Overcome Evil with Good!

He took my toy truck, so I gave him a brownie. She took my doll, so I gave her a juice box. Those are probably not scenarios we see play out at home, school or the playground, nor are they what we remember from growing up. Instead, when we are wronged, we take revenge. So, to the boy who took your toy truck, you take his and maybe even smash or throw it across the room. And to the girl who took your doll, you take hers and maybe even pull its hair out or draw on it with permanent marker.

Whether young or old, we are good at getting even. At an early age, Joseph was tempted with revenge. He was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. When he was seventeen, most of his brothers turned on him in a jealous rage almost killing him but settling instead to sell him into slavery. After years of slavery in Egypt, God blessed him to become the head servant for Pharoah’s captain of the guard, which is like the director of the Secret Service. Then, he was framed by the captain’s wife for adultery and put into jail, where he was in time again blessed to be put in charge over all the other prisoners. Eventually, he was freed because God allowed him to interpret Pharoah’s dreams of seven years of plenty and seven of famine. Pharaoh placed him second in command of all of Egypt, so that they would have grain stored up for the seven years of famine. This famine brought Joseph’s brothers back into his life, and after he shared who he was with them, we hear their reaction in our Old Testament reading from Genesis 45,

3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

They took his freedom, family, homeland, etc. so they were terrified expecting revenge.

Revenge comes naturally to us. The moment we are wronged in any way, all the alarms go off in our minds that we want, need and deserve to take revenge. When we are hurt, the loss we experience drives us to refill that space with something we take from someone else. When we are wronged, our sinful nature reacts quickly; it is our default that no one needs to teach us. Revenge comes naturally to us and our sinful nature because it focuses inward. Our sinful nature is not focused on God or others. Instead, we are by nature driven to build our own kingdoms with our own rules, so any wrongdoing toward us is felt as an attack. And when attacked we attack back. When our sinful nature overwhelms us to respond this way it poses a serious threat to us as God’s people as we read in 1 Peter 2,

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

We are foreigners and exiles in this world because we are God’s people and citizens of heaven. When our sinful nature overwhelms us to carry out revenge, it hurts God and others. Plus, it wages war against our soul attempting to overcome us, cutting us off from people and worst cutting us off from God.

Revenge ruins relationships, but God restores them. God does not want us to be overcome by evil, as we read in our New Testament reading from Romans 12,

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Roman Empire operated on the principles of force and fear at the time Paul wrote this letter. Wrongs were countered with wrong, but Paul brought a very difference message speaking of a superior weapon to evil. The way to overcome evil is to use the superior weapon of good. Good comes from God, who overcame our evil, sinful lives by taking revenge on himself as Paul wrote earlier in Romans 3,

25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood.

God’s righteous anger and vengeance against us was poured out on Christ. Our relationship with God has been restored as we read in 2 Corinthians 5,

19 … God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

God’s good plan was not to demand payment from us, but to pay with the precious blood of Christ as we read in 1 Peter 1,

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and he lived what he preached as even from the cross he did not seek revenge against those who put him there, but overcame evil with good as we read in Luke 23,

34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

For all the revenge you have taken, relationships you have lost, stress and anxious thoughts wondering if God has forgiven those times you have been overcome by evil, Jesus’ words of forgiveness remain unchanged and true for you. In fact, the same word for “overcome” used twice here in Romans 12 is the same word Jesus used the night he was betrayed to comfort his disciples in John 16,

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In war, you overcome the enemy with the superior weapon. The United States Navy stands ready to go to battle with many weapons, but the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is the biggest. If laid on its end, it would be about twice as tall as Reunion Tower in Dallas. Its top speed is so fast, and it is so heavy, that it takes miles to come to a complete stop. Whether you are in command or below deck moping the floors, aboard that ship you have full confidence in victory. Even more powerful is the love of God as seen in Joseph’s response to his brothers. Again, Joseph’s brothers were terrified expecting their brother to take revenge on them. Instead, he said in Genesis 45,

5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

God worked through the wicked plans of Joseph’s brothers allowing Jacob’s twelve sons to be brought to Egypt to survive and thrive to become the nation of Israel from which Jesus was born. You have the same superior weapon in the gracious love of God.

You are no longer on the side of evil. You have been given a new birth, a new identity, a restored purpose and reconciliation with God. Peace with God means sharing in his righteousness, grace, mercy, eternal life and his will. Jesus reveals God’s will for us to overcome evil with good in our Gospel reading from Luke 6,

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus teaches us that his kind, merciful love is more powerful than evil and our desire for revenge. So, we need to understand that when we are wronged it signals the time to go to war, not the time to get revenge. We fight against evil with good, God’s good, kind, merciful, forgiving love. Fighting evil with evil does not lead to victory or any victors. Fighting evil with good leaves at least one victory and one victor, and by the power of God it may lead to two victories and two victors. Overcome evil with good by identifying the real enemy, expecting evil, preparing for spiritual battle, practicing scenarios and training your heart with daily Bible reading, Bible meditation and prayer for God’s will to be done.

He took my toy truck, so I gave him a brownie. She took my doll, so I gave her a juice box. Those are probably not scenarios we see play out at home, school or the playground, nor are they what we remember from growing up. Instead, when we are wronged, we take revenge. In response to all our wrong and evil actions against him, God took revenge overcoming sin and evil by sacrificing Jesus on the cross. God’s good, kind, merciful, forgiving love saved you. Filled with his love, go and overcome evil with good. Amen.