Article • Discernment
The mind that wars against God calls evil good and good evil. Isaiah named it, Paul explained it, and Scripture gives the cure.
Primary Texts
Isaiah 5:8–23; Romans 8:1–8; Ephesians 4:22–24; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 12:2; Hebrews 5:14
Central Truth
Isaiah 5:20 pronounces a woe on the deliberate inversion of God’s standards. Romans 8 explains why the unconverted mind does it and why it cannot do otherwise. The cure is not better argument. It is a new nature and a renewed mind, given by God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Son: I am confused, Dad. Everything seems backwards, upside down, and makes no sense. People say a man can one day become a woman. A woman can one day become a man, and some say men can become pregnant. Then there is the whole LGBTQ ad infinitum movement. What’s going on, Dad?
Dad: Son, what you are talking about is written in the book of Isaiah. The man of God prophesied that this day would come, and he warned about it.
The Warning Isaiah Issued
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Isaiah 5:20 (NASB 2020)
This verse is a condemnation of moral and spiritual perversion, in which people willfully invert God’s standards of righteousness, treating what is good as bad and what is bad as good. It does not describe honest confusion. It describes a deliberate reversal. Notice the NASB word: substitute. Something is taken away and something else is put in its place, on purpose.
The verse does not stand alone. It is the fourth in a series of six woes that Isaiah pronounces in this chapter, running from verse 8 through verse 23. The list includes greed that joins house to house, drunkenness, presumption, pride, and judges who justify the wicked for a bribe. Isaiah places the inversion of good and evil in that company, which tells us how seriously God regards it.
I call this the Isaiah 5:20 syndrome, and it is not hard to find. Some people deliberately flip God’s standards upside down. They treat evil as good and good as evil. They present what is dark as light, and what is bitter as sweet. Think of someone calling poison medicine.
When people reject God’s truth, they begin redefining things to fit what they want. But God sees it for what it is, and what it is, is rebellion against His ways.
The Carnal Mind and the Spiritual Mind
This also shows the difference between a carnal mind and a spiritual one. A person who has no relationship with God the Father through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is left with a carnal mentality, a way of thinking and understanding that sets the individual against God and against His Word.
Paul states it plainly, and the King James wording is where the phrase carnal mind comes from:
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:5-8 (KJV)
“For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:5-8 (NASB 2020)
Note what Paul says about the capacity of that mind. It is not merely unwilling. It is unable. “Neither indeed can be,” says the King James. This is why arguing a man out of the Isaiah 5:20 syndrome so rarely works. The problem is not a shortage of information. The problem is the nature of the mind receiving it.
Paul says the same thing elsewhere: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14, KJV).
The Biblical Cure
Here is the biblical antidote to the Isaiah 5:20 syndrome.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:1-2 (KJV)
“Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Romans 8:1-2 (NASB 2020)
The cure is not better arguments or stricter rules. The cure is a new nature, given by God to everyone who trusts His Son.
That new nature comes with a renewed mind, and the renewing is ongoing. Paul places it between putting off the old man and putting on the new:
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Ephesians 4:22-24 (KJV)
The same apostle writes, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2, KJV). And the writer of Hebrews describes mature believers as “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14, KJV). That is the exact capacity Isaiah 5:20 says the wicked have thrown away.
Conclusion
Through faith in Jesus Christ, God sets a person free from the power of sin and renews that person’s mind, so that he can discern truth from error, light from darkness, and good from evil, and walk in a manner that pleases God and gives Him glory. Amen.
Salvation is only through a personal relationship with God the Father by grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. At the moment of saving faith, the believer is instantly and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who regenerates, seals, leads, guides, empowers, and sanctifies in their walk with God.
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Related Teaching
Blinded Minds: Why the Gospel Is Veiled
Hellish Deception Has Been Released Into the World
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
Watch the teachingNew verse by verse studies go out every week on YouTube, King James Version, with the passage on the screen. Subscribe to The Prevailing Word of God, taught by Pastor John Kempf of Melbourne, Florida.