I’m typically a proponent for the idea that extremism is almost always bad. I say “almost always” because, invariably, there will be something that my thoughts on the subject do not account for and requires extremism, but for the most part, an extreme reaction or thought pattern is incredibly inferior to actions taken in moderation.

Take exercise for example. Too far to one extreme leaves you in bad shape: too little exercise leaves you obese, but too much exercise can be a ridiculous strain on your body. When you try to lose weight, it’s important to maintain a difficult workout, but one that’s not so difficult you can’t do it multiple times a week. If you work out too hard the first time, lactic acid builds up and the pain of overly sore muscles ensues.

For those still in school, excessive laziness when it comes to studying means you won’t know your material, while excessive cram studying last minute leaves the information jumbled and unable to stick in your mind. Both leave you without having the knowledge you need to pass your tests.

Religiously, extreme devotion to correct actions leaves you living life like a Pharisee, while extremism on the other end results in failure to do what God has asked of us.

While many parts of the Bible encourage believers to extreme actions in some cases, such as when it comes to separating ourselves from the world and the things of it, Solomon reminds us that there are times when we need to remember that the extreme answer isn’t always the right answer.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 15 says, “In my futile life I have seen everything: there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.”

This can be equated to questions people often have: why do good things happen to bad people? And why do bad things happen to good people? The answer, of course, is that we live in a fallen world of sin, and the bad things that occur are a result and a consequences of the place we live. Bad things often happen indiscriminately simply because they are bad things and Satan loves to cause as much pain as he can. And sometimes, that pain comes in the form of horrible people living lives with less pain than those who are good.

Solomon merely uses this well-known principle to point out that being good will not save you from the evil of this world while you live in it. No matter how righteous you are, no matter what good you do, you will hurt, you will cry, and you will die on this Earth.

Another way to think of it is like risk assessment. Skydiving is a good example of this. The “wicked” don’t even think of the risk of jumping out of a plane. These are like the people who ignore the safety instructions and do what they think is best. The “righteous” obsess over the safety instructions to the point they drive themselves nuts in doing so and don’t enjoy the experience. The moderate, on the other hand, follow the safety instructions to the letter, but do so in a rational way. When they jump out of the plane, they know they are likely safe from the parachute failing, and so they can enjoy the thrill of skydiving.

Here’s the thing to realize, too. Unlike most risk assessments, which determine whether you should make a choice to do something based on the relative risk of the action, you don’t have a choice on taking an action or not. You only get to choose which action you take. You’re already on the Earth. You’re already alive and you didn’t get to choose not to be born. So now, the choice is not between doing and not doing, but which form of doing things your life will take: either wicked, moderate, or righteous.

Verse 16 says, “Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?”

This can be easily paralleled with the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. They were so bent on appearing righteous that they destroyed who they were as a person. As Solomon says later, there is no person who can live without sin, so don’t rip yourself apart trying to follow every law and rule to the letter. You can even compare this to the idea that you can work your way into Heaven. People who believe this will ruin themselves by trying to do enough good deeds to earn their salvation, even though that’s not how salvation works.

Verse 17 says, “Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?”

Put simply, don’t go around doing things you know will get you in trouble, either. Something that can be rationalized about sin is that many of them can put your very life in real danger. Get angry at the wrong people? They might kill you. Have sex with enough people and you’re likely to catch and STD, possibly even HIV/AIDS, which is deadly. Get greedy and rob a bank at gunpoint? You might get shot. It’s possible to drink your blood alcohol content so high you die, or you could drive drunk into a tree and die. I could go on forever if I needed to. But the fact of the matter is that doing bad things likely comes with a pain/death sentence, so it’s best to avoid as many bad things as possible.

Verses 18 and 20 say, “It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them. (20) There is certainly no righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins.”

Verse 20 is likely one of the most concrete verses about this subject in the Bible. If we take it at face value, with the knowledge we have from the rest of the Bible, we know that we are made righteous by Jesus’s death, resurrection, and our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior. Not a single one of us only does good. We are incapable of not doing some evil in the sight of God because we will sin as long as we live on this Earth. So, it is inevitable, then, that the one who trusts and fears God will have the goodness of God living in him while also still doing evil acts in the sight of God as we fall short.

I think the note I wrote in my Bible near verse 18 fits the idea and imagery pretty well, if I can toot my own horn for a minute. It says, “We can’t escape sin in this life, so all we can do is hold on to God and drag our sin behind us.”

Listen, I know that the goal is to become so much like Jesus that we no longer sin, just like He did not sin. But let’s all be realistic and realize that we’ll never get there. We’re not good enough. We’re not perfect. We will not be while we live here. Only when we reach Heaven will we be made perfect. Until then, let us live our lives for Christ, but let’s not beat ourselves up when we make a mistake here and there. Just go to God, be forgiven, and continue to live the live the Lord has given you as well as you can.