If we do wrong and no harm comes of it, we are not thereby justified. If we did evil and good came of it, the evil would be just as evil. It is not the result of the action, but the action itself which God weighs.
Interpretation
Moral actions are judged by their nature, not their outcomes.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of the intention and nature of our actions rather than the results they produce. It suggests that doing something wrong is not justified simply because it does not lead to harm, and that good outcomes do not redeem evil actions. Ultimately, it is the intrinsic morality of the action itself that is important in the eyes of a higher moral authority, in this case, God.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics in business, this quote can highlight the importance of ethical practices regardless of outcomes.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Our brains have been designed to blur the line between self and other. It is an ancient neural circuitry that marks every mammal, from mouse to elephant.
The Cheshire Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt it ought to be treated with respect.
No individual rain drop ever considers itself responsible for the flood.
For the butterfly, mating and propagation involve the sacrifice of life, for the human being, the sacrifice of beauty.
Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval.
If something were brought about without an antecedent cause, it would be untrue that all things come about through fate. But if it is plausible that all events have an antecedent cause, what ground can be offered for not conceding that all things come about through fate?
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