²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Doormats we are not to be. In our battle with evil and evil people who do evil things to us, we simply have a different set of weapons than the natural world has. We don’t need the uselessness of revenge, undermining, bitterness, hatred, gossip or any other fleshly reaction to people who do bad things to us. On the one hand, why use a “weapon” that is useless? We might as well go into a sword fight using a noodle rather than hardened steel. We read in another place, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor 10:3–4).

Resisting the temptation to launch into an exposition of the “armor of God” outlined in Ephesians 6:10-17, we want to focus here on the overall principle that our goal is not to destroy people. Even though people do bad things and cause us tremendous harm at times, they are not the enemy. Paul writes elsewhere, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). Being wronged by someone does not give us the right to harm them back. If we understand the message of justification, we should react in the full awareness and belief that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). That includes everyone—you and me, as well as the person doing us harm. We are all in the same boat, so to speak. It just so happens that we believers have been rescued from the sinking boat, and our desire is that the same grace that saved us and justified us would also save that person and justify him.

We want them to know the undeserved goodness of God in the same way that we have come to know and enjoy it. We are not any more deserving of God’s grace than they are. The battle we face when people do us wrong is not who wins, or whether I can get satisfactory revenge or payback. Rather, our concern should be for the other person’s good, which demonstrates to them God’s goodness.

So the best and only means of “warfare” for the justified Christian who is basking in God’s grace is to win the conflict by changing the terms of engagement, refusing to fight on humanistic, natural terms. We want to win them with what we are winning them to—namely, a good, righteous God who desires deeply to show His undeserved love to them in justifying them (2 Peter 3:9).

Lord, I cannot possibly do this in my own strength. Help me move past the injustices done to me and see a person whose only hope is coming to know You.