Most non-believers are not evil. They have normal healthy desires. They want loving families and meaningful creative lives. They desire to live worthy of respect and to be a benefit to their community. The brothers of Jesus were no different than most non-believers. They did not believe He was the Son of God, but they did believe He was gifted. They wanted Jesus to reveal Himself to the people at the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles, and to take the first steps to becoming a great political leader. They hoped He would change the condition of the Jewish people as they struggled under Roman rule. These were good men, but they were not righteous men.

The religious leaders of the Jews were evil. The brothers failed to recognize that many people do not desire to do good. Evil people have allowed the sinful nature we are all born with to pervert all that was good within them. They have given themselves and their desires over to greed, anger, hate, immorality and all manners of depravity. We cannot know all of their evil desires, but Jesus did. Their desire had advanced to the point of lust. They lusted for wealth, power, comfort, authority and so much more. To keep what they had, and to gain what they wanted, there was no limit to the evil they were willing to do. They would lie, cheat and steal. They were even willing to kill Jesus to shut Him up and to get Him out of their way.

Wicked men control others through threats and fear. They also use ignorance. People unaware of a problem will never take action to solve it. A righteous person cannot please God while willingly living in fear and ignorance. Jesus was not ignorant, He knew what He needed to do. Just as importantly, He knew when to do it. To be like Jesus, we must desire His Holy Spirit to help us know what we need to know, what we need to do, and when we need to do it.