Overcoming Evil
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Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever been so hurt by someone that you had such an emotional reaction that all you wanted to do was get back at them? In fact, you may have been so angry or so hurt that to not get back at them would be unjust, unethical, down-right wrong. This morning, we are looking at the Christian response to the person who has hurt us, angered us, betrayed us, or wronged us in some other manner.
The world would tell us to get even. They may even use the Bible to back up their thoughts: “An eye for an eye,” they may say. And if we are being conformed to this world, we very likely would figure out some way to get back at them. But if we are being transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we know what God’s will is—what is good and acceptable and perfect, then we will seek to live by the verses we study today.
These verses teach us three steps to a Christ-like response when we are done wrong. The first step is to consider. The second is to consign. And the final step is to conquer.
Consider
Consign
Conquer
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Consider. . .Honor and Peace
Consider. . .Honor and Peace
The first step in having a Christ-like response when we as Christians have been done wrong is to consider God’s will—what is good and acceptable and perfect. In the Greek, all of these imperatives that we are reading in Romans 12:3-21 are pretty much all participles. Now, they are considered imperatival participles—participles standing in for imperatives (commands), but I cannot disconnect them from the actual imperatives (commands) of verse 2 to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Here Paul tells us not to repay evil for evil, instead we need to give thought. The word itself actually to think toward, or we could say, think hard. Thus our first step is not to give in to our instinct and repay evil for evil, but instead think hard about doing the honorable thing. We could say the morally right or morally good thing.
Now, before going further, I want us to understand something. We are about to go into chapter 13 where Paul talks about government and submitting to government. And the main thrust of that text is that government is God’s temporal tool for justice. So, when we are talking here about pay-back, we are not talking about justice. God allows for justice, but that comes by way of government. We are talking about vengeance as we see in verse 19.
Our first step then in avoiding the sin of vengeance is to consider—long and hard—as to what is the honorable, the morally right, thing to do. And Paul wrote that this honorable thing is honorable in the sight of all. In other words, God has given common grace to all persons and there is still a standard of what is good and bad. We, as Christians, are to take that into consideration. We do not take into consideration how the world may not understand, but we do take into consideration what the world considers honorable.
Let me explain quickly. We may, having considered what is morally good before all, decide to help the mechanic stranded on the side of the road even though he just cheated us out of hundreds of dollars on repairs we didn’t need. The world would not understand why we would do such a thing. Yet, they’d also find it to be good and honorable that we did.
Paul wrote that we are to live peaceably with all. I see this directly connected with doing what is honorable. The Greek phraseology is nearly the same: before all man, with all man. Thus, what we ought to be considering is how our response helps us to live honorably and peacefully among those in this world. We are not to escalate matters, but deescalate them. Jesus said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The world says to hate your enemy—the one who has wounded you. The world says ignore them or repay them for what they’ve done. Jesus says engage them by loving them, greeting them, and helping them. Otherwise, you’re no better than those who are do not know him. We are to be perfect. Same word Paul used: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what the will of God is—what is good, acceptable, and perfect.” And what testing it is when someone has wounded you so deeply!
Consign. . .Yourself and Your Situation
Consign. . .Yourself and Your Situation
The first step in responding in a Christ-like manner is to consider what will help you live honorably and peaceably among those in the world. The second step is to consign yourself and your situation to God.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
The only way we can beat the temptation to avenge ourselves is to consign ourselves and our situations to God and allow him to handle it. I love the fact that Paul uses the word “Beloved” here; it’s a term of endearment. He knows that this is not easy. Everything in us is telling us to fight back, hold a grudge, make them pay. Yet the renewed mind—the Christian mindset—is to consign the self and the situation to God. If we do this, we are being transformed into the image of his Son.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Notice those words at the end of verse 23: “But continued entrusting himself (consigning himself) to him who judges justly.” Like Jesus, we must learn to turn everything over to him who judges justly. He is our example, Peter wrote. We are to follow in his steps. The world tells us that justice delayed is justice denied but the Word tells us that justice is never denied with God. The world tells us that sometimes we must take matters into our own hands but the Word says we must take these matters out of our hands and consign them into his. Never avenge yourselves. The original says “Leave room for wrath.” And Paul quotes a verse stating God’s possession and promise.
“Vengeance is mine.” That’s his possession. It belongs to him. Therefore to take vengeance on our own is to wrest it away from God to whom it belongs. We steal what rightfully belongs to God. “I will repay.” That’s his promise. We should note that this is future. We don’t know when that payment will come. It’s a future promise. We may want the payback now, but God’s promise is that the person who has done evil to us will not get away with it. He will repay. But I do think that we miss the fact that God says, “I will repay.” We tend to focus on the future aspect rather than the personal aspect. In inflected languages like Greek, Spanish, or even Hebrew, the pronouns are built into the verbs. There’s no need for a pronoun like there is in English. “He hit the ball.” We can’t just say, “Hit the ball.” Who hit the ball? He hit the ball? She hit the ball? It hit the ball? Or are we ordering you to hit the ball? Inflected languages already have the he within the word. They don’t need to pronoun. If the pronoun shows up with the verb, then it is often because the person wants to emphasize the person doing the action, even more than the action. “I will repay.” The pronoun I is actually part of the sentence; Paul and the original writer Moses quoting God himself, are all emphasizing that it is God and no one else who is to repay the evil done. Only God and no one else has the right to do so. Only God and no one else is just enough to extend the wrath that is due.
Conquer. . .Your Evil and Theirs
Conquer. . .Your Evil and Theirs
So the first step in responding to evil done against you is to consider how to live honorably and peaceably among the people of this world. The second is to consign yourself and your situation to God who promises to repay. The third is to conquer your own evil heart and the heart of those who did evil to you.
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul moved from quoting Moses to quoting Solomon. He is thus giving an example of what is honorable and peaceable. If your enemy (same word Jesus used) is hungry, feed him. If thirsty, give him something to drink. Again, the world will wonder about why you would do such a thing. But they’d also find it honorable. They’d say something like, “He’s a better man than me. She’s a lot more kindhearted than I would be.” But in giving the examples of how to show honor and peace among those in the world, he is showing the response of the enemy.
No one knows for sure exactly where this saying about heaping burning coals on his head comes from. Most scholars think that it came from an ancient Egyptian custom in which a repentant man would walk through the street with a basket of burning coal on his head representing the shame and pain he felt for his evil. I like Chuck Swindoll’s thoughts. He says it is seems more like a man during the great depression, who in his poverty comes “hat in hand,” humbly asking for someone, anyone to put in a few coins so he may live. Hot coals were needed in ancient days. They didn’t have gas and electric stoves. They had hot coals. To have no hot coals meant eating cold food. Thus to give an enemy food and drink, was giving him life. It would take a lot of humility for an enemy to come asking for food. In that moment, we aren’t to belittle him. We aren’t to gloat. We aren’t to say, “My how the tide has turned!” We are to feed and help and love our enemy. Either interpretation will work. We help an enemy to repent by loving him or we help restore the one who has hurt us.
When Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus did not shame him. Instead, he restored him. Three times denied; three times restored.
In loving our enemies, we are neither overcome by their evil—allowing their wrongs done to us to get the better of us so that we respond as the world rather than as Jesus. But neither are we overcome by our own evil—giving into the inclinations of our own hearts to repay them for what they’ve done. Instead, we overcome their evil and our evil with good.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close out Romans 12 this week, I hope we see that these three steps are needed for a Christ-honoring response to evil. We must Consider what is honorable and peaceable. We must consign the situation to God and let him handle it. We must conquer our evil as well as theirs with love.
I am sure that many of us have had evil done against us. And those feelings of vengeance—whether spoken vengeance or acted vengeance—have arisen. It may come about in various way: saying hurtful things because hurtful things were said against you. Doing spiteful acts of retaliation or even just ignoring them like they don’t even exist. Refusing to talk with them; refusing to extend grace; refusing to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and living according to God’s will. In short, you’d rather live in the dark recesses of your heart rather than walking in the light as he is in the light. These are sinful reactions. These are not the ways of Jesus, who suffered, leaving us an example. But lest we forget, he not only suffered leaving us an example. He suffered to forgive us of our sin.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
We are to die to the sin of self-avenging attitudes, words, and actions. We are to live to righteousness, entrusting God to do what is just.
Some of you are carrying a pain that needs to be let go. I’ve been there. I know the weight of it. I know how scary and maddening it is even thinking about letting it go. I know the sense of dread with letting go. Who can I trust to hold onto such pain? Consign it over to God. He is trustworthy.
There are some here who need that kind of forgiveness yourselves. The evil done against God needs to be washed clean. You need healing from those wrongs. If you will trust him, Jesus will remove them from you forever.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.