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“Overcome
Evil with Good”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Romans 12: 9 – 21
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Dear Sisters and Brothers, there is continually a spiritual growth
happening in our lives. This growth is sometimes applied to
understanding more Godly definitions of important Biblical words.
This morning these words are “love and evil.”
I am going to start redefining these words by asking what they
mean in the context of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being our
God, and how this perception affects our lives.
I hope this method of “faith seeking understanding” will
truly guide, strengthen, and show us God being for us, as we overcome
evil with good.
Let’s start with the word “love.”
We certainly know what our personal human experiences of love
are: romantic love, family love, and friendship love.
I have written a book titled Rediscovering
the Trinity in the Local Congregation.
Its publication will be completed in a couple of weeks.
And because of love, it has a dedication:
To Caroline,
my beautiful wife, my caring sister, my best friend,
who strengthens
and encourages
and consoles me
[1 Corinthians 14:3]
I have mentioned three kinds of natural personal human loves. Then, of
course, there is a love we experience that is not between two persons.
It is a love for parts of this
world; here are some examples: music, dancing, acting, movies,
flowers, food, pets, games, fishing, hunting, … etc.
Okay, we have been hearing words about what we as creatures call
“love.” However, in the
first words of our Scripture reading, “Let
love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good,”
the Bible’s original Greek word for love, in this sentence, agape,
means divine love. Its
subject is God’s loves, which hates evil, and never let’s go of what
is good.
Yes, this is a short and concise description of God’s love. Then the
following words say, “ love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”
Now friends, this is a wonderful time to learn by turning to the truth
of God being the Holy Trinity. God
is three persons whose holiness is divine love and united relationships. From all eternity, even before the creation of the universe,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love one another with perfect mutual
affection. Each one of them
is wonderfully committed to outdoing the other two in showing honor to
them. These are simply a
couple pictures of God’s love.
The most amazing, astonishing, and continuously fascinating news that
God is revealing to us, tells us that the most passionate desire in
God’s heart is that we would be brought home, into His love and
personal relationships. And,
we have. God has accomplished the greatest want in His heart.
How?
The Son of God, having the same desire in His heart as the Father, in
the love of the Holy Spirit, was totally committed to accomplishing
great honor for both of them. And they were devoted to honor Him.
So, the Son of God, being born from above into Jesus, was born
from above into all our souls. When
Jesus went home to be with and back into His divine loving
relationships; He took us, within our souls, back up with Him.
Okay, now that we have looked at the definition of divine love within
the truth of the Trinity, we are also shown that all these requirements,
in our Roman scriptures, to love one another, and even show love to our
enemies, is not thrown back upon us, to prove our Christianity, or earn
a passing grade from God. We
are already in God’s love, and God’s love is already in us.
With believing in this, we may certainly pray every day of our
lives that our Triune God will bring out of our souls, and into our
experiences with other people, a real participation in the personal love
within God.
This is what our real lives in Christ are about.
And just as when you spell the word “ live” backwards and get
the word “evil”, the very definition of evil is the opposite of
everything we have learned about the Holy Trinity. Our eternal lives are
sisters and brothers of Jesus in Holy love with our Father.
Evil is nothingness. Evil
has already lost to God. But,
until the second coming in Christ, evil is still trying to lie to us,
wanting to make us think God hates us, and that we will be painfully
punished forever.
How do we overcome evil with good?
We say in our hearts, “ I believe in God.
I do not believe in the devil.”
Let us pray …
Amen.
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