I think I was seven or eight years old when my mother became concerned enough about the lack of a church background for my younger sister and I that she began to take us to church. We drove 20 minutes to the nearest Presbyterian Church and on one of those first Sundays I found myself in a large Sunday School class full of kids my age. And the lesson was on the Golden rule.
I remember the charge: Do unto others as you would have other do unto you. And I think Matthew 5:39 may have been quoted. “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” She then assigned us to draw a picture of an act that would demonstrate that truth.
Well, somehow, there was a mistranslation and misapplication of that vital truth in my young unregenerate mind. Because the picture I drew represented what I thought was a just outcome. It was a picture of one kid slugging the other kid with his right hand, and the other kid returning the favor. I mean, justice was fulfilled wasn’t it? The slugger got slugged and by the person who slugged him. Made sense to me. An for an eye, a slug for a slug? What could feel more right. I thought I had drawn a pretty darn good picture, and it felt right. So I showed it to my teacher as I was leaving class. I think she complimented the picture but explained that what I had drawn was exactly the opposite of what the Bible taught. That didn’t feel right. No retaliation, well, where was the justice in that?
It took years, and something called conversion to make sense out of the Golden Rule. To say that spiritual things don’t make sense to a natural man is an understatement. It’s the spiritual man, the saved and transformed man who only begins to understand why in the world someone who had been slapped on one cheek, would expose the other one for the same kind of abuse, without an attempt to retaliate. In fact, I’ve seen attempts even by spiritual men to somehow explain away the heart of Christ’s teaching in this passage. But what He said is exactly what He meant, because Jesus was all about overcoming the world’s evil, and doing so by, of all things, returning the world’s evil with good.
That fact was demonstrated once and for all at the cross—the ultimate demonstration of Christ’s love for us and how we would overcome the world’s evil. As the world was murdering Jesus Christ for His righteousness, at that very moment He was dying to save the world from its sins. As the world was taking the life of Jesus, He was giving His life and the opportunity for life to the world. What a contrast! And what a way for God to reconcile the world to Himself?
And so, for us who were once God’s enemies and deserved His wrath but were brought to repentance and faith by His incredible act of mercy, returning ultimate good for ultimate evil, it’s not surprising then, that as His followers, He would ask the same thing of us. That we would also be involved in His work—overcoming the world’s evil by returning evil for good.
And that seems to be the main theme of the last eight verses of Romans 12. Remember, the Apostle Paul is telling us what our reasonable worship of God now involves. Since Christ gave his life as a sacrifice on the cross for us, it is now only reasonable that we offer our bodies as living sacrifices back to Him, for His purposes. That is to be accomplished when we are transformed by the renewing of our mind by the Word of God and begin to act as Christ would by demonstrating His unconditional self-sacrificing love in service first to the body of Christ, the church, and then to the world.
Remember, in verse 9, he begins to describe what this love—the love, the agape—as he calls it, would look like. In verse 14, the focus seems to now turn to how we respond to the world of unbelievers who might wrong us, especially in light of what we believe. But the principles apply equally to a believer’s treatment of unbelievers Of course, the instructions also deal with how he ought to deal with believers as well, should they be offensive, or experience the circumstances we find described in these verses.
His first instruction is to pray for, and not against your persecutors.
Verse 14: “Bless those who persecute you, bless, and curse not.”
Now most of us in this country have little experience with this matter of persecution. Once in a great while someone might criticize us these days for our stand on abortion or gay rights. But we have no idea of what the Romans were facing when this was written and what many Christians around the world are experiencing today. This was written by the Apostle Paul to the Church at Rome in 57 A.D. Nero was Caesar at that time, and he would soon be putting this command to the test for believers by throwing thousands of them to the lions in the Colosseum for entertainment and lighting his gardens by using their bodies as torches. And so it remains today, in places like Nigeria, and Muslim countries, and Communist countries that there is actually a great price to be paid for following Christ. I have here the latest edition of Voice of the Martyrs magazine, which features interviews with women and children who have lost their fathers and husbands to the murderous Islamic terrorists in their land, who continually prey on and against Christians in an attempt to exterminate Christianity. They live in constant fear and danger but continue to follow Christ, and they have this command, and Christ’s clear commands to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them, in spite of just how severe their losses have been at the hands of their persecutors.
And that’s exactly what the Apostle Paul is telling us to do here, no matter how severe the persecution is. Because that’s exactly what Jesus did on the cross—as He was being brutally tortured and murdered on the cross, He prayed “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And yes, he calls on us to do exactly the same thing here so that we also might be agents of overcoming evil with good.
The word bless here is actually the Greek word eulogeo, the word we get eulogy from or to eulogize from. But it doesn’t mean simply to say good things about someone, but to seek from God good things for others. It is invoking God’s blessing upon those who are persecuting and committing evil acts against us.
It’s a command, given in the present tense. The idea is that this is to be our regular, or habitual practice when persecuted or hated for Christ’s name. And it explicitly tells us to bless and not to curse.
The Apostle Paul here is simply repeating the instructions given repeatedly by the Lord Jesus. He said (Matt. 5:44), “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In Luke 6:27-28 Jesus put it this way: “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” A few verses later, He added (Luke 6:35-36), “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” In Matthew 5:11-12, He said, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Regarding his own ministry, Paul said (1 Cor. 4:12b-13), “When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”
Bless and curse not. What is a curse in this context? It’s not simply a profanity. It’s literally a wish or a prayer uttered against someone. It is invoking God’s wrath against someone or wishing for God to bring evil upon the person who is bringing evil against you. The kind of curse that is prohibited here would be something like “Damn you,” “Go to hell” or “to hell with you.” These kinds of curses are the fruit of anger, bitterness and vengeance. They are attitudes and actions that characterize the people of this evil, sinful, fallen world. They have no place in the life of a Christ-follower, who loves His enemies even as Christ has loved us.
Believe me, God does not need any help from us in determining how to administer His justice or figuring out who will be the objects of his wrath. He has already told us this in Exodus 34: “He will by no means clear the guilty.” The person who needs our help is the person who is still in bondage to His sin and has not yet been transformed by the mercy of God.
You see, if we curse those who curse us, how do we overcome the evil of the world? We actually simply perpetuate evil. We are to overcome evil with good, as even Jesus did for us when He died for the very people who were crucifying Him, paying the penalty for our sin as we were involved in the greatest crime in all of history. We don’t only refrain from vengeance, but we are to actively bless and seek the good of our persecutors instead
I was talking to someone who had recently visited our church for the first time. It turned out he knew several of the people who were part of our church family. However, his prior experiences with all the people he had previously known in our church as it turns out, had not been entirely cordial. In fact, he admitted that he had been tempted to punch one of them out at one time or another, but had decided instead to pray for him, even as Christ has called us to do here. And he was pleasantly surprised to find that those prayers had apparently been answered as he was able to greet this member of the church no longer as an enemy, but no as a brother--perfect example of how we overcome the world and it’s evil—not by punching our enemies out, or by cursing them, but praying for them instead.
Now the next couple verses seem a bit unrelated, at first glance. I have always applied them to how we are to treat other believers. But Paul could especially have unbelievers in mind. When they treat us badly, it might be difficult for us to be happy when they’re happy and sad when they’re sad. But rather than treat the world in accord with a self-centered, devil-may-care attitude, or even with any form of malice, as well as believers, with great sympathy, empathy and mercy, even as Christ has been merciful to us.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.”
Now imagine your natural inclinations toward someone who had treated you badly or persecuted you. When things go badly for him, wouldn’t you tend to rejoice, and say, “Alright! It’s about time! He’s getting what’s coming to him.” On the other hand, would you naturally be bugged if someone who treated you badly succeeded or was somehow honored. The temptation would be to do just the opposite for your enemy: To sorrow when He rejoices and rejoice when He experiences sorrow.”
We sometimes struggle to rejoice with those who rejoice, especially when they are honored and succeed in ways that we haven’t. Our selfish ambition and our pride often gets in the way. Our tendency in the natural is to secretly envy the other person, not wishing him them well, because their success reflects negatively on our lack of success. Why can I speak so authoritatively on this? Because it’s my experience, my temptation.
And how we weep with those who weep is important as well. A little girl lost a playmate in death. One day she told her parents that she had gone to comfort the grieving mother. “What did you say?” her parents asked. “Nothing,” she replied. “I just climbed up on her lap and cried with her.” She was a wise comforter!
Author Joseph Bayley and his wife lost three of their seven children in death. He wrote (The Last Thing We Talk About [David C. Cook], pp. 55-56), “I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God’s dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly. He said things I knew were true.
“I was unmoved, except to wish he’d go away. He finally did.
“Another came and sat beside me. He didn’t talk. He didn’t ask me leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left.
“I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go.”
The mercies of God call us to sympathize with others in both their joys and their sorrows. We sympathize, empathize and show mercy to all as Christ has sown mercy to us and to all.
And then another exhortation regarding our tendency toward pride in any and every situation.
God tells us to be humble, not haughty, and not naughty, toward others.
It’s interesting how pride so often leads to naughtiness. Have you ever noticed how pride and mercy never seem to mix? That’s because the pride person is all about Himself. It’s the humble who seem to be most concerned about others. It’s the humble and the lowly who can feel for others.
Verse 16: “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”
This verse seems especially, once again, to address our relationship with fellow believers. The idea seems to be in the context that we’re to have the same humble, compassionate, merciful and caring attitude toward one another—the mind of Christ; the love of Christ for one another. Philippians 2:1-4 seems to be a fuller expression of what Paul means here. He says there, “Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, untied in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness and empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of other.”
Humility leads to humble care and servant’s attitude towards other needs. A haughty spirit sees all that concern as below himself.
The command to associate with the lowly here can either mean to associate with lowly people or lowly things. Obviously, there should be no person whom we regard as below our dignity to associate with if we are servants of Christ, and there should be no service which we regard to be beneath our dignity if we have the love of Christ. Was that not the King of Kings who died on that cruel cross for us, after all?
Men, a child throws up in Children’s Church. Is it women’s work to clean it up? Or as a servant of Christ are you right there whatever is needed?
And then yet another instruction in verse 16 as we all live in this era of wanting to think of ourselves as always being above average. We’re told, “Do not be wise in your own estimation.” What a challenge. No one likes a know-it-all, and a know-it-all won’t hear what anybody else has to say. He already knows better. The seminary I went to, Dallas Seminary, in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s became famous in Christian circles for the quality of its faculty and the depth of its teachings. A sad result of that, oft-repeated by the seminary just as I was entering my studies was this proverb, “You can always tell a Dallas man, but you can’t tell him much.”
May God deliver us from the knowledge that puffs us up instead of humbling us to be servants of others who are willing to be corrected when we really need correction.
And finally, the very challenging instruction, to never, ever pay back evil to anyone.
Verse 18: "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.”
Paul is evidently aware our Christian testimony, and even God’s reputation, hinges on our obedience to this command. The temptation of believers to take their own revenge is also going to be a temptation to defame the name and character of our God. What people, especially unbelievers in this respect, absolutely matters, and it does matter to God. Unbelievers know what we stand for, even when we sometimes don’t. And they will often be ready to pounce the moment we display any hypocrisy in how we behave toward those who have done us wrong.
Our goal should be peace, not perpetuation of evil, not perpetuation of war. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”
And in verse 19 we encounter the word never again. When God repeats something, it’s important, really important. And He intends for us to remember it. Never/ever take your own revenge, beloved. And He now provides for us the reason why. Someone will take revenge, and He is far better at it and more capable of it than we are. So, “Leave room for” (give place for), the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
How can we forgive those who are responsible for great evils against us? Well, we forgive them by giving them to God. We let them off our hook and we put them on God’s. The ability to forgive the unrepentant sinner who has greatly harmed you hinges entirely on our ability to trust that God will bring vengeance and bring vengeance where it is due, more fully and more justly than we ever will.
In the meantime, our job is not vengeance, it is to demonstrate the mercy and love and compassion of Christ to sinners, even those who have sinned against us. Isn’t that the essence of what Christ did for us? “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So, in verse 20 we find the job that God has delegated to us: “But if your enemy is hungry, feed Him, and If He is thirsty give Him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” The clear intention of this passage is that through returning good for the evil done to us, we may bring conviction upon our enemy’s conscience, pain rather than peace, that will drive Him to receive the love of God.
The point—the whole direction of our lives is to be and do what Christ was and did for a sinful world—to overcome evil with good and God’s love. Verse 2 is worth memorizing: “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”
How many of you have seen the movie, “The Point of the Spear? It’s a great movie that came out about 20 years ago about the murder of five young Christian missionaries by the Auca Indians of the Amazon Jungle back in 1956. It chronicled not only their murder, but also how several of their widows, after having lost their husbands to this tribe that was renowned for its violence, courageously returned to the tribe, and won almost the entire tribe to Christ after losing their husbands to that same tribe.
Wow!
How do we overcome the world, and the evil therein? In the same way Christ did, by overcoming evil with good.
Will you?
Let’s pray.
