As I read the Bible, I often consider the difference between the thoughts of man and the thoughts of God. The Bible says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). Sometimes, when I see really evil characters, people who commit heinous crimes, I marvel that Jesus died even for the likes of them. Then there are those who use their writings to lure others into a clever trap, backing them into a corner from which there is no escape. This is more frightening than the threat of a nasty punch or some other physical injury. Such people appear to be respectable on the outside and yet they torment others, pinning them to the wall. No matter how carefully you may look, you won't be able to see the evil within man, even through the lens of a microscope. Even as people smile and shake hands, their hearts are full of evil intent. This evil is invisible, but it moves into action whenever the necessity arises. It's really strange, isn't it?

David was a good king as well as a prophet, and yet there was still one occasion on which he committed a terrible sin. One day as he was looking down from the roof of his house, he saw a beautiful woman bathing and he summoned her to his palace. Since he was king, he could do with her as he pleased. Later, to hide his sin, he summoned the woman's husband, Uriah, from the battlefield. Uriah came, battle-weary and covered with dust. He was so faithful to his king, however, that he didn't return home, but slept at the door of the royal palace with all the other servants of the king. David panicked and tried to push Uriah to go home. Why did David behave like this? He had slept with this man's wife, and she had conceived a child. In the end, when Uriah refused to go home, David sent him to the front line of the battle so that he would be killed.

Later, David realized that he had committed a terrible sin and he wept bitterly. Psalm 51 contains David's words of repentance.

David's life reveals both the good and evil aspects of human nature.

Once when I turned on the television, I happened to see a movie in which the hero was a really wicked man. He took a machine gun and shot at some people, and they all fell to the ground. He just mowed them down. Later in the movie, when the police began to chase this man, however, I found myself hoping that he wouldn't get caught. I don't know where this attitude came from. It's true that the movie would have come to an end if the villain had been caught, but quite apart from that, I simply wanted him to survive to the end.

When I find myself reacting like that, I can see that there is evil inside of me as well. The apostle Paul was also aware of this evil that coexisted inside of him as he said, "O wretched man that I am!" (Romans 7:24). We all have this sinful nature inside of us, so are we in a position to be able to condemn Judas Iscariot as evil for betraying Jesus? After he betrayed Jesus, his conscience tormented him so much that he took the money he had received and threw it down in the temple. Then he went away and committed suicide by hanging himself.

When the Bible says, "that whosoever believeth," this "whosoever" applies to everyone all the different kinds of people that there are, including those you hate and those who hate you. Everyone is included.

When people begin to feel uncertain about their lives on this earth, they tend to think impulsively about life after death, imagining how peaceful everything will be then. They have an image of heaven that stems from their human desires, but such is not eternal life. People think they will go to heaven after they die. They live for seventy, eighty, or maybe even one hundred years, but the image of heaven that they conjure up during that time, using all the powers of imagination that they have within them, will be nothing like eternal life on the level that it actually is. Eternal life can't be limited to a world of blessings and pleasures to which a person's spirit goes when his life in the flesh comes to an end.

Eternal life is nothing like that; it's given by the Spirit of God who created the heavens and the earth and it's given to everyone who believes. The Holy Spirit is eternal life, and this eternal life must enter the hearts of men.