Is God evil?
Scripture answers this question with absolute clarity: God is not evil, and there is no evil in Him at all. Two great declarations about God's nature settle the matter.
"God Is Light, and in Him Is No Darkness at All"
The apostle John's first epistle opens with what Hamilton Smith calls "the message which we have heard of Him":
Hamilton SmithThe Apostles, as they looked upon Christ, saw the perfect revelation of all that God is. They saw the perfect purity of Christ, and they realised that God is light — absolute holiness. They saw the perfect love of Christ, and they realised that God is love. These are the great truths that the Apostle presses in the course of the Epistle — God is light and God is love (1 John 4:8). Life and light and love have been perfectly set forth in Christ.
That God is light means He is absolute holiness — there is nothing hidden, nothing dark, nothing impure in His nature. Smith continues:
lightBut the truth as to God at once becomes a test of the reality of our profession. If God is light, it follows that, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in a way that proves we are in utter ignorance of God, we profess that which is wholly false.
F. B. Hole, commenting on Psalm 36, draws out both sides of God's character:
F. B. HoleStanding, as we do, in the light of New Testament revelation, we can say that "God is light," and that "God is love." Because He is light we have to speak of righteousness and judgments. Because He is love we can celebrate His mercy and lovingkindness. And both light and love support and maintain His faithfulness.
God Cannot Be Tempted with Evil
The Epistle of James explicitly denies any connection between God and evil. Morrish's Bible Dictionary lists among God's attributes His incorruptibility, citing James 1:13, and summarises the James passage:
Morrish's Bible DictionaryThere is however temptation from within, which is not from God, and this results in sin and death. What is from God is good, for He is the Father of lights.
T. B. Mawson expands on this with great care:
T. B. MawsonWe are all familiar with that character of temptation, and it is recognised in the Scriptures, where we read, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed" (James 1:13-14). ... it is as impossible that God should tempt a man in that way, as it is impossible for Him to lie.
Scripture distinguishes two kinds of "temptation": God may test faith (as He tested Abraham), but He never entices to evil. Evil comes from within man — from his own fallen lusts — never from God.
God's Nature: Only Good
Morrish's Bible Dictionary gives a comprehensive summary of who God is:
Morrish's Bible DictionaryScripture reveals what God is in Himself, 'God is love' (used absolutely), 1 John 4:8; and 'God is light' (used relatively, in opposition to darkness), 1 John 1:5; and Christ is the expression of both in a Man.
Among the divine attributes catalogued there: eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, holiness, justice, grace and mercy, longsuffering, faithfulness — and notably, immutability: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). There is in God "no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
Then Where Does Evil Come From?
J. N. Darby addresses the relationship between God's love and holiness:
J. N. DarbyThe love of God is the source of all our blessings and joys, and God is Love; but in a certain sense His holiness elevates us more... It is said we are "light in the Lord"; He makes us partakers of His holiness — partakers morally of the divine nature.
Evil entered through the will of the creature — not the will of the Creator. Hamilton Smith traces the origin of the world's misery:
Hamilton SmithThus all the misery of the world can be traced to the solemn fact that man became a centre to himself, independent of God, or "lawless". It is plain, then, that the whole world system is marked by these three things: lawlessness, hatred and violence.
Evil is independence from God — the creature choosing its own will over the Creator's. Far from being the author of evil, God is the One who, at infinite cost, has acted to deliver mankind from it. Smith writes of Christ:
independence from GodIn contrast, we see in Christ the perfect expression of love, in that His love led Him to lay down His life for us.
The answer is emphatically no. God is light — absolute holiness with no trace of darkness. God is love — self-giving, not self-seeking. He cannot be tempted by evil, and He tempts no one to evil. Evil has its origin in the creature's will turning away from God, not in God Himself. Everything that comes from God is good, for He is "the Father of lights," in whom there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning."