The "Real World" Lie

"In the real world..."

This is one of those deeply-embedded lies of Satan used to justify almost any behavior. Be very wary of it when you encounter it. In every context that I have encountered it, it has been used to justify evil in the name of good. Sometimes I've seen it used simply to justify outright evil and so-called "necessary evils." There are no "necessary" evils. There is physical evil, which isn't in itself evil but evil only in its effects, and there is moral evil, which is a choice that we are not obligated to make under any circumstances. We may feel tempted or pressured to make that choice, but God gives us the grace to do what is good and just at every moment.

The world is God's creation. Creation has a proper end—redemption in Christ to the glory of God. And creation can be abused through sin, in which case it falls under the domain of Satan. These are the three senses in which the Scriptures speak of the "world."

In the real world, there is a heaven and a hell, and in the real world, all is under God's providence. In the real world, every good and evil shall be accounted for at judgment day, and in the real world, truth has the final say. In the real world, God doesn't need us to sell our souls to evil to do what we shortsightedly believe is good, and in the real world, God can turn the darkest situations into light if we only trust Him and do what is right.

You will say, "In the real world...," but you mean "in the world of lies and falsehood, of corruption and short-term goals, of imprudence and taking matters into one's own hands." That is not the real world, but the corruption of the real world through sin freely committed.