Overcoming Evil with Good Romans 12:21; Jeremiah 15:15–21; Matt. 16:21–28 

Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who overcame evil with good.

Our sermon is based on our Epistle, especially verse 21, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Good advice from the good Word; advice Jesus followed, and taught His disciples to follow.

In our Gospel, Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

The Gospel does that, it works in reverse. By losing, we find. By picking up our cross, we gain. By doing good we overcome evil. Less of some things equals more of what matters. 

Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

What good is it to heal the body but not the soul. What good is a vaccine for a virus, without a message and a miracle for the soul?

When Jesus comes, He will raise the bodies of those who died trusting in Him, to be reunited with their souls from heaven, and then we’ll live in body and soul, to be good and do good forever. To be a perfect blessing unto others.

Although we can’t be a perfect blessing to each other now, with the help of God, we can a blessing, we can be good to others, and we can sincerely try to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Our Epistle says, Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 

Let your love be authentic, born of God. 

1 John 4:7 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. That’s authentic love. 

1 John 4:10 tells us where perfect love is found: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.

By picking up His cross, carrying it, and dying on it, Jesus showed the world what love really is. When He calls us to pick up our cross and follow Him, it’s to have that same kind of sacrificial love for others.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Abhor evil. Embrace good. 

Jeremiah says in our Old Testament, I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice. I sat alone, because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation.

Though I was mocked, spurned and ridiculed, I stood for what was good and right, and I stood against what was wrong. I abhorred evil and embraced good, because You were with me.

Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 

Be filled with a loving passion for what is truly good, genuine love born of God.

Don’t let the world or your sinful nature, trick you into believing that bad is good, and good is bad. 

The most tragic of all is when the secular culture sees the Gospel as evil, and believing it as bad. Don’t fall for that deception.

Love the Gospel and all God’s Word, which is all good and true, and a blessing to you, and a blessing for you to share others.   

Jeremiah says, Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.

Let the grace and goodness found in God’s Word be a joy to you, the delight of Your heart. That will help you to do good and overcome evil, even and especially the evil in your own soul.

We all carry a fallen, sinful nature within us. Abhor that, and embrace the good in you, the Holy Spirit in you. 

In Romans 7, Paul abhors his own sinful nature. He says, For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… 

He had a passion for what’s right, but his sinful nature sometimes caused him to do what’s wrong:  When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul had a strong passion for being like Christ, but the weakness of his sinful nature was also very strong. And so he had to constantly have his sinful nature drowned in his Baptism, embracing the grace Jesus won for him, and being renewed in the Holy Spirit, who helped him to be more like Christ, and less like everything else.

We have the same struggle, and the same Spirit to help us, the same Word to empower us, the same family, the Church, to encourage us, so that we can abhor all that’s wrong and evil in this world, and embrace all that’s genuinely good and loving.

Verse 10 of our Epistle says, Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 

Like a friendly competition in honoring to God and respecting others.

Not for bragging rights, for as 2 Corinthians 10:17 says, Let the one who boats, boast in the Lord.

It’s impossible to please God without His help, so the glory goes to Him.

When Paul says to outdo one another in showing honor, he means to encourage each other, to provide an example, a marker of good for each other to aim for. 

Hebrews 10:24 says, Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

That helps in the goal of overcoming evil in our fallen world, and adding more goodness and love. The world needs more blessing and less cursing. 

Our Epistle says, Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 

Abhorring evil doesn’t mean hating sinners, it means blessing them, as our God blesses us, sinners.

Evil will never be overcome by evil, only by godliness. More hate will never equal less hate. 

We don’t help by hating others; we help by blessing others, being good to them, speaking truth to them in love, sometimes confronting wrong-doing, speaking with our actions, showing what the goodness of the Lord, genuine love, looks like.

As we said, we sometimes fall short in doing this; there’s selfishness in our lives every day. But abhorring the sin in us, repenting of it, and embracing God’s forgiveness that makes everything right, we’re able to be better people, doing more good, and causing less harm.

Repay no one evil for evil… if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. As Jesus tells us, Love your enemy.

Since the fall into sin, the world has been trying to overcome evil with evil. It’s never worked, and it never will. 

The way of Jesus is what works. Love your enemy. Don’t become what those who hurt you, want you to be, angry and mean like them. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, Paul says.

Don’t get drawn into the fight. Don’t add to the aimless chaos. Add love and peace, not hate and violence.

No one wins when it’s sin against sin. When it’s evil for evil, everyone loses. Rise above the fray and live like Jesus; repay evil with good; strive to set a godly example.

That’s how you bear witness to Christ, and that’s how you make this world a better place. 

And as you overcome evil with good, you can be sure that the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our good and loving Lord. Amen.