Proverbs 20:22. Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
What do you do when someone hurts you? Our natural reaction is to repay evil. Insult back. Argue louder. Curse. Take back what they took. Tell a lie about them. Hit back. But wisdom tells us to do something supernatural.
1 Peter 3:9. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
Romans 12:21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
How is such a supernatural response even possible? Only when we wait for the Lord. Only when God is part of the equation. Only as we choose to trust his promises to us, will we ever be able to place our deliverance into his hands.
On a cosmic level we all understand that this is the Christian life – waiting for the Lord to overcome evil. None of us is trying to repay the evil of Satan. No, we understand that his day of judgment is coming. One day he will be cast into the Lake of Fire, with all his minions, and we will be delivered from the forces of evil forever. Yet, even though we know this intellectually, we struggle to apply it to everyday life. Those who hurt us, insult us, revile us, at work, school, or home, they deserve immediate judgment meted out by our own hand. Rather than wait for the Lord, we steal the Lord’s position of judge and jury.
Yes, justice is important. In Christ, we are instruments of Gods justice. But God’s justice is always meant to be a restorative justice. A reconciling justice. The question is, what is your goal in regards to the evil doer? Punitive justice or restorative justice? Do you want them simply cast into the Lake of Fire never to be heard from again? Or do you want them to be restored to a relationship with God and his family through Christ? If that is your goal (and I pray that it is), then returning evil for evil will, obviously, never work. It will only perpetuate the cycle of evil.
Only by our union with Christ is the command to overcome evil with good even possible. Only by Christ’s cross was the greatest of evils, killing God, overcome with the greatest of goods, God’s indestructible life. By our union with Christ, we are connected to this greatest of goods – divine life. The deliverance of God has come! We are overcomers. More than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
No power of hell
No scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from his hand.
In Christ, the greatest of eternal goods lives in us. A good that is far more powerful than any evil, even the evils of sin and death. A good that can overcome any evil that may come your way today.
You: Do you regularly try to repay evil with evil?
You in Christ: How does union with Christ guarantee that evil has been overcome in our life?
Christ in you: Are you actively trying to get even with evil? How can Christ in you allow you to wait on the Lord instead?
Pray: Father, you delivered your son from evil and you will deliver me. Help me to trust this so much that I don’t have to pay back the evil that is done to me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 