Rules of Engagement

We come again to Romans chapter
12 in order to complete our review of this powerful chapter. And so would the Lord’s people
please turn there in your Bibles, Romans chapter 12. Paul. is speaking here in Romans 12
very straightforwardly, applying the doctrine that he has outlined
in those 11 previous chapters. And he’s addressing these applications
to his readers in the Roman church, and really all subsequent readers
as well, including us. And he very directly is calling
believers to a life of sacrifice. Sacrificial living is what we’ve
titled this great chapter. This is his opening line of chapter
12, as we have seen, present your bodies a living and holy
sacrifice. And over the course of really
the entire rest of the chapter, he details that exhortation to
his church. that we are to be transformed
evermore into the likeness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and less and less conformed to the pattern of the world. And
this is one of the keys to the church impacting her world for
the sake of the gospel, that they are transformed. They’re
different. They look different from the
world. The church, the people of God,
must look different than the world, and when individuals are
transformed by the grace of God, the church reflects that change. She becomes a church that thinks
rightly, as we have seen, it functions as one, and it serves
enthusiastically in the faithful exercise of their individual
gifts in the church. But nowhere is the transformation
more needed than in the realm of personal relationships. We
need change from the way that we grew up in our natural state. And in verse nine, Paul turned
to begin to address the Christian’s attitude and demeanor toward
those around him or her. Other believers, first and foremost,
in verses 9 through 13, we ought to treat fellow believers differently. People in general is what he
addresses in verses 14 through 16. Even those who present themselves
as our enemies, as he introduced in verse 14, Between the way
that the world relates and the way that the church, God’s people,
relate to one another, the most dramatic difference will be seen
in the way that they relate to their enemies. If we were to
duck into any gathering of unbelievers, there would be a level of camaraderie
there between them, between them as people, similar to that of
the church. Sometimes they even call it fellowship. And the people of the world,
non-Christians, sometimes even supersede the church in their
general civility towards other people. Many of you know nice
unbelievers. But when it comes to the way
that we respond to enemies, There is a great contrast between the
way the world operates and the way the church operates, or should
operate. The people of the world have
an entirely different, a thoroughly unchristian way of dealing with
those who become their enemies. The world has its own unique
strategies for dealing with those who are at odds with them, and
it’s ugly, It’s cruel, it’s painful, because instead of solving and
bringing an end to strife, the world and their methods tends
to perpetuate and deepen these conflicts so that things almost
always go from bad to worse. It is justified in their minds
from the earliest age with phrases like, He started it. She did it first. Grandmother
used to have a way for describing this. She called it comeuppance. You could watch with great delight
when somebody got what was coming to them. The Hindus have an entire tenet
devoted to this called karma. Carrie Underwood won a Grammy
boasting about vandalizing her boyfriend’s pickup. If you pause and think about
it, revenge is baked right into our culture, isn’t it? We have
it in our music, we have it in our movies, we have it in sports. You might even say that vengeance
is our national pastime. And this cannot be the way of
Christians. This cannot be the way of the church because this
is not the way of our Savior. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have
us to be peaceable and kind, not hateful and warring. And this is a particular matter
that Paul moves to address in the close of this chapter, verses
17 through 21. For our purposes this morning,
we might back up to verse 16 as we glide seamlessly
into verses 17 through 21. I just want to grab that last
sentence of verse 16, and I’ll explain that in a moment. Do
not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil
to anyone. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written,
vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. 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 upon
his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. If I may, let me explain to you
why we began with that final sentence of verse 16. After all,
we did consider that verse last week in our consideration of
verses 14 through 16, our demeanor toward others in general. You
see, this sentence, do not be wise in your own estimation.
It functions as a hitch pin between these two subsections. between
verses 14 through 16 and verses 17 through 21. It connects them
both. It could be taken completely
with 14 through 16, as we saw, and it could be taken completely
with verses 17 through 21, as I hope to point out this morning.
You see, there’s a reason for that, and the reason is grammatical.
For those of you not given to grammar, I tell people all the
time, One of the reasons I know that there is a God is that I
now love grammar. If you’re not given to grammar
yet, just bear with us for a moment. You see, the first four statements
in verses 17 through 19 are participles. For those of you who think you
might lean into grammar, listen to this. You hear me speak about
these from time to time as who verbs or also identified as ing
verbs. A who verb functions like this.
The boy who was running fell. The boy fell. The who verb is
who was running. were provided additional important
information by that little participle, the boy fell. But he fell because
he was running. The sentence could also be translated
with an ING verb, the running boy fell. Same boy, same situation,
same idea is communicated. That’s what participles do. They
provide us with important additional information. even if it isn’t
the primary point of the sentence. And that’s what we have in verses
17 through 19, four participial phrases. Would you glance at them as I
seek to clarify this just a little bit? In verse 17, literally it
should read, to no one, evil for evil, giving back, I-N-G
verb. There’s no main verb in that
sentence. Same thing in the next sentence. It literally reads
thinking before you good for all. No main verb, and that’s
the same in verse 18, literally being at peace with all men.
And the same thing in verse 19, not yourselves bringing out revenge. There is no main verb for any
of those statements. but they have to fit somewhere.
They have to connect somewhere, and they connect to that last
sentence in verse 16. The most reasonable solution
is to hang them on that statement that Paul makes at the end of
verse 16. Do not be wise in your own estimation,
and then he describes that four ways. To no one, bad for bad,
giving back, thinking before you, good for all, being at peace
with all men and not yourselves bringing out revenge. It makes those four participial
sentences in verse 19 effectively applications of that command
in verse 16. So verse 16, as I said, functions
as a hitch pin. It connects the thoughts that
Paul is communicating. And participles or not, Paul
presents five principles here in verses 17 through 21. Principles
for dealing in a godly manner with our earthly foes, and we
all have them. My title this morning is Rules
of Engagement. In any military combat action,
soldiers need to know what their orders are. For instance, don’t
fire until you’re fired upon, a rather dangerous approach to
war. Don’t shoot until you see the
whites of their eyes, so that you’re not just wasting bullets.
That kind of thing is common in the military, and Christians
likewise need a reminder of what the rules of engagement are when
dealing with their own earthly foes. And in this final section,
Paul provides these rules of engagement, five principles for
dealing with our earthly foes. Let’s jump right into them. Verse
17. The first one, the first principle in dealing with our
earthly foes is the principle of restraint. Not responding
with retribution, though that might be our first thought. Never
pay back evil for evil to anyone, or as the participle had it,
to no one bad for bad giving back. The first thing I’d point
out about this first principle is the superlative aspect of
it. Never, and to anyone, obviously
treating a fellow believer in this way would be unthinkable.
To return evil for evil, especially in light of Paul’s earlier admonitions
in verse nine, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil,
cling to what is good, It is impossible that a Christian should
ever retaliate against another believer. But Paul says, anyone. Revenge cannot be justified against
even the harshest cruelty of a person of the world. So important
is this principle that Paul is going to elaborate on this principle
much more fully in verses 19 and 20. Now, the New American Standard
doubles up here on the superlative nature of this statement. I had
just said it. The word never, however, isn’t
found in the Greek. But the idea is there. If we
are not to pay back evil for evil to anyone, then logically
we are never to do so. The New American Standard just
says it explicitly. Under no circumstance are we
to return evil to anyone. Evil doing should not even be
in the Christian’s arsenal. When Paul says evil for evil,
he’s talking about revenge. He’s talking about getting back
at someone or getting even with someone, someone who has done
us wrong. No way, Paul says, never to anyone. A Christian is not to carry themselves
about in a spirit of vindictiveness. She or he is not to retaliate
in kind. And this tendency, unfortunately,
is so prevalent that scripture again and again and again addresses
this sin. Jesus addressed it in the Sermon
on the Mount, didn’t he? Matthew 5.38, you’ve heard it
said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And Jesus goes on
to dispel that foolish idea. Paul addressed it in the rough
and tumble Thessalonian church, chapter five, verse 15, see that
no one repays one another evil for evil, but always seek after
that which is good for one another and for all people. Here in his
letter to the Thessalonians, he assigns to the leaders of
that church the responsibility of overseeing this all too common
inclination to return evil for evil. And he tells the pastors
of that church, do not allow this. But he says it explicitly
in his letter to them so that every believer knows the impropriety
of revenge. The Apostle Peter addressed this
as well. He gives the same basic warning
in 1 Peter 3, 8 and 9. He says it positively and negatively. Listen to this. To sum up, all
of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, humble
in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult,
but giving a blessing instead. Now, this said, we should attend
to the inevitable question. Is it always wrong then to seek
restitution, financial restitution for property or person? And I
would say, and I’ve said it before, Scripture does allow Christians
to pursue recourse through legal means, lawsuits and such. It’s
just not with a vindictive spirit. In other words, it’s not wrong
to seek to defend your family, your property or your character
by legal means. But we do so with the goal of
restoring those things, not with an attitude of evening the score. We do not respond in kind, kicking
our neighbor’s dog, damaging his car, assailing his character. And so the first principle that
Paul gives us here is really a principle of restraint, holding
back what our natural inclination would be, and not returning evil
for evil through retribution. Paul’s second point is right
next door. Not only are we to restrain ourselves
from retribution, but secondly, he gives us the principle of
civility. That’s what I’m calling it. The
principle of civility. Look at verse 17, the second
statement. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Be civil,
be agreeable. Paul’s second principle here
is positive, not negative, and he tells us what we ought to
do, not what we ought not do. He tells us basically to live
civilly, to live like you’re not the only one on the planet,
which it fits right in with what Paul has been saying all along
in this entire section. We ought to be, Christians, we,
Christians ought to be others-oriented. and not just others in the church.
We ought to be agreeable people even to the general people of
our community. The way Paul says it here is,
respect what is right in the sight of all men. Now, Paul quotes
heavily from the Proverbs through this entire others-oriented section. He quoted Proverbs 3.7 in verse
16. He quotes from Proverbs 25, as
we’ll see in a moment. in verses 19 and 20, and he quotes,
or he at least alludes to Proverbs 3, 4 here. Just listen to this. Proverbs 3, 4. Do not let kindness
and truth leave you so that you will find favor and good repute
in the sight of God and man. We should be kind. We should
be truthful. We should pursue what is right
and good. And doing this, Solomon says, requires forethought, intentionality. Commenting on this verse, Charles
Bridges, and I would just tell you for those still looking to
buy books, Charles Bridges is without a doubt the gold standard
in commentary on Proverbs. If you don’t have it and you
love the Proverbs, secure a copy of Charles Bridges on Proverbs,
Banner of Truth, Charles Bridges said this about Proverbs 3-4,
what is more lovely than to live down reproach by consistent godliness? What is more acceptable to God
or more edifying to the church? The scripture connects the favor
of God with the favor of men as if the one was the fruit of
the other. You see, we have to begin our
day intentionally. We have to begin our day thinking
kindness and truth, or as Paul characterizes it, respecting
what is right in the sight of all. Literally here, Paul refers
to that which is good, what is inherently appropriate, morally
upright, honorable. This is, It would naturally include
things like hard work. We want to be hard working people.
Courtesy, letting others go, deferring to others, being kind,
obeying the rules. Punctuality, what it was called
the virtue of kings at one point. You say that you’re going to
be there at noon, be there at 1159. selflessness, manners, politeness,
thank you, no thank you, graciousness, wisdom, helpfulness. All of those
things are right in the sight of all men. And what we missed
most of all during the season of mask wearing, smile. A smile just is a universal welcome
to the other person, isn’t it? And what these writers of Scripture
are pointing to is a basic, evident standard of decency on which
all would agree. Both believers and unbelievers,
we ought to live our lives with others in view, as Paul says
it in 1 Corinthians 10, 32. Listen to this. Give no offense,
either to Jews or to Greeks, or to the Church of God. That
pretty much sums it, doesn’t it? 2 Corinthians 8.21, listen
to this. Have regard for what is honorable,
not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of all
men. Or as Paul put it in Titus 2, adorning the doctrine of God
our Savior in every respect. We don’t want anything as a roadblock
in way of our proclamation of the gospel, we should live in
such a way that even our professed enemies, not that we’ve professed
them to be enemies, they have professed themselves as such
to us, even our professed enemies have no cause for recrimination. As they look at us, they have
to bite their tongue. that yes, she obeys, yes, she’s
polite, yes, he’s a decent guy in our neighborhood. We want
to live as far as possible a life that is unprovoking of others. Of all people, we should be those
who do what is good and right. Peter echoes this principle twice
in his first epistle, 1 Peter 2.12. Keep your behavior excellent
among the Gentiles. And then in the very next chapter,
it echoes that same thought. Keep a good conscience so that
in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your
good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. They won’t have
anything bad to say about you. Paul says we ought not to provide
the enemies of God a cause, any cause, to blaspheme His name. Avoid anything that is questionable
that could bring reproach to the gospel. There’s a third principle. If we’re going to have good rules
for engagement. We need to remember the principle
of restraint, the principle of civility, and thirdly, the principle
of diplomacy. That’s what we see in verse 18.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all
men. The third principle that Paul
provides is, of course, this classic principle of diplomacy,
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all
men. And the bottom line here, we
are to pursue peace, and like the previous principle, with
everyone, with all men. We shouldn’t have a list over
on the right-hand column that says, well, these are okay. These people are okay with whom
to be at odds. A simple exhortation here is
to peaceable, not only not provoking others as this immediately preceding
principle, the principle of civility, but according to the first principle,
not being stirred to anger and resentment by other people. That’s
hard, isn’t it? The writer of Hebrews, admonished
those Hebrew Christians in 1214, pursue peace with all men and
the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Every
real believer recognizes the need of grace, the grace of sanctification. We confess our sin daily as God
brings it to light. We know that we need to grow
in godliness. But together with that, the writer
of Hebrews says that a pursuit of peace is vitally important. The Christian ought never be
the cause of strife, but we will. We will stumble, we will offend
people, and when we do, we should be quick to seek to restore the
peace between us and any person. We should always stand ready
to apologize for any slight, any wrongdoing, even if it was
unintentional. And we should always stand ready
to forgive the same. Let me drive this point home
for us. Would you flip over to 2 Corinthians
5 for just a moment? 2 Corinthians 5, two books to
the right, five chapters in. This is just too good to gloss
over. I don’t want to just read it to you. I’d like you to read
it for yourself. Paul’s talking about the Christian
ministry, and that sphere is, the circle is much wider than
we might think it. It includes all of us. All believers
are in the Christian ministry. Glide down to verse 18, if you
would. Now, all these things are from God who reconciled us
to himself through Christ and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was, in Christ,
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them. and he has committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God were making an
appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled
to God. Now, here’s my point. I want
you to just think of this. If God has reconciled us to himself,
forgiving our wretched sin, because of what Christ accomplished on
the cross. And he’s thereby granted to us
the ministry of reconciliation, to go out and find others who
need to be reconciled to their Savior. Shouldn’t we be, of all people,
peaceful, peace-preserving, peace-seeking, peace-restoring people? We should. It comes with being a Christian.
James tells us that we are to be like the Lord in the sense
that we are slow to anger. And this means that at times
we are going to be called upon by God to forgive the offenses
of others, with or without an apology. Even before any formal apology
is issued for some offense against you, we should stand ready to
forgive. We should allow the Spirit to
work on our heart to such a degree that full and lasting forgiveness
is already in process. You remember I told you about
the $10 million sin? You remember the $10 million
sin? The $10 million sin is the parable of that unmerciful slave
who goes and pleads his case. He owed the king the equivalent
of $10 million. And he went and pleaded his big
sob story to the king. The king didn’t set up a payment
plan. He forgave him the entire $10 million sin. And his response to that was
to go out and choke his fellow slave by the neck for a measly
16 pennies. That’s what we do when we refuse
to forgive a fellow believer after we have been forgiven so
great a debt. Jesus put it like this. Well, that passage is gone. I think
I moved it to later, so bear with me. this kind of living, forgiving
others, even before they ask us to do so, this is truly sacrificial,
others-oriented living, isn’t it? We don’t, we cannot sacrifice
truth for peace, so we don’t hold back the truth, but even
if we’re called upon to confront a brother or sister in error,
we do so with graciousness, with winsomeness, with kindness, Now,
there’s one little caveat to this command. In our modern translations,
it sounds as if there are two conditions. If possible, and
as far as it depends on you, and we love to take those backdoor
exits, don’t we? In the original, it’s really
only one condition. Literally, if it is in your power, In short, to whatever degree
we are able to secure peace with anybody with whom we’re at odds,
we ought. We ought to do everything in
our power to be at peace with every person we know. Still, there will be those that
you come across that are unwilling, even believers. Especially unbelievers have a
tendency to dig in their heels, and they have decided and written
you off long ago. Once offended, it is nearly impossible
to restore peace with someone of the world, someone who doesn’t
know the forgiveness of God. And we cannot force them to reconcile
with us, but we have to do our part. And if they remain irreconcilable
to us, Paul’s condition here releases
us from discomfort. An unwillingness to reconcile
is a terrifically graceless condition. We may be dismayed at the lack
of peace. We should be. And we may languish
in pain, and we may continue to pray that this breach might
be repaired. But we need not be ashamed. We’ve
done what we can. We’ve done all that we can, and
we can rest as we continue to pray and leave it in the Lord’s
hands and wait for the Spirit to invigorate a work of reconciliation. There’s a fourth principle. Rules
of engagement, we’re calling them the principle of restraint,
the principle of civility, the principle of diplomacy, and fourth,
the principle of reckoning. That’s a frightening word because
it touches every person who was ever born. One day there will
be a reckoning. One day we will stand before
God. One day, God will render to all according to his deeds.
Look at verse 19. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written,
vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. 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 upon his head. We already considered a similar
point. I mentioned it earlier. Paul’s
principle in verse 17, not to pay back evil for evil. As I
indicated there that Paul would expand here upon this principle
here before he can even take a breath. He reminds them. Of his affection for them. He
calls them beloved. He knows. And he knows well that
this is a matter with which all believers might be convicted,
right? It is a difficult thing for him
to address with these friends. And so he reminds them of his
love for them before he says another word. But still he must,
as a faithful shepherd, remind them of this offense against
God this offense called revenge. This is a difficult thing even
for the most godly believer. We have been unjustly treated. We have been objectively wronged. We know it. Our close friends
know it. God knows it. Everyone knows
it except the perpetrator who refuses to acknowledge his wrongdoing. But even that does not give us
license to take matters into our own hands. Far better that we endure the
lack of remorse on top of the ill treatment that we’ve received
than that we lower ourselves to respond in kind. Far better
that we forgive the individual in our heart, and we entrust
ourselves, as Peter says, to our faithful creator and wait
upon him. This is Christ’s way. Who, as Peter tells us, left
us an example to follow. Because even though he committed
no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, while being reviled,
he did not revile in return. No evil for evil for our Lord. The second admonition is the
first main verb that we’ve had in this entire section. Very
direct. It’s in the imperative. Leave
room for the wrath of God. Don’t stick your nose in there.
Admittedly, in the Greek text, it does not specifically assign
this wrath to God, but it would be such a glaring contradiction
that this cannot possibly be our own wrath. Leave room for
our own wrath? That would go against everything
that Paul has said in this section. Plainly, we are to leave room
for wrath. And obviously, it’s the wrath
of God. Paul is referring to the wrath of God, or the fact
that Paul’s referring to the wrath of God becomes even more
evident by the explanation that Paul gives in verse 19. Would you just look there? Leave
room for the wrath of God, for it is written. Scripture says,
the Bible has it. Vengeance is mine. I will repay,
says the Lord. This is a quote from Deuteronomy
32, 35, and it is the very text used by Jonathan Edwards in his
sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by which some
young men are saved. God is a holy God, and therefore
he’s a God of justice. And in his righteousness, he
must punish sin. And so we are completely out
of our league to enter into what is God’s prerogative alone. And
so rather than praying for God’s justice on our enemies, we ought
rather pray for their humble repentance. But beyond praying for our enemy,
we ought also to do active good to him, Paul says. It’s one thing
to refrain from responding in kind, evil for evil. It’s quite
another to care for him and to nurture him as a dear friend.
But this is the very thing that we’re called to do. You see, we have this inclination
to think that merely refraining from vengeance or walking away
from their unkind treatment, that we’ve done enough. Aren’t
I a good Christian? Not so, says Paul. We are to
lavish them with kindness. Look at verse 20. If your enemy
is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him a drink.
We are to feed him and to assuage his thirst. We are to provide
for their practical needs. Here’s the verse that I was missing
a moment ago. Jesus himself affirmed this very
thing. Luke 6, 27, 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, whoever
hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, whoever takes
away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. That’s the Lord Jesus. And this
kind of thing is almost exclusively the kind of response that only
a true Christian can provide. This is why I said our response
to those who hate us is so different than the world’s. As I forecasted
earlier, this is a direct quote from Proverbs 25, 21 and 22,
which concludes with this remarkable thought. For in so doing, you will heap
burning coals on his head. And there are some people that
say, yes, finally, my enemy is going to get what’s coming to
him. It’s a terrifically misunderstood
verse, this heaping of burning coals. There are those that actually
see this as wishing the pain of judgment upon their enemies.
Whether immediate or in the future, in judgment, divine punishment. The spirit of such wishful thinking
is entirely disconnected from Paul’s intention here. It’s not
what he’s saying. It’s not what it means. The only
reasonable explanation is that these burning coals represent
the remorse And the shame that surely comes upon an evildoer
when his harsh treatment is met by Christian kindness. Oh, how
wretched I am. And hopefully that shameful remorse. Leads such a person to the repentance
of faith that opens up a gospel opportunity for you. Paul himself didn’t just preach
this, he lived it. Remember Acts 16, Paul goes in
to Philippi and he leads Lydia to Christ that very first day,
her entire household. He had a lively and fruitful
ministry there in Philippi, but he also drew the ire of the greedy
locals because their business was being affected by his preaching.
They had him thrown in jail. And the jailer was only too happy
to comply. But God, in his might, caused
a great earthquake that sprung the prison doors, remember? And
the poor jailer knew that if he lost all these prisoners,
this would lead to his own execution. And he bowed and he prepared
to take his own life, run him through with his own sword. But Paul and Silas, In their
kindness, not only did they not flee, they urged that he do himself
no harm. You know what that ultimately led
to? It ultimately led to the jailer’s conversion. As they
preached the gospel to him, these were remarkable men. What must
I do to be saved? You see, Paul did not return
evil. There’s a fifth principle as
we close. If we’re going to deal in a godly
manner with our earthly foes, we must exercise the principle
of restraint. We must exercise the principle
of civility. We must exercise the principle
of diplomacy. We must exercise the principle
of reckoning. And finally, we must recognize
the principle of kindness. Look at verse 21. Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good. It comes at last to this principle
of dealing with our earthly foes. And this one follows right along
on the heels of the previous. Do not be overcome by evil, overcome
evil with good. It’s a fitting summary for the
entire section. The Christian will face trouble
in this life. We will face trial. As believers,
we will endure evil treatment. We will have those who profess
themselves to be our enemies. But we must not. Indeed, we cannot
be overcome by it. To be overcome by evil would
mean to stoop down to responding in kind. This is right where Paul began,
isn’t it? Back in 17, returning evil for evil. To give in to
anger and resentment and revenge is to be conquered. It’s an indication not of strength
and victory. It’s an indication of weakness
and defeat. But even if he is ahead of the
score here, the victory is not complete. It’s not enough not
to be overcome by evil, as we’ve already seen. Restraint is not
enough that the victory will be sealed
by living out that final line. Overcome evil with good. That
final line points to the hope that we have. that in not losing
heart and doing good in due time, we will reap. We will reap the
blessing of winning over even our most stubborn enemy if we
follow Paul’s rules of engagement. Would you humble yourself before
our mighty God?