Do Good Against Evil
“See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”—1Thessalonians 5:15
We live in a world where evil is all around us. It’s not even just that evil is around us, but evil happens to us. People will lie to us, cheat us, steal from us, attack us, injure us, curse us and maybe even kill us or those we care about. While it’s reasonable to ask why these things will happen, we should too be asking ourselves how we plan to react when those things do happen.
It’s easy for a victim of evil to want to retaliate, and do back to the aggressors what they have done to them, or even to do worse! We may find ourselves day-dreaming over the perfect dagger of response to a cruel word. Perhaps we maintain a tally of missteps for use at just the right time. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that justice, fairness, or a sense of decency demands and justifies it. More than that, we may decide that the circumstances even require it!
In reality, evil is evil no matter how you get there. While three lefts make a right, two wrongs do not. We must be careful not to confuse personal retaliation with the lawful consequences of sin—both those from God and those from man. It may be that an offender will face justice and penalty in the due course of time, even via the authority God has granted to earthly governments, but for us to take matters into our own hands is inappropriate and dangerous.
Think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” How unnatural! Yes, we are called to be transformed, not to be pressed into conformity with the ways of this world. Our anger and distaste for evil, arrogance, and pride may tear at us to explain away this call, but it’s at those times we should recall Christ at the Cross. In the midst of completely unjustified torture, He opened not His mouth.
Recall also in Matthew 18 where Peter asked Jesus how many times one should forgive a brother who sins against him. Jesus responded with a parable ridiculing a servant who harshly enforced a fellow servant’s debt just after he was forgiven a massive debt. Not only should we be eager to not retaliate, but we should be earnest in our willingness to forgive the wrongs done to us.
Even more challenging, Paul gives clear instruction in 1 Thessalonians 5, to “see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good.” We should meekly endure evil and do it with a spirit of forgiveness, but on top of that we should seek to do good! Admittedly, this is difficult, especially in the heat of the moment. Accordingly, lets plan our reaction now, so that when evil does come our way, we have ready in mind the example of Christ. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). Imagine if God had repaid us with evil instead of seeking to do us good. May we follow Christ’s example this week and seek to do good to everyone.
Jason Budd
