Some people might consider it sufficient to just do their best to live a good life without bothering to turn to the Word to learn the truth. The trouble with such an approach, though, is that without the precepts of doctrine within the mind, it is so very easy for a person to be persuaded to do what is evil. It is through principles of doctrine, acquired from the Word, that the Lord and His angels work to remind us that certain things are wrong, that certain things are not to be done. If we know, for example, not only that it is wrong to steal, but also understand why it is wrong, then this understanding of the truth can help prevent us from doing what is evil. We are not talking here about mere knowledge, but about truth.
Truth is only genuinely true when there is what is good within it.
Just learning things from the Word will not, by itself, protect us from evil. Indeed, when the truth we have is merely knowledge, it is easily perverted by what it evil. However, when we learn truth from the Word so that we might live it, when we learn truth from the Word because within our hearts we desire to follow the Lord and do what is good, then this truth has great power. It has good within it. And the good acting through this truth then protects us against what is evil.17 When we love, and when we live, the truth of the Word, then this truth has great power to protect us from what is evil.