“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” –Romans 12:21
“Be not overcome of evil” – that is good advice, but it is much more than that. This is a command. Thankfully it is followed with this counsel – “but overcome evil with good”. Paul tells us what to do and how to do it. Doing good is not just a good thing to do, it is essential to living a victorious life. Doing good not only pleases God, it also serves as a means to overcome the bad that wars against us. Without the doing of good bad will prevail and we are sure to fail.
John Henry Jowett wrote, “For how else can we cast out evil? Satan cannot cast out Satan. No one can clean a room with a filthy duster. The surgeon cannot cut out the disease if his instruments are defiled. While he removed one ill-growth he would sow the seed of another. It must be health which fights disease. It will demand a good temper to overcome the bad temper in my brother.
And therefore I must cultivate a virtue if I would eradicate a vice. That applies to the state of my own soul. If there be some immoral habit in my life, the best way to destroy it is by cultivating a good one. Take the mind away from the evil one. Deprive it of thought-food. Give the thought to the nobler mood, and the ignoble mood will die. And this also applies to the faults and vices of my brother. I must fight them with their opposites. If he is harsh and cruel, I must be considerate and gentle. If he is grasping, I must be generous. If he is loud and presumptuous, I must be soft-mannered and self-restrained. If he is devilish, I must be a Christian. This is the warfare which tells upon the empire of sin. I can overcome evil with good.“
Living in this wicked world we have an opportunity everyday to create change by defeating the enemy of evil with the grace of good. Failing to do so just makes the world worse. So don’t curse the darkness if you aren’t shining the light of love to those around you. – HDS
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
