Date: 3 Novem­ber 2024 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Romans 12:14–21
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

This ser­mon fol­lows on seam­less­ly from the last three ser­mons on the sub­ject of for­gi­ve­ness. Paul’s prin­ci­ple is: «Do not be over­co­me by evil, but over­co­me evil with good!» (Romans 12:21). Howe­ver, he does not lea­ve it at this gene­ral state­ment, but offers us five ways in which we can do this. Final­ly, we learn how fol­lo­wers of Jesus can have the strength and love to for­gi­ve and lead such a life.


In Octo­ber 2006, a gun­man took hos­ta­ges in an Amish school­house in Penn­syl­va­nia. He shot ten child­ren bet­ween the ages of seven and thir­teen, five of whom died, and then com­mit­ted sui­ci­de. Within hours, mem­bers of the Amish com­mu­ni­ty visi­ted both the killer’s imme­dia­te fami­ly and his par­ents and expres­sed their con­do­len­ces. The Amish unani­mously exten­ded for­gi­ve­ness to the mur­de­rer and his fami­ly. The for­gi­ve­ness and love shown to the kil­ler and his fami­ly ama­zed many.

A few years later, a group of aca­de­mics wro­te about the inci­dent and con­cluded that simp­le appeals to be more for­gi­ving go unhee­ded in our cul­tu­re. Our cul­tu­re no lon­ger pro­du­ces peo­p­le who can deal with suf­fe­ring wit­hout see­king retri­bu­ti­on. Ame­ri­cans would focus on self-rea­li­sa­ti­on and self-asser­ti­on and would have a pro­no­un­ced sen­se of entit­le­ment. For the Amish, howe­ver, one of their core values is self-deni­al. One mani­fes­ta­ti­on of this is for­gi­ve­ness. The aut­hors con­clude: «Most of us have been moul­ded by a cul­tu­re that nur­tures reven­ge and mocks mer­cy.» In such a cul­tu­re, for­gi­ve­ness is seen as self-har­ming. Reven­ge and anger are con­side­red authentic.

The Amish are part of the Ana­bap­tist tra­di­ti­on, and many of their churches still adhe­re to the Dor­d­recht Con­fes­si­on of Faith (1632). The­re is a who­le artic­le in it that oppo­ses the taking of reven­ge. Basi­cal­ly, it is about the text from Romans 12:14–21 with the main state­ment: «Do not be over­co­me by evil, but over­co­me evil with good!» (Romans 12:21 NLB). It is the key to peaceful coexis­tence – be it in the small cell (mar­ria­ge, fami­ly, church) or in the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty of states.

When evil triumphs

«Do not be over­co­me by evil, but over­co­me evil with good!» (Romans 12:21 NLB). Defeat is a mili­ta­ry word. In the wars curr­ent­ly raging, the fight­ing will only end when a win­ner has been deter­mi­ned. Inci­den­tal­ly, the Greek word for win is nike. The sport­ing goods brand takes its name from this word. This can be a hel­pful remin­der. When­ever you see the Swoosh, the Nike logo, you can remind yours­elf that evil should be defea­ted with good. The­re are exact­ly two pos­si­bi­li­ties: Eit­her you are defea­ted by evil, or you defeat evil by respon­ding to it with good. When things take the nor­mal cour­se of this world, evil triumphs.

You are defea­ted by evil:

  • When you strike back in respon­se to an inju­ry or offence or wish that the per­son who cau­sed it would also be har­med. In Chris­ti­an cir­cles, this is usual­ly not so obvious, but rather subt­le. Some­ti­mes in sar­ca­stic humour, in iro­nic or sharp-ton­gued remarks or in quiet satis­fac­tion when the other per­son fails.
  • When it des­troys our rela­ti­onship with the other. The­re is a dan­ger that we will «bury the hat­chet» after a con­flict, but will no lon­ger have much to do with each other. This is then jus­ti­fied with the words: «You don’t have to be best fri­ends with ever­yo­ne.» The rela­ti­onship has coo­led con­sider­a­b­ly. Genui­ne for­gi­ve­ness, howe­ver, includes the desi­re for recon­ci­lia­ti­on and rapprochement.
  • If it distorts our image of our­sel­ves. When we con­stant­ly replay in our minds what we have expe­ri­en­ced, we fix­a­te on what is wrong with others and how noble we our­sel­ves are in con­trast. Self-pity and self-righ­teous­ness mix to form a toxic cock­tail. The fee­ling that no one knows how much I have suf­fe­r­ed makes me sus­cep­ti­ble to evil. I will sei­ze oppor­tu­ni­ties to do less than hono­ura­ble things and jus­ti­fy them by say­ing that I am only com­pen­sa­ting myself.
  • If it helps the offen­der to jus­ti­fy his actions through us. Main­tai­ning a reac­tion of anger or cold­ness towards the guil­ty par­ty can pro­vi­de him with a jus­ti­fi­ca­ti­on for his actions. He can then think that we are a cruel per­son and that what has hap­pen­ed to us is quite right for us.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, evil con­ti­nues to win in our world. During the unrest in the Bal­kans fol­lo­wing the col­lap­se of the for­mer Yugo­sla­via, a Ser­bi­an sol­dier was cap­tu­red by the Koso­vo Libe­ra­ti­on Army. In a tele­vi­si­on inter­view, he free­ly admit­ted that his mili­ta­ry unit had kil­led eth­nic Alba­ni­ans. Howe­ver, he said: «You have to under­stand […], it was our reven­ge!» The Koso­vo Libe­ra­ti­on Army its­elf was also guil­ty of vio­lence against eth­nic Serbs and Roma for the same reason. As one Alba­ni­an puts it, it was the «under­stan­da­ble desi­re for reven­ge».

How good triumphs

A fort­night ago we recei­ved the fol­lo­wing ques­ti­on from someone in our church: «It was men­tio­ned in the ser­mon today that recon­ci­lia­ti­on also means taking a step towards each other. How can I do that if the other per­son does­n’t want to accept my for­gi­ve­ness or an approach?» St Paul offers us five ways in which we can over­co­me evil with good, espe­ci­al­ly in dif­fi­cult situa­tions:

  • Pray for the guil­ty par­ty: «Bless tho­se who per­se­cu­te you; bless them, do not cur­se them» (Romans 12:14 New Tes­ta­ment). Bles­sing means abo­ve all pray­ing for the per­pe­tra­tors – for God to bless them. You speak the good to the other per­son that you also wish for yours­elf. It is impos­si­ble to be angry with someone for long when you are pray­ing for them. In pray­er, you turn to God as a sin­ner. This remo­ves any sen­se of supe­rio­ri­ty and we iden­ti­fy with the other person.
  • Award­ed: «Do not repay evil with evil» (Romans 12:17 New Tes­ta­ment). For­gi­ve­ness is the con­scious ren­un­cia­ti­on of any desi­re for retri­bu­ti­on. I grant this inner for­gi­ve­ness, which can­cels out the per­so­nal guilt bet­ween us, to ever­yo­ne who has been guil­ty against me. This crea­tes the pre­re­qui­si­te for no lon­ger con­fron­ting the offen­der out of reven­ge. Con­fron­ta­ti­on wit­hout reven­ge – this is whe­re recon­ci­lia­ti­on begins.
  • Do not avo­id the guil­ty par­ty: «If it is pos­si­ble and as far as it is up to you, live in peace with all peo­p­le» (Romans 12:18 New Tes­ta­ment). Some say: «I have for­gi­ven, but I don’t want to have any­thing more to do with this per­son.» In rea­li­ty, this is a form of retri­bu­ti­on. Paul advi­ses us to always endea­vour to re-estab­lish a rela­ti­onship. For­gi­ve­ness means recon­ci­lia­ti­on and rapprochement.
  • Give what the other per­son needs, as far as they allow it: «Even more: «If your ene­my is hun­gry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him some­thing to drink. Such beha­viour will put him to shame» » (Romans 12:20 New Tes­ta­ment). When­ever the­re is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to do some­thing for a per­son who has hurt me, I should do it. Howe­ver, our gene­ro­si­ty should never make it easy for the other per­son to con­ti­nue sin­ning. Per­haps a con­fron­ta­ti­on is also nee­ded to help the other person.
  • Act in an atti­tu­de of humi­li­ty: «In your dealings with one ano­ther, let your beha­viour be deter­mi­ned by the fact that you have a com­mon goal. Do not be arro­gant, but seek fel­low­ship with tho­se who are incon­spi­cuous and insi­gni­fi­cant. Do not think your­sel­ves wise» (Romans 12:16 New Tes­ta­ment). You can also for­gi­ve in order to ele­va­te yours­elf moral­ly abo­ve the other per­son. For­gi­ve­ness is a gift that a fla­wed per­son, who is saved by pure grace, gives to ano­ther sin­ful per­son. If we act in love and humi­li­ty, the­re is a good chan­ce that the other per­son will under­stand that we care about them.

Where power and love come from

How can a fol­lower of Jesus have the strength and love to for­gi­ve and lead such a life? Paul also gives us the ans­wer to this: «Do not aven­ge your­sel­ves, dear fri­ends, but lea­ve ven­ge­an­ce to the wrath of God. For it is writ­ten: «To aven­ge wrong is mine, says the Lord; I will repay» » (Romans 12:19 New Tes­ta­ment). As fol­lo­wers of Jesus, it is our job to achie­ve as much righ­teous­ness as we can and lea­ve the rest to God. The­re will be no com­pre­hen­si­ve jus­ti­ce in this world. We need to add the tran­s­cen­den­tal dimen­si­on to the system.

«I will reta­lia­te», says the LORD. We like to under­stand this sen­tence in the sen­se of: «Lea­ve it to God. He will get even with him, the hard way!» This under­stan­ding is fun­da­men­tal­ly wrong. Like every state­ment in the Bible, it must be unders­tood in con­text. We must never wish harm on a per­son who has hurt or har­med us. Nor does it mean cyni­cal pas­si­vi­ty, but requi­res a loving heart that reso­lut­e­ly refu­ses to get out of the way of someone who has wron­ged us. A heart that is wil­ling to for­gi­ve them, to be kind and hel­pful to them whe­re­ver pos­si­ble. This should be done in the ser­e­ne know­ledge that no com­pre­hen­si­ve jus­ti­ce is pos­si­ble in this world.

What will the retri­bu­ti­on that God will mete out look like? In Jesus Christ, God comes into this world and takes the just punish­ment upon hims­elf. Luther trans­la­tes v. 19 as «Reven­ge is mine». This reminds us that God’s wrath, which should have fal­len on us, fell on him. The retri­bu­ti­on that should have fal­len on us fell on him. The­re will never be jus­ti­ce in this world. Jesus Christ crea­tes jus­ti­ce in the sen­se that he hims­elf is jus­ti­ce: «[…] For Christ is our righ­teous­ness, through Christ we belong to God’s holy peo­p­le, and through Christ we are rede­e­med» (1 Corin­thi­ans 1:30 New Tes­ta­ment). Jesus is our righ­teous­ness. Jesus will do jus­ti­ce to all; to the one who did wrong and to the one who suf­fe­r­ed injustice.

If we want to have a heart that beats com­ple­te­ly for for­gi­ve­ness, that over­co­mes evil with good, that does not feel supe­ri­or and does not need to jus­ti­fy its­elf, then we must look to Jesus Christ. HE takes upon Hims­elf the retri­bu­ti­on that should by right befall us. It hit Him. HE took it upon hims­elf. Only when we see a king who vol­un­t­a­ri­ly acts for us as a ser­vant will we ser­vants stop acting like litt­le kings and jud­ges. What can real­ly chan­ge us is to look at Jesus, who for­gi­ves even as He dies: «Father, for­gi­ve the­se peo­p­le, for they know not what they do»(Luke 23:34 NLB).

 

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Romans 12:14–21

  1. Tells fic­tion­al or true sto­ries in which evil tri­umphs over good.
  2. How can evil be defea­ted with good? What expe­ri­en­ces have you had yourself?
  3. Are you yours­elf in a tri­cky situa­ti­on whe­re you are stuck in the recon­ci­lia­ti­on pro­cess? What could be the next step?
  4. Which of the five ways of living for­gi­ve­ness offe­red by Paul do you find easier and which more difficult?
  5. «The LORD will take ven­ge­an­ce.» Why does this pas­sa­ge con­tain the strength and love we need for forgiveness?