Overcome or be Overcome
Scripture Reading: Romans 12:9-21
Do not be overcome by evil… (v.21)
When Paul says “do not be overcome by evil” he can’t mean that we can always control the external effects that evil might have on our lives. Christian history is littered with the bodies of saints whose lives were struck down by evil. The ink on the first lines of the story of the church is still drying when the pages are splattered by the blood of Stephen, stoned to death for preaching Christ. Evil does what evil does, and sometimes what evil does is to the demise of Jesus’ loving folks.
So, what does Paul intend by exhorting us to not be overcome by evil? I think he has in mind what happens to our inner man more than what happens to our outer man. He is concerned with what we do about the evil that is done to us. He cares about whether or not evil can loosen our grip on what is good (v.9). He wants us to keep on loving others, doing good, serving Jesus, praying, rejoicing, giving, and being hospitable. Evil overcomes us when it hurts us in ways that cause us to turn in on ourselves, go into a shell, and stop caring for and serving one another.
Evil also overcomes us when we cease to be Christlike in our response to those who perpetrate harm. When we curse instead of bless, when we strike back and take vengeance into our own hands rather than leaving that to God, evil has gotten the upper hand.
How do we overcome evil rather than being overcome by it? With good. We overcome evil when we feed our hungry enemy and give our thirsty antagonist something to drink. We win over evil when we bless our persecutors and pray for those who seek to do us harm.
None of this means that evil can’t hurt us in a physical, economic, or temporal way. It can. But that isn’t the devil’s main objective. His main objective is to make us more like him and less like Christ. We overcome that with the weapon of good.