Living Understanding Pt 9: Overcome evil

Romans 12:9-21                    9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

1Peter 2:22-23                       22“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”  23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Hate what is evil

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Your deeds speak so loudly that I cannot hear your words.”  That sort of inconsistency is what Paul is writing about here, and I rather like the fact that Paul found it necessary to remind people of these things.  It reminds me that we residents of the 21st Century aren’t really so much different from those of the 1st, in spite of the condition the world is currently in.  I also find it interesting that the first clause cautions us to be sincere in our love, and the very next is that we should hate what is evil.

I find the two concepts to be connected:  Our love should be unhypocritical whether we are talking about God, or fellow believer, or worldly neighbor, or even enemies.  I think all of us would say, “Of course I hate what is evil!”, but there is a tinge of evil in hypocrisy, isn’t there?  If we love only those who love us, aren’t we rejecting the second Greatest Commandment?

36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

Live at peace

One of the main thrusts of God’s Word is to love others, even one’s enemies, but what occasionally happens is that the believer, in attempting to follow the second Greatest Commandment, allows himself to be ‘overrun’ by that other person.  Living at peace with someone does not require us to be emotionally beat up by that person.  There are two exceptions to ‘living at peace with everyone’.  One is “If it is possible.”  We must at all times seek righteousness and holiness, so if maintaining peace means engaging in sin, or the sacrifice of truth or honor, then it is not to be pursued.

The other exception is “as far as it depends upon you.”  Sometimes peace can’t be maintained, but we must make certain we are not the cause of the lack of peace.  God will not hold us accountable for the lack of peace if we have done everything possible to achieve it.

Leave room for God’s wrath

We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves and we are commanded to love even our enemies.  But most of us have a problem with this.  We live in a sinful world and we ourselves are sinful people so when we are wronged it is often a natural temptation to try to get even.  Worse than that is the so-called ‘third party offense’ in that someone has hurt one of our loved ones.  In all these circumstances, the resultant revenge is nothing less than our playing God.  We have no right to do that; we do not see as God sees, and we do not love as God loves.

In the midst of our anger at what our opponent did we must remember what Christ did for each of us.  He willingly sacrificed himself and willingly removed God’s wrath from our shoulders.  Can we do less?  And remember, we must do this willingly and kindly.  Our heart is not right with God if in not seeking revenge we are doing it griping and grumbling under our breath.  Here is where the rubber meets the road in loving our enemies.  We should not only not seek vengeance, but actively pray for that opponent;  “Lord,” we should say, “give grace to that person, help him repent and seek forgiveness, and help him find salvation!” 

Overcome evil with good

Contrary to getting even, the Godly response to an opponent is to overcome evil with good.  Many people would say this is unrealistic thinking.  They would say, “An evil opponent won’t notice such actions, and doesn’t care anyway.”  Those people are missing the point.  If we are overcome by evil we have let our opponent get us down and jar us into planning and acting out retribution.  In other words, we have been drawn into returning evil for evil.  No, overcoming evil with good is not about overcoming our enemy’s evil, it’s about overcoming our own evil.

We are children of God; we have been redeemed by the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, our Savior.  This is our victorious life, not our enemy’s sin.  This victorious life is marked by the sanctifying process of becoming more and more transformed into the image of Jesus.  Paul says in Romans 12:1-2,

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

To be transformed, to overcome evil, means to live a life of faith in love with Jesus, neighbors, family, and especially that opponent.  It means to live in humility, peace, kindness, hospitality, and gentleness.

What about me?

Today’s world is difficult.  It is rife with sin, and evil.  But having a difficult time does not free us from the responsibility to live more and more like Christ.  He loves us, forgives us, sanctifies us, sustains us, and maintains us.  We can’t be victorious through the flesh, through human effort.  But Jesus will help us overcome as long as we allow him to.  Believer, when you are having a difficult time, talk to him.  It’s called prayer.  It works.