“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This article is a continuation of yesterday’s article. We discussed not being overcome by evil. That is just half of the subject. The verse continues by advising: “but overcome evil with good.” It is not enough to overcome evil, because that would tend to make us legalistic, self-righteous and judgmental. We must follow this up by actively doing good. We have ample examples in the Bible of people overcoming evil with good. Paul stands as an example, because, before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he was actively involved in persecuting Christians. He was not just opposed to them, but meant to do harm to them. After his conversion, Paul was actively involved in spreading the word that he had opposed. He overcame that evil with good. I want to make a few suggestions of how we can “overcome evil with good.” When we think of doing good, we think of good works. In his epistle, James mentioned that “faith without works is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17) “Being alone” is the important statement here. We are not saved by works, because we could brag about how we got saved if we could work ourselves into God’s favor. (Read Ephesians 2:8-10) But we are not saved by intellectual acceptance of Jesus as Savior; rather, it is a heart decision that literally changes our lives. Before we were saved, we did not do good, but after we were saved we became better people and did good works in the name of Jesus. James wrote: “Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18) In other words, the faith that saves us from evil also enables us to overcome evil with good. The good things that we do to overcome evil are acts of faith. The first way that we can overcome evil with good is to do good for other people. If we really want to discover them, there are all kinds of ways that we can do good for other people. There are a lot of lonely people out there, and some of them probably live near you. You can be the person that helps them overcome their loneliness. You might wonder why you should be the one to do that. You might consider that God is leading you to that person, and that you can make a difference in his or her life. That’s one illustration of how we can overcome evil with good. We need to get away from the idea that church is a building that we gather in. We need to realize that church is comprised of people, and we are “church” in our everyday lives. It’s time for churches to get out of the walls and into the community, overcoming evil with good. The second way that we can overcome evil with good is to let our lights shine in the world. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.” In a way, Jesus is telling us in this verse that we can overcome evil with good. People need to see us living as Christians in our daily lives. This doesn’t mean that we carry a big Bible around with us all of the time, or that we spend all of our time condemning people. There is a place for both of those things, but not before we show people what being a Christian means by doing good works that glorifies our heavenly Father. This is woefully inadequate in covering the subject, but it does give you some things to think about as you consider overcoming evil with good. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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