The discussions of all the lay writers, both Russian and foreign, no matter how different their tone and the manner of their arguments may be, in reality reduce themselves to one and the same strange misunderstanding, namely, that Christ’s teaching, one of the consequences of which is nonresistance to evil, is useless to us, because it demands that our life be changed.
Christ’s teaching is useless, because, if it were put into practice, our life could not continue; in other words—if we began to live well, as Christ has taught us, we could not continue to live badly, as we live and are accustomed to live. The question of nonresistance to evil is not discussed, and the very mention of the fact that the demand for nonresistance to evil enters into Christ’s teaching is considered a sufficient proof of the inapplicability of the whole teaching.
And yet, it would seem, it is indispensable to point out some kind of a solution to this question, because it lies at the foundation of nearly all affairs which interest us.
The question consists in this: how are we to harmonize the conflicts of men, when some consider an evil what others consider to be good, and vice versa? And so, to consider that an evil which I consider an evil, although my adversary may consider it good, is no answer. There can be but two answers: either we have to find a true and indisputable criterion of what an evil is, or we must not resist evil with violence.