Webbijbel
Gert-Jan Van Zanten
Overcome evil with good.
A lost art?
|
Gordon Wilson held his daughter's hand as they lay trapped
beneath a mountain of rubble. It was 1987, and he and Marie
had been attending a peaceful memorial service in
Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, when a terrorist bomb went
off. By the end of the day, Marie and nine other civilians
were dead, and sixty-three had been hospitalised for
injuries. |
With all principles in the Word of God we are able to
see that they are for the ultimate good for us and the ultimate good
for the other.
Many examples could be given.
-Do not lie.
-Do not steal.
-Do not take revenge.
Some had entitled the sermon on the mount “upside down”.
-Well, we could say that that is the message from the whole
Bible.
Jesus called it: “In the world but not of the world”.
1. Our text.
“Rom 12: 18- 21 Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good”.
What does this mean to you?
-Could you answer that?
Can you think of examples?
-Joseph
-David. (2 Sam. 24: 16- 19)
-Jesus (1 Peter 2: 21- 25)
The story of Joseph:
Alexander Campbell wrote: “By taking revenge of an injury a man is
only even, by passing it he is superior”.
Here in Rom. 12:21 is the grand
strategy of God with regard to human evil. The natural man finds
himself living and operating in a world where one rotten apple can
make a barrel of good apples rotten; but the spiritual man, having
the mind of the Spirit, proceeds upon the premise that one good
apple might make a barrel of rotten apples sound! The divine nature
of this priceless precept has elicited the most extravagant praise,
as well it should.
Pro 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he
be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Pro
25:22 For thou wilt heap coals of fire upon his head, And Jehovah
will reward thee.
Exo 23:4 If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou
shalt surely bring it back to him again.
Exo 23:5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his
burden, thou shalt forbear to leave him, thou shalt surely release
it
with him.
We have a change
to show our real self.
-In world of evil.
We follow the example of God.
-God loved us while we were yet sinners.
-Rom. 5: 8
Do not withhold from any man the offices of mercy and kindness;
you have been God's enemy, and yet God fed, clothed, and
preserved you alive: do to your enemy as God has done to you. If
your enemy be hungry, feed him; if he be thirsty, give him drink: so
has God dealt with you. And has not a sense of his goodness and
long-suffering towards you been a means of melting down your heart
into penitential compunction, gratitude, and love towards him? How
know you that a similar conduct towards your enemy may not
have the same gracious influence on him towards you? Your kindness
may be the means of begetting in him a sense of his guilt; and, from
being your fell enemy, he may become your real friend!
That is, subdue or vanquish evil by doing good to others. Show them
the loveliness of a better spirit; the power of kindness and
benevolence; the value of an amiable, Christian deportment. So
doing, you may disarm them of their rage, and be the means of
bringing them to better minds.
Only Christianity has this great theme.
In our text we see several evidences.
-Vers 9. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy: unfeigned, undisguised, sincere
Abhor: to detest utterly,
to dislike, abhor, have a horror of
Cling:
1) to glue, to glue together, cement, fasten together
2) to join or fasten firmly together
3) to join one’s self to, cleave to
Other evidences:
-Vers 10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
Giving preference to one another in honour.
Devoted: loving affection, prone to love, loving tenderly (cherishing
one’s kindred, especially parents or children); fond
of natural
relatives, that is,
fraternal towards fellow
Christians: - kindly affectioned.
Preference: to go before and
show the way, to go before and lead, to go before as a leader
And he continues this same thought throughout these verses til vers
16.
These verses are for Christians.
And he continues with thoughts like:
-Not lagging behind in diligence.
-Fervent in spirit.
-Serving the Lord.
-Contributing to the needs of the saints etc.
Then from verse 17 on he gives us details how to live with all men.
-The Bible makes that distinction. And it is an important
distinction.
2. If one does not
overcome evil with good, he is of another mindset. The mindset of
evil thinking.
Many studies have been done on this concept.
|
Daniel Coleman's sister Frances was murdered in 1985. He was an army sergeant, and he had been trained to kill. When the police failed to find his sister's killer, he was enraged. He wanted to take his gun and mow people down. When he picked up her car from the pound and inhaled the awful smell of blood, he wanted vengeance in the worst way. Two and a half years later his mother watched him being lowered into the ground alongside his sister. Anne Coleman said, He had finally taken revenge - on himself. I saw what hatred does: it takes the ultimate toll on one's mind and body. |
-What did hate do in the case of the brothers of
Joseph
-In the case of Saul.
3. What is the heart of the issue.
A. Agape love.
Love thy neighbour as thyself.
B. Restraint.
What does this word mean?
-The act of restraining or the condition of being
restrained.
-Control or repression
of feelings; constraint.
Who is good in this?
-God. We are to follow His example.
Pro 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; And he
that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.
It is much easier to subdue an enemy without than
one within. There have been many kings who had conquered
nations, and yet were slaves to their own passions. Alexander, who
conquered the world, was a slave to intemperate anger, and in
a fit of it slew Clytus, the best and most intimate of all
his friends, and one whom he loved beyond all others.
Pro 25:28 He whose spirit is without restraint Is like
a city that is broken down and without walls.
4. Heaping coals of fire.
This is an amazing scripture. The writer
once heard of a woman involved in bitter quarrels with her husband.
Seeking counsel, she was asked, "Have you tried heaping coals of
fire on his head?" She replied, "No, but I tried a skillet of hot
grease!" She, like many others, failed to realize that Paul here
used a figure of speech, a style of rhetoric often found in the
sacred scriptures.
Batey noted:
The original meaning of this figure of speech has been lost:
-It could suggests that the enemy will burn with shame for
his abuse of one who loves him.
-It could mean that kindness would be as effectual as fire.
-It could mean that it would be a burden.
-To melt him into kindness.
-The sense of such verses is that
as metals are melted by placing coals of fire upon them, so people’s
hearts will be melted as we show kindness to them … and thus make
them more open to the gospel.
