One of the most reliable mechanisms by which societies maintain comfortable dysfunction is the redefinition of evil. Rather than confronting what is wrong, the culture adjusts the definition — moving the line until the behavior in question falls on the acceptable side. Scripture calls this out directly.
The Mistaken Assumption
Moral standards evolve as understanding develops. What previous generations called evil reflected their limited perspective. Greater sophistication reveals that what seemed harmful is actually benign, or that the real harm was in the prohibition rather than the behavior. Redefining evil is not corruption — it is correction.
What Scripture Actually Shows
Isaiah 5:20-21 addresses this precisely: woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. The warning is not against making moral errors — it is against the deliberate inversion of categories for comfort. The prophets consistently confronted Israel not for ignorance but for knowing what was right and relabeling it so they could continue doing what was wrong without moral discomfort. This pattern is also visible in the New Testament — false teachers are described not primarily as ignorant but as those who suppress truth (Romans 1:18) and whose consciences have been seared (1 Timothy 4:2).
Why This Feels Hard
Redefinition is gradual and always accompanied by reasonable-sounding justification. Each individual step seems defensible. It is only when you look at the distance traveled that the direction becomes clear. And by the time the direction is clear, the relabeling has become the new normal, and questioning it seems extreme.
What Faith Looks Like Here
Holding to definitions that the surrounding culture has abandoned requires both clarity and humility. Clarity — because the temptation to drift with the redefinition is real and requires active resistance. Humility — because the history of Christians confidently applying the wrong label to the wrong thing is also real. The discipline is returning constantly to Scripture, reading it honestly, and being willing to be corrected by it rather than using it to confirm what you already decided.