’s benevolence. I was wrong. Defending the innocent is just the parallel desire to prosecuting the guilty, giving people what they really deserve.

Evil is wanting people to suffer unjustly, justice is wanting people to only suffer justly, and goodness is wanting them to not suffer. As good as justice is when compared to malevolence, I have to remind myself that it’s not as good as emulating the grace of a benevolent God.