Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:21 (NIV)
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:21 (KJV)
Theme: Living According to God’s Word
This is our 3rd week on this theme. See previous posts here: Everything…With all of Your Heart, No Grumbling
It’s not easy to love those who are unkind to us. I don’t know about you, but when people are mean to me (or, even worse, to my family), I want to treat them the same way…and I want revenge. Unfortunately, that’s my sinful nature talking and that’s not how God’s Word instructs us to handle such situations. Romans 12 tells us not to repay evil with evil (verse 17) and not to seek revenge against those who do us harm. In fact, verse 19 says that God himself will be the one who provides justice: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (KJV). Even more, in verse 20 God directs us to show kindness to our enemies…
“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.” (NIV)
Verse 21 (our verse for this week) then sums it up nicely for us. Rather than giving in to the urge to repay evil with evil, we should overcome evil by doing good.
