Overcome Evil with Good, Part 2

Our last article dealt with overcoming evil with good in some detail. 

Luke 6:29-30 goes on to say even more:  To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.  How can we possibly conform to such a difficult teaching?

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  (Mt 19:26)  Whatever is impossible for man becomes possible for us who gave our lives to Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  Praise God!

Not only do we overcome the evil that people have done to us by forgiving them and praying for them, but according to Luke 6, we should even help to bless them in a material way.  Jesus overcame evil with good.  He is our role model.

When we pray for good to come upon our enemies; when we feed our enemy or give them a drink; or when we give him a blanket, a coat or any other helpful item, we allow the glory of God to be manifested in the earth through us. 

Jesus has asked us to live according to a new law—the law of love.  (Mt 5:44a)

Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  (Rom 13:10) 

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”   (Gal 5:14) 

James 2:8 refers to loving your neighbor as yourself as the ROYAL law! 

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Mt 22:35-40)

Jesus is our Savior and our King.  (1 Tim 6:15; Rev 19:16)  Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is a royal law because it was instituted by our benevolent and loving King. 

Overcoming evil with good will turn people toward the Lord in praise and thanksgiving.  It fulfills the law of love.  The law of love blesses us all, because we serve the God who is love.  (1 Joh 4:8)  Overcome evil the way that God did–with love!