“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12:21
As people living in this cruel world, we always try to be good to others, but if people are being cruel, then we tend to retaliate. We see things on an eye-to-eye basis. If someone was being cruel to us, then we will take revenge and treat them badly too. Even if we deny this or not, we know for sure that we are like this and we really retaliate and repay evil with evil. We repay cruelty with cruelty and we don’t even try to be gentle because we are people who will always try to compete even if it’s evil.Â
However, our verse today reminds us that we must not overcome evil with evil. We should not be overcome by evil, but instead, we must overcome evil with good. Paul is actually always reminding us through his letters what it means to be a Christian, and being a Christian means not letting evil overcome us. Why did Paul assume that we can be overcome by evil in the first place? Well, it is because he knew that we are evil by nature. We have been evil by nature, so it will be so easy for us to be overcome by evil.Â
The good news is that God has saved us from ourselves. He already saved us from the evil nature, we have and has put the righteousness of Christ in us. So, we will be able to overcome evil. We won’t be overcome by it anymore because God has enabled us to fight it and overcome it. That is why Paul is insisting or reminding us that we must not be overcome by evil, but we must overcome evil with good. We must make sure that evil has no foothold to us, and that we must not see things eye to eye or tooth for a tooth for we are better, and we can do better.Â
Therefore, we must understand that we are always evil, but since Christ died for us and that He saved us from our evil nature. It is possible for us to not be overcome by evil, but instead, overcome it with good. We must remember to always be gentle and reflect Christ’s goodness in our lives. The most important part of being a Christian is continually living in Christ, so we must live in Christ and reflect His goodness in our lives. After all, He who has no sin has defeated death, so we must remember that we are not victorious over death and sin, so let us remain the path God has provided for us.
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