NOTES for Amo 5:14

What does it mean to "seek good, and not evil"? At first it looks clear: try to do good deeds, not evil ones. But do we not act that way? Is there anything we do not do from good motives? "We," not "they" - right now we are evaluating not others, but ourselves! And yet our deeds turn out to be evil too often - perhaps because through these actions we react to the evil around us and try to punish it or uproot it.

Let us try truly to seek good and not evil. Without closing our eyes to the existence of evil in the world, in people, and in ourselves, let us still try first of all to see the good, even tiny grains of it. Then we may not want to answer evil with evil at once, but may want to try to change and improve relationships, to multiply the good - and then God, of whom it is said that He is love, will truly be with us.