One of the most compelling axioms of our time is the saying “when good men do nothing, evil prevails.” When we look around and see what is being done to babies, how our children are being mutilated, and our society is becoming cruel, desperate, and corrupt, I think we yearn from the deepest recesses of our soul for justice. We look for answers that tell us what we can do about the evils we see all around us. Yet, I think our time needs another axiom: “evil triumphs when good men do evil.” It’s not enough to replace one evil with another. Good people cannot make themselves evil in their fight against evil. This is where Jesus’ way stands apart from all the rest because it seeks to conquer evil with good.
Jesus accomplished this as the one who brought the past into the present to fulfill the future (Mark 1:15 i.e. “the time is fulfilled“); he captured the turmoil and failures of the past, reconciled them with the sorrows and sufferings of the present, and redeemed them by the hopes and dreams of the future. And, in so doing, he ushered in God’s reign (i.e. “the kingdom of God has come near“) in such a way that calls everyone to turn from their present way of life and embrace God’s reign in their new life (i.e. “repent and believe the good news“). Jesus accomplishes this by saving us from our sin (See Matthew 1:21), overturning corruption in God’s household in order to restore his people’s lost connection to their God (See Mark 11:15-17), establishing God’s reign from his throne (See Luke 1:31-33), teaching his people to love him from their whole-selves, and through their love for God, to lavishly love others (See Mark 12:29-31), sending his people out under his authority to bear witness of him to all nations (See Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:46-48), and ultimately baptizing his people in the Holy Spirit to enable them in their mission until he returns to baptize the world with fire and gather his people into his glory (See Luke 3:15-18; Matthew 25:31-46). And it’s straight into this mission that Jesus calls the Church when he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” (John 20:21, CSB). We must reconcile the past with the present in view of our future. We must teach people to turn away from their old ways of life to embrace God’s reign in their new life. We must teach people how Jesus overcome our sin through the cross. We must teach people how to overcome corruption and be reconciled to God. We must teach people Jesus’ commands so that his will might be done in our lives just as it is done in heaven. We must teach people to love God with their whole-selves, and likewise to lavishly love others. We must be God’s authoritative witnesses to all nations. We must be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that we can live our lives in him until Jesus’ return to judge the nations and bring us into his glory.
This is what it means to be peacemakers (See Matthew 5:9). But I believe we’ve lost our way in this mission. Because we haven’t reconciled our past, present, and future, we live in chaos, bitterness, and conflict. Because we haven’t turned away from our old way of life, we are still slaves to sin. Because we don’t understand how Jesus overcame sin, we still suffer under the cruel tyranny of death. Because we haven’t turned from our corruption, we are still estranged from God. Because we haven’t learned Jesus’ commands, we still haven’t realized God’s will in our lives. Because we haven’t learned to fully love God, we don’t love one another. Because we haven’t been an authoritative witness of God’s Kingdom to the nations, we’re still sitting in darkness. And because we are not walking in the Holy Spirit we are in danger of being baptized with fire!
So now we have to take this narrative framework and draw out some principles for how we must “conquer evil with good.”
How to Conquer Evil with Good
Romans 12:21 (CSB) — 21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
If you want an in-depth analysis, please take some time to read some of the work I’ve done on the outline of Paul’s argument in Romans 12:9-13:10, but here I want to make the case that Paul means to present love as the founding ethic of Christian life, which he applies via proposition and illustration by engaging how love guides Christian living in the face of evil. “Human government” – especially Rome – would have been one of the obvious representatives of evil on earth for the early Christians who had so recently suffered under Rome’s tyranny. So Paul illustrates the principles of Romans 12:9-21 with government in order to show how Christians should conquer evil with good by overcoming Rome’s tyranny with faith and love. Their call to submit to Rome’s authority (13:1, 4) called them to really “live by faith” (1:17; cf 13:5), and their call to voluntarily pay their taxes, tolls, respect, and honor was the outworking of that faith in love (12:9ff). All of this means that Paul’s above principle actually means to establish the very point we’re making here, and its context illuminates how this principle works.
Let’s put this simply: Romans 12:9-20 states the imperatives that produce the principle of Romans 12:21. Or, even more simply, we conquer evil with good by obeying the commands of this discourse.
Paul’s discourse does not mean to lay down law-code, nor does it intend to describe some kind of naive idealism. What Paul means to do is describe how the Christian faith (i.e. Romans 1:17) engages the evils of this world. Paul means to teach us how we can live like Jesus in the face of evil. To do that, I think it will be helpful to consider John’s account of Jesus’ trial in John 18:28-40. What we find in this account is that Jesus was caught up in a religious conflict (John 18:31) where his accusers were seeking to unlawfully use political power against him (John 18:31) even though he was innocent (John 18:38). Yet Jesus’ suffering was to accomplish what God sent him to accomplish (John 18:32). Jesus engaged the powers of this world, yet he did so distinct from them (John 18:36) as God’s true witness (John 18:37-38). I believe Paul’s discourse means to teach Christians how to navigate our own trials in this world in the same manner as Jesus.
So let’s look verse by verse at what Paul taught in Romans 12:9–20:
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good.
As a matter of first order, our love must be sincere. Jesus was able to conquer evil with good because his love was pure. He did not love any evil, but held tightly to what is good, being unwilling to release his hold on good for any other cause or interest. Therefore, we too must learn to make our love pure so that we can wholly reject evil and hold to good.
10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another.
God’s model for healthy human communities is the family, which is where our good is designed to thrive. Therefore, we are meant to cultivate deep familial love for one another. And, in this world, afflicted by the tyranny of evil as it is, this design begins with the Church. We are to love God’s people deeply as our brothers and sisters. And one of the ultimate expressions of this love is our eagerness to elevate and honor others. We are not self-seeking, which is one of the attributes that produces a cut-throat and treacherous world, but rather, we put the needs and interests of our brothers and sisters above even our own as we lead the way in lifting one another up.
11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord.
Zeal sometimes gets a bad rep, but, to stand our ground against the evils we’ll face in this world requires that we diligently stir up our zeal and fervency in the Spirit as we seek to serve the Lord. We cannot be lukewarm in our cause. We must be very zealous if we are to conquer evil with good. Indeed, it’s an unfortunate matter of fact that the citizens of this world often prove themselves more zealous for their cause than we do for ours. But, I suspect that is because we have not learned to fight the way that we are supposed to fight. Having this in place, however, I hope we can prove ourselves to be very diligent in our zeal for the Lord.
12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.
In this world we are going to have trouble. So we must learn to rejoice in the hope that we have received from the Lord. We must learn to be patient with our afflictions. And we must learn to persist through our trials in prayer. It’s a matter of fact that our present reality is not often what it should be, so we must learn how to realize our hope in the Lord through faith so that we can taste and rejoice in the hope that is coming to us when our Lord returns. To do this we must be patient with our present afflictions, which is part of how we must learn to reconcile our past with our present in view of our future. And all of this depends upon our persistence in prayer, that we taste our hope and bear with our present afflictions through what is supplied to us by God through prayer!
13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.
We were not meant to conquer evil with good alone. But rather, we were meant to share in this cause together, supporting one another by helping each other in our needs. We are meant to pursue this kind of hospitality, as it is written, “Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way. For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession. So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:32–36, CSB). We were meant to take the sufferings, insults, and afflictions of our brothers and sisters upon ourselves so that no one stands alone in this hostile world. We were meant to support one another in every hardship that comes about because of the good we have tried to do in this world. A Church who does this would lack no means to “conquer evil with good.”
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Although the cross has been present in each of these attributes, it’s here displayed most prominently. We must “pick up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow” Jesus in his way of life if we want to conquer evil with good. And this will cause us to bless those who harm us. No other teaching more vociferously demands we take up our cross than this one. At this point in our struggle against evil it becomes necessary that we learn how to love those who are evil. And, in so doing, we become God’s children (See Matthew 5:44-45). Jesus’ cross becomes the model of our way of life, just as it is written, “for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:3–4, CSB). Yes, in our struggle against sin, we must even be willing to shed our own blood, just as Jesus did, that we might “conquer evil with good”, which is why Jesus told his followers that “the one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25, CSB).
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
Community features as the central support of this cause. So, perhaps because the demand of the last imperative is enough to bring anyone to their feet, or perhaps because believers often face persecution from within the Church, thus necessitating Paul return his attention to the Christian community, Paul comes right back to address the kind of lavish love that should demarcate God’s Kingdom. Once again, we conquer evil with good by shouldering this world together. We should share both our joys and our sorrows together. We should rejoice in another’s victories, and weep in their losses. This is the kind of community that is the backbone for “conquering evil with good.“
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
For this reason, because this kind of community is essential to the success of the Kingdom, we are meant to cultivate peace with one another. We must drive out the pride that would separate us from one another, both the pride of material or social position, and that of knowledge, which calls to our ears Paul’s admonition “…knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1, CSB). We must welcome in the lowly. We must not use our supposed knowledge as reason to stand over or against one another. Instead, we must learn to live in harmony with one another, something that becomes all the more potent when one considers that Jesus called both a zealot and a tax collector to be part of his core group of disciples. What a remarkable demand that these should learn to live in harmony with one another!
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes.
It’s inconceivable that one might live long in this wicked world without being faced with the dilemma of returning the evil that they’ve suffered from another. And, perhaps here more than anywhere else, this is where the theory of Just-War has failed most, as it provided a framework that allowed Christians to justify repaying evil for evil by delineating justifications for returning the harm that others have done to us. This imperative is so otherworldly that it is sheer foolishness to the ears of this world. Yet, rather than returning the injustices this world deals to us, we are meant to give conscientious attention to repaying them honor and respect!
18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
There will be times when peace cannot be found because others insist on harm. Yet, such strife must never come from us. As far as our actions are concerned, we must live peaceably with everyone. This was Jesus’ way of life, who, when he was reviled, did not return insult for insult. Although he commanded legions of Angel armies, he did not command them on his behalf, but proved himself to be the Prince of Peace by bearing all the evil his persecutors could pour upon him and offering his blood for their salvation! Therefore, as learners of his way of life, it’s incumbent upon us to follow Jesus in this manner of life.
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.
Christians must learn to forgo personal vengeance in order to pursue good, but, we must not think that the evil we suffer in this world will go unpunished. All the evil we suffer in this world will be avenged, either through Jesus’ blood shed upon the cross, or through the wrath of God that will be exercised in perfection upon the day of judgment. Our mission and charge in this life is to avenge every evil through the blood of Jesus, calling every person to turn from sin and be reconciled to God in Jesus, even showing ourselves willing to shed our own blood in this cause. But, when the time is fulfilled, God will return to judge this world, and it will be at this time that the nations will pay for their sins as each person will give an account of their life to God.
20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.
This is our mission in this present life. We conquer evil with good through love. We love and support one another as the foundation for this mission. And we love our enemies, bearing whatever trials we must bear in order to vindicate the name of Jesus so that they might be saved! Here we must learn the kind of love that Jesus displayed in his life, just as it is written, “the one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked” (1 John 2:6, CSB).
The Principle
In this series I am synthesizing principles that can be used to guide how Christians are meant to answer the questions of “war and politics.” So, I’m taking Biblical narratives, propositions, and imperatives, and using them to formulate principles. For the sake of transparency, I’ve included that process here.
So let’s state our principle:
Step one – clearly state the core idea:
Our core idea is that “Christians must conquer evil with good.”
Step two – define the scope:
The scope of this idea is that we must “never repaying evil for evil, but living at peace with everyone as far as it depends upon us”.
Step three – justify the idea:
Our idea is justified because “for in so doing you will heap fiery coals upon evil in order to provoke sincere love“
Step four – formulate the principle:
Christians must conquer evil with good, never repaying evil for evil, but living at peace with everyone as far as it depends upon them, for in so doing we heap fiery coals upon their evil in order to provoke sincere love.
I believe this successfully synthesizes the narratives, propositions, and imperatives that we’ve examined into a principle that can guide how Christians are meant to overcome evil with good as they engage the issues of “war and politics.”
So, now it’s your turn: what do you think?
Share in the comments below!
A Dedicated Faith 