How to Overcome Evil with Good
It’s much easier to see the speck in someone else’s eye, than it is to see the log in my own. (Matt.7: 3) I want people to act justly towards me. I feel the sting of greed taking a painful hit on my family, and I react in anger towards the selfishness I see so clearly. I’m a mama bear, dangerous, and ready to attack.
Why do people act like this? It’s sick!
-Because they need Jesus…and so do you.
But it would feel so good to shame them. They deserve it. I have just the words…
-No. Don’t retaliate. Forgive. Think about what you deserved, the debt that was paid for you.
An internal dialogue, a battle between the old me, still in process of being redeemed, and the new me, the one who already is. I am abiding in Christ, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), and I am called to something greater. I am called to be like Christ.
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
I can’t do this on my own. I pray and ask for help. The Holy Spirit strengthens me. I think about how to overcome evil with good.
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[a]
and to walk humbly with your God?”
Am I doing all these things?
Do Justice
The word, justice, puts images of courtrooms and equal scales in my head, but according to the Cambridge dictionary, this phrase means…to be accurate or fair by representing someone or something as that person or thing truly is
As a Christian, that means I’m representing Christ. To, do justice, means to represent him fairly. Christ laid down his life for us. There was nothing “fair” about that. I am called to sacrificially lay down my life for others, too. That is how I do justice.
Love kindness
God wants us to look for the good in life. He will take care of evil. Am I seeing the wonder of God’s creation when I look at people? Or am I critical? A heart of gratitude, and intentionally looking for ways to express that, are a way that I can love kindness.
Walk Humbly with your God
The opposite of pride. Trusting that God is sovereign and knows best is to walk humbly. Greed, a product of pride, shown towards me, is what led me down this thought process. It was the evil that I wanted to overcome with good. But first, I need to overcome it in my own life. I realized, after reading an article, by Frank Sonnenburg, called, The Many Faces of Greed that greed is about more than material consumption and luxury items. I too, was guilty of greed. I found myself in one of those descriptions in that article.
I am starting to see the log in my own eye. I’m not hopeless though. I need Jesus. I have Jesus. He is for me and He is for you, too. He died for all sin and when we repent, turning away from that sin, he is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9). So now, I repent, of my own greed, of my own critical spirit, and for holding back on generosity, in favor of what’s “fair” for me.
I no longer feel the need to strike out, to attack. The Holy Spirit has done His work in my heart. I will need His continuing work, daily, until the day I meet Jesus, face-to-face. But the next time, someone hurts me, I hope I will be quicker to forgive, and quicker to remember that it’s because they need Jesus…and I do, too.
