1 Th. 5:15
Render Not Evil for Evil
In this sermon, Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds 1 Thessalonians 5:15, urging believers not to retaliate evil for evil but to actively pursue good towards all people. He grounds this command in the reality of indwelling sin and the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing that Christian ethics demand more than mere neutrality—they require overcoming evil with good, reflecting God's character. Martin also clarifies that this command does not negate the need for church discipline or confrontation, provided the motivation is restoration and God's glory, not personal revenge.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 9 sections · 45 min
- Introduction: The Call to Abound in Pleasing God 0:02
- The Context of Interpersonal Relationships 3:43
- A Situation Contemplated: Evil Done to Believers 5:23
- A Reaction Anticipated: Rendering Evil for Evil 9:50
- The Prohibition Enunciated: See That None Render Evil for Evil 16:26
- The Directive Delineated: Always Follow After That Which Is Good 21:10
- The Nature and Extent of Following Good 26:39
- Practical Implementation: The Supernatural Life 32:00
- Practical Implementation: Qualification and Wonder 37:56
Key Quotes
“No, God said it was going to happen. Now, this is not fatalism, this is realism.”
“Even though that basic attitude has been changed by grace, it has not been basically subdued by grace. It has not been completely purged away and completely eradicated from the human heart.”
“Now the word he begins with, see that, is a strong word. It comes in the imperative. This is a command and it means pay close attention.”
“God is never satisfied with what we would call a mere neutralism. It's not enough that we take the prohibition, see that none render evil for evil. God never stops with the negative, but he always commands the opposite word. Virtue.”
“You see, evil is triumph not only in that man but in my own life. Now it's not enough that I still the triumph of evil by refusing to retaliate. I am to turn around, he says and where he has paid me evil what's my change to be to him? Good.”
“No one can live the Christian life except that person who has dwelling in him the life of a Christian.”
“Revenge is the last stronghold of the natural man it is that last fort which he holds against the spirit of the gospel and when that fort is stormed and conquered Christ is Lord indeed”
“God wants to make the imperfect community of the saints a marvelous proving ground for the kind of grace that overcomes evil with good”
Applications
All listeners
- Don't be disillusioned when evil is done to you; face it as a reality.
- The question is not whether evil will be done to you, but what you do when it happens.
- Pay close attention and set yourself to react contrary to natural instincts when evil is done.
- When the spirit of paying back is detected, don't pray about whether it's right, but pray for an infusion of Calvary love to overcome it.
- If you see the spirit of rendering evil for evil in a brother or sister, admonish them.
- Diligently pursue a course of good when evil is done to you, tracking it down with vehemence.
- Act like God acts, overcoming evil with good, being kind to those who do evil to you.
- If you have tasted God's forgiveness, you cannot perpetually walk in a course of hurting your brother.
- In discipline or confrontation, the motivation must never be personal revenge, but always the gaining of your brother and the glory of God.
- Don't get discouraged when evil is done within the church; it's an opportunity for grace to be displayed.
- Heap good upon those who do you evil; it will break them down and subdue them.
- If you don't feel your need of being full of the Holy Spirit, try to implement this command; it will put you on your face crying for His filling.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 96 paragraphs, roughly 45 minutes.
Introduction: The Call to Abound in Pleasing God
Let us turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, as we continue to work our way through this letter of Paul to the infant church of the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
The general theme of these closing chapters is introduced very clearly in chapter 4, where the apostle says at the beginning of that chapter, Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more. So his concern is that a people who have begun to walk well in a course of action pleasing unto the Lord should abound and overflow in that. This is the same pattern of conduct. And if this is to be so, they must know what pleases God. And what pleases God is not dictated by the fickle impulses of the human heart, but by the authoritative word of the living God. So he proceeds to touch on specific areas of life and what it is for a child of God to walk in that area. In such a way as to please his God.
The first area he touches is the matter of our sexual conduct. And then he moves into the whole matter of the responsibility to work. And then to the matter of our attitude in the face of death. And then the whole matter of the Christian's preparation and a life of preparedness for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After dealing in some detail with those three. The four general areas, specific areas. Beginning in verse 12, it's as though he knew he had an appointment coming up. Or he knew that he was running out of paper or running out of ink.
And he groups together a whole bulk of miscellaneous exhortations. And in the same theme, gives them to the people of God at Thessalonica that they might know how to walk well pleasing unto God. Verse 12. Then he dealt with their relationship to their elders.
Know them that are among you. Esteem them highly in love for their work's sake. Then he deals with the responsibility of saints one to another. We exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly.
Encourage the faint-hearted. Support the weak. Be long-suffering toward all. May I say, as I bring our brief review and introduction to a close, that I have been greatly encouraged with the fact that apparently at least some of you have been encouraged to be a saint.
And I have been greatly encouraged with the fact that apparently at least some of you have taken this study seriously. I had a call even this week from someone who had been admonished by several of his or her brothers or sisters and called to encourage me that apparently the word had taken effect. That this is not put here for us to simply have something to study on a Sunday morning to round out a worship service. Here is the Lord Jesus standing in the midst of his church as prophet, directing the conduct and activity of his people by his inspired word through the apostles expounded and ministered to us by his servants.
The Context of Interpersonal Relationships
Now we come this morning to another exhortation which does not necessarily have any direct relationship to what has preceded in verses 12 to 14, except that it does relate again to the whole matter of our conduct one to another. You see? You can't escape these two things. Pleasing God and learning to live with his people.
God didn't save you in isolation. The moment you were born of the Spirit, you were incorporated into the body of Christ. And your Christian life does not develop in isolation. It develops in the community of the people of God.
So, if we are to please God, we must learn what it is to understand, and do his will in our interpersonal relationships. Whether it's those over us whom we are to know and honor. Whether it's our brethren who stand amongst us who are disorderly and we need to admonish them. Faint hearted and they need to be encouraged.
Weak and they need to be supported. Or, as we come in verse 15, whether it is our brethren or those outside the circle of the church who wrong us and do wrong. Who do evil to us. We must learn how to react in a way that is pleasing to God.
For this is the theme of the chapter. How to walk and to please God. So, our attention will be directed this morning to verse 15. See that none render unto anyone evil for evil.
A Situation Contemplated: Evil Done to Believers
But always follow after that which is good. One toward another and toward. All. Now, in the first place, we find the apostle contemplating a certain situation that might arise in the midst of the people of God.
So, we will consider a situation contemplated. And as he contemplates that situation, he anticipates a certain reaction. So, in the second place, we'll consider a reaction anticipated. Now, in the light of that situation that he contemplates, the reaction that he anticipates, he gives a prohibition.
And so, we have a prohibition enunciated. See that none render evil for evil. And in the last place, we have set before us a very clear statement of a directive in a positive way. A directive delineated.
All right, then, let's think through the verse under those headings. A situation contemplated. In the normal events of life, in the assembly of God's people, and in their interaction with the world, Paul expects that evil will be done to the people of God. He says, See that none render unto anyone evil for evil, clearly indicating that evil will be done to the people of God.
Now, the word evil here, simply means a wrong inflicted by one person upon another. It can be actions. Someone may steal your goods. Someone may cheat you in a business deal.
Someone may cheat you of your girlfriend or your boyfriend. Someone may abuse you personally. It may be words. Someone may abuse you with insults.
Someone may malign you. Someone may malign you with gossip. Someone may lie about you. Someone may inflict wrong upon you by their attitudes.
They may become jealous of you. They may become suspicious of you. They may become very testy and short-tempered with you. In all of these ways, words, actions, attitudes, the people of God do not live long until they experience evil done to them.
Either within the assembly, or without in the world. Now, the apostle is a great realist. And the word of God deals with the real situation. Jesus said in Luke 17, It is necessary that offenses come, the world being what it is, and saints being what they are, imperfect and incomplete in sanctification, evil is going to be done to you.
Now, just face it. Don't be disillusioned when it happens. That's the way it's going to be. And because that's the way it's going to be, the apostle is going to give directives that will help us to face the real world.
Just as we saw in our study of verse 14, why does the apostle say, admonish the disorderly? Because he knows even in the best of churches, there'll be some disorderly people. Why does he say, support the feeble-minded, or comfort the feeble-minded, or faint-hearted? Because he knows in the best of churches, they're going to be, faint-hearted people.
Why does he say, support the weak? Because he knows in the best of churches, there'll be weak people. Now, why does he say, don't render evil for evil? Except that he knows, evil is going to be done to us.
Now, why do you act surprised, and disillusioned, and all hurt, and as it were, go to pieces, when someone does evil to you? Somebody says something evil of you, and you say, oh, isn't that terrible? No, God said it was going to happen. Now, this is not fatalism, this is realism.
Listen, evil is going to be done to you. Now, the question is, not whether or not evil will be done to you, but what do you do when evil is done to you? That's the question. So, having contemplated the situation in which evil is done to the child of God, in the second place, the apostle anticipates a certain reaction.
A Reaction Anticipated: Rendering Evil for Evil
So, we have a reaction anticipated in this text. And what is that reaction? Well, you could preach the sermon, at this point, I don't need to. You know what the reflex action of the human heart is, when evil is done.
Just as the reflex action of the body, when the fingers touch a hot stove, is to pull back and recoil. You don't, while your hand is on the stove, stop and think, now, wait a minute, that stove's hot, my hand is tender flesh, if I leave it there, it's going to burn. Oh, yes, I think I better take my hand away. No, no, you don't go through any such thought processes.
You backtrack, back into a hot stove, and it's a reflex action. You don't think about it. All you think about it after is, why was I so stupid to get so close to it? That's the only thing you consciously think about.
The reflex action, when a pin pricks your finger, is to recoil. Now, just as the body has reflex actions, the soul, the spirit, has reflex actions. And those reflex actions are conditioned by our state of sinfulness. And I ask you, what is the reflex action, of the human heart, when evil is done to us?
Isn't it to pay back with the same?
I can still see, and I was a part of it once in a while, I can still see the kid standing on the corner, jaw out, lip out, the one, first of all, touching. We'd start by touching on the shoulder. And the guy would touch him, and he'd touch him back. And the next time he'd punch, he'd punch back.
And whatever he gave him, he'd give him in return until they were going at it both fists. See? The whole, concept of rendering an equal amount of what I get. And it's interesting that this is exactly the word that Paul uses here.
When he says, see that none render unto any, the word render could rightly be translated, see that none pay back unto anyone evil for evil. The word is actually translated pay in Matthew 18, 28, 30, and 34. It's translated reward in Matthew 6, 4. It's the concept of paying something back in return or recompense.
Now this is the reaction that the Apostle Paul anticipates as being very natural to the Thessalonians. Oh, but wait a minute. I thought he addressed them as a great bunch of Christians. He said they were sanctified in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus.
He said the gospel, he said they were a great testimony, a great witness. And you mean of such a marvelous group of Christians, he anticipates a reaction like two kids in the street corner going like this. He says precisely, that's all he expects of human nature left to itself. That's all he expects.
Is that we'll be like a couple of kids saying, I'll give you back exactly what you gave me. Rendering evil for evil. That's the natural reaction that the Apostle, the Apostle Paul anticipates of the human heart. Even though that basic attitude has been changed by grace, it has not been basically subdued by grace.
It has not been completely purged away and completely eradicated from the human heart. Now how do we pay back evil for evil? Well, the very obvious way is that we meet physical abuse with physical abuse. Like the two kids standing in the street corner.
Or, we meet verbal abuse with verbal abuse. A husband is quick to a wife and a wife in turn is quick to the husband, verbally. A brother or sister will pick on verbally his brother or sister and will get the same in return. That's the most obvious way that we pay back, render evil for evil.
But there are far more subtle ways that we do it. No overt, payment of evil for evil. But we, as it were, we pay back under the corner, under the counter, or behind the corner. We pay back evil for evil in subtle ways.
And as the children of God we're not exempt from this. We may do it by casting aspersions on the one who has done evil to us. When we're around other people we'll throw out little hints that will cause them to question his or her character. We will indicate certain things that may undermine that person's friendship with another.
What are we doing? Someone has done evil to us. They have wronged us by their words, their actions or attitudes and we're rendering evil for evil. Not overtly and directly, but indirectly.
We're getting even. We're paying back.
It may be by a coolness to the one who has harmed us. Just enough to set them questioning what their relationship to us may be. We may do it, and this is common perhaps more to children, we may do it by teasing. Teasing can be a form of rendering evil for evil.
Someone does evil to us and so we're going to tease them to get them on edge. Or something common to adults, sarcasm many times is an awful weapon of returning evil for evil. Someone may abuse us physically and we may not and we'll leave them bloody with a sword of sarcasm. These are the ways that we render evil for evil.
In short, anything which has in it the spirit of retaliation and recompense, anything said, felt, or done which is a form of paying someone back for the wrong done to me is rendering evil for evil. And this is the way and the apostle again is a great realist and student of the human heart anticipating that this will be our natural reaction whenever the situation arises. Having considered then the situation he envisions, the reaction he anticipates, now we come to the core of the text. We have first of all a prohibition enunciated.
The Prohibition Enunciated: See That None Render Evil for Evil
He starts with the negative. Then he has a duty that is very clearly delineated. What is the prohibition? Here it is.
See that none render evil for evil. Now the word he begins with, see that, is a strong word. It comes in the imperative. This is a command and it means pay close attention.
In other words, the only way you will ever rightly react when evil is done to you is if you roll up your sleeves and set yourself to react in a way that is contrary to your natural instincts. Pay close attention to. Give heed to. That's the whole force of the word.
Now who does it come to? It comes to all of us. Notice, see that none, it applies to all of us, render unto anyone evil for evil. So it applies, it applies to all of us in all of our relationships both within and without the church of Jesus Christ.
Now that's pretty sweeping, isn't it? Now if you don't catch the force of that, you know what your old heart's going to do? It's going to always be making yourself an exception to the rule. Oh yes, evil for evil in that case would be wrong and in that situation, but in my situation and in my situation, in these peculiar, extenuating circumstances, this is not evil for evil, but it is, and then you begin to write the exception clauses like a clever lawyer.
No, no. See that none, this applies to every one of us, render unto any, that applies to everybody. So where are the exceptions? God hasn't put any even in the fine print.
Now I don't know what's in the margin of your Bible or in the footnotes,
but here in the text, see that none render unto any. This prohibition comes first of all reminding us that this is a duty to which we must apply ourselves. Secondly, it is a duty that applies to all of us in every situation. Now, if I'm convinced of this, then whenever the spirit of paying back, whether with attitudes, words or actions, is detected by me, I don't need to pray about that and say, Lord, is this right?
What would you have me do with it? No, no. I don't need to pray about whether the spirit that would pay evil for evil is right. No, no.
I need to be praying about something else. I don't need to ask, Lord, is this thing pleasing to you or not? No, no. He's already told us it's displeasing to Him.
What I need to be praying for is for such an infusion of the spirit of Calvary love that I'll not render evil for evil. I need to be praying for I need to be praying that God will enable me to crucify and put to death this spirit. Once I'm convinced that to every one of us, to me, in every situation, the spirit of rendering evil for evil is sin, then I'm in the way where I can begin to deal with it. Also, whenever I see that spirit operative in my brother or sister, he's being disorderly.
He's breaking rank. He's not walking. He's not walking according to orders. And to tie verse 15 to verse 14, I need to go and admonish him and tell him, look, I don't know what your heart's telling you, my brother, my sister, but that attitude is evil for evil.
You're striking back with your words. You're striking back with your actions. You're not coming at it over the counter payment. It's under the counter payment, but it's payment nonetheless.
And so for my well-being and for the well-being of my brethren, I must accept, acknowledge that this prohibition comes to me in every situation and to all of my brethren. Now, having enunciated this prohibition, now he sets forth a positive duty and directive. Notice what it is. See that none render unto anyone evil for evil, but always follow after that which is good, one toward another, and toward all.
The Directive Delineated: Always Follow After That Which Is Good
May I say as we begin to deal with these words that one of the unique things of the ethics of the scriptures is that God is never satisfied with what we would call a mere neutralism. It's not enough that we take the prohibition, see that none render evil for evil. God never stops with the negative, but he always commands the opposite word. Virtue.
Let me show you several passages of scripture that clearly indicate this. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. We could turn to many others, but this is especially good because you have two of them back to back. Now what we're trying to see is that God not only forbids the vice, but commands the opposite virtue.
Ephesians 4, 28.
Let him that stole steal no more. Alright, so the guy's been stealing, he stops stealing, he goes out, he works, gives his money to the church, feeds himself, clothes himself with the fruit of his labors. Has he done all God wants? No, no, listen.
Let him that stole steal no more, but, there's the negative prohibition, now here comes the positive delineation of duty, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have whereof to give, give to him that hath need. It's not enough that he stops stealing in his need, but that he works so as to meet his own need and give to somebody else in need lest he be tempted to steal. He's not only to quit stealing himself, he's to be so diligent in his employment that he as it were goes out and helps others out of the situation that might lead them to steal. You find the same thing in the next verse, verse 29. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth. Stop speaking things that corrupt. So a person stops talking altogether and he says I'm obeying the word of God.
No corrupt speech is proceeding out of my mouth. Nothing's going to be said. If I open my mouth, I always put my foot in it, I'm not going to say anything. And so he prides himself that he no longer talks and says anything and he says I've really gained a victory.
I'm no longer corrupting people by my speech. The Lord says you've only gone halfway. What am I to do? Notice.
Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth but there is a speech that's to proceed out of your mouth such as is good for edifying as the need may be that it may give grace to them that hear. It's not enough that you don't give corruption. You're to positively give grace. Not this, but this.
And then the classic statement of this that digs behind the principle as it were and states it very clearly as Romans says, Romans chapter 12 and this again I say is something so entirely unique in the ethical standards of the word of God. Romans chapter 12 verse 19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God for it is written Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger feedeth me, if he thirst, give him to drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Now here's the principle. Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.
You see, when someone wrongs me whether it's my brother or someone in the world and does evil to me whether by word, by deed, by attitude if I allow that evil done to me to provoke a corresponding response of evil in me you see, evil is triumph not only in that man but in my own life. Now it's not enough that I still the triumph of evil by refusing to retaliate. I am to turn around, he says and where he has paid me evil what's my change to be to him? Good.
So what has happened? I've actually overcome evil with good. All his evil has been able to do is to promote good.
Now you see, evil never bargained for that.
But when the child of God gets this concept before him it's an overpowering thing. All to me is to provoke more good.
For if they're good to me I'm good in return because God has commanded me to be so. If they do evil to me I turn around and do good to them. You see? Evil is being overcome by good and in that sense then even his evil becomes my servant and God's servant.
The Nature and Extent of Following Good
And this is the biblical concept that the apostle is setting before us not only in Romans but in the text that we're studying this morning this positive directive to follow after that which is good. Now let's look at the words themselves. What do they mean? Well the word follow is a very strong word.
The word that is used in Hebrews 12, 14 follow after peace with all men in the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. It's the word used for persecute. It means to pursue with vehemence and diligence to track it down. Now he's saying pay close attention to any situation where evil is done to you that you don't give in to doing what comes naturally that you don't follow the reflex action of your remaining corruption.
But instead diligently pursue a course of good. Now what is good? It's the opposite of evil. And these two words are used as antonyms in scripture.
In Matthew 5, 43 and 44 Romans 12, 18 to 21 many other portions good and evil are used as antonyms. Well if evil is any wrong done to me by a person what is good? It is doing that which is right and honorable and pleasing in the sight of God. I say it reverently it's doing that which is like God.
Remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said good master what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What was Jesus' answer? There is none good but God. All intrinsic goodness is stored up in our God.
Now that goodness is reflected in the law of God. In the standards of God's precepts given to us. So to pursue to follow after that which is good is to follow after that which is like God. And you have exactly this argument in the fifth chapter of Matthew where Jesus said if thine enemy hunger feed him.
If he's thirsty give him to drink. Why? That ye may be the sons of your father who sends his reign upon the just and the unjust. You see what he's saying?
He says you're to act like God acts though men do evil to him in return God does them good. Now he says be like your father when men do evil to you overcome evil with good. You in return follow after track down, pursue that which is good. Now to what extent are we to do it?
Notice.
And this verse is such that it just stretches out and corrals us all and pulls us in under its duty. Notice. See that none render unto anyone evil for evil but always at all in every situation we're to follow that which is good and to what extent not only in time but people first of all to believers notice one to all or to another uh oh you mean Paul actually expects brethren to do evil to one another? Right?
He doesn't justify it but he knows that believers are in an imperfect state of sanctification. Peter knew it when he said have fervent love for love shall cover a multitude of sins.
Paul knows that believers deliberately sometimes innocently and undeliberately but nonetheless they will do evil one to another so he says you're to follow after not rendering evil for evil but positive good both one to another and toward all that is to all men. You see the duty of not rendering evil for evil can't be limited just to believers for that's the sum and substance of the law of God in all our relationships we're to love our neighbor as ourself whether he be a child of God or a child of the devil. Galatians 6.5 Galatians 6.5 do good unto all men especially they of the household of faith and how beautifully we see this illustrated in our Lord and I find it helpful when coming to some of these practical duties to turn to his life and ministry and see how he illustrated this here are his disciples those to whom he has given himself in those prime years of his own life and ministry born so patiently with him and in the hour of his greatest need they all forsake him and they flee they rendered terrible evil to our Lord and what does he do to them? He comes and appears to them and says peace be unto you.
Practical Implementation: The Supernatural Life
When they're discouraged and despondent and still full of doubts and ready to throw the whole thing over what does our Lord do? He gets up early in the morning and performs the part of a chef to fix a beautiful breakfast of broiled fish on the shore of Galilee he showed this attitude to his own disciples not rendering evil for evil he showed it to men to those who perpetrated the worst of all evils and put our Lord upon the cross and stood and mocked and jeered what were his words to the Father? Father forgive them they know not what they do forgive them they don't know what they're doing they're acting in the ignorance and blindness of their own sinful hearts and so in our blessed Lord we see this attitude of not rendering evil for evil illustrated to believers and to sinners as well. Now having grappled with the meaning of the words of the text I want us in closing this morning to consider several very practical things that I hope will help us in actually implementing the text. The first is I want to answer a serious objection that may be arising in the minds of some of you it goes something like this but this isn't natural nobody's made like that that's exactly right
nobody's made like that nobody's made not to render evil for evil much less actually turn around and do positive good in the place of evil there were people called the Stoics who had learned to bring some of their passions into the world into the world into the world into the world into the world into the subjection and they learned something about not rendering evil for evil you know grin and bear it stiff upper lip killing me but I won't kill you that kind of an attitude see I'd sure want to but I won't see it's not the manly thing to do to give in to passion and though it may be there in the heart they don't render evil for evil but the idea that you've got to turn around and from the heart render positive good made that way why does the Lord expect this of us and it's another reminder friend that no one can live the Christian life but the person who has the life of a Christian you get it no one can live the Christian life except that person who has dwelling in him the life of a Christian you can't live the Christian life without the life of the Christian and that life is the life of God by the experience of his own regenerating power making us
anew in Christ Jesus and facing a passage like this causes us to say Lord this is in us by nature and God says I know it isn't but it can be in us and abound by grace for as Paul says in Galatians 5 22 the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness what's the next thing goodness and the word used there is a derivative of this word follow after that which is good it has to do in this matter of our relationship one to another when evil is done to us and by the enablement of the Holy Spirit we are able to turn around and do positive good from the heart to those who have done evil to us one has said and I believe accurately revenge is the last stronghold of the natural man it is that last fort which he holds against the spirit of the gospel and when that fort is stormed and conquered Christ is Lord indeed remember Matthew 18 the parable Jesus used about the man who had a little bit of a debt and he went to his master and his master came to him and said pay up and he said look I can't have mercy
he said I'll forgive you I'll forget that debt I mean he had a great debt I'm sorry the first man had a great debt then he turned around to his friend who had a little debt and he said give me what I owe and he said I can't pay you show pity he said no pity and when the master heard of this he said take that wicked man and deliver him to the tormentors and Jesus drew this conclusion so shall my father do if ye forgive not everyone from the heart his brother you see the man who has tasted something of the spirit of forgiveness who has seen himself as one who has rendered evil to God by his impenitence and unbelief for months and years and yet that God has turned around and instead of rendering evil to us has conferred grace and forgiveness when something of that has gripped the heart how can I ever walk deliberately and continually in a course of saying I'll hurt my brother we're strangers to the spirit of the gospel we may give in to that reflex action of returning evil for evil we may lie under its power for a time but it cannot be the perpetual attitude of the child of God and so that objection this is not like me very valid
Practical Implementation: Qualification and Wonder
God never expected it should be but by his grace and the power of his spirit he can give us such a disposition and then in the second place I want to make a very vital qualification of this this passage does not cancel passages like Matthew 18 and Luke 17 where we read if thy brother sinned against thee go and rebuke him if he repent forgive him Matthew 18 if your brother sins against you go tell him his fault if he won't forgive you bring witnesses if he won't hear them bring it to the church if he won't hear the church let him be a heathen and a publican let's not let's not allow a passage like this to cancel out these other passages well what's the difference or how can we reconcile them well it's simply this even in the process of discipline and exhortation and admonition whether it be within church courts or whether it be within the civil court when you might have to take a man to law the spirit that activates us must never be the spirit of personal revenge must never be the spirit of personal revenge in the Matthew 18 passage what is the motivation of going to the brother and pointing out his sin that you may gain your brother not render evil to him that you might once again enjoy his unbroken fellowship which you can't enjoy
as long as he sinned against you and hasn't repented there's a cloud just as sin unconfessed and unrepentant brings a cloud between us and our God so sin in one brother or sister against another unrepented and unconfessed brings a cloud so he says if your brother hears you you have what you've gotten even no he says you have gained your brother see the motivation is not evil for evil but the motivation is overcoming his evil with good that you might gain your brother instead of writing him off and starting a whispering campaign you go to him and you attempt to gain him the same way in the matter of church discipline the motivation is never rendering evil for evil but it is always the gaining of the sanctification of the brother or sister involved and so I feel it necessary to make that important qualification lest we say well we're never to render evil for evil so no matter what's done to me I am to be silent I'm never to exhort admonish rebuke no no the apostle would not contradict himself especially not so closely to what he had just previously said admonish the disorderly but the motivation you see must never be revenge it must always be the good of my brother and the glory of God now I want to make one last practical observation and that is something
I've already hinted at it should fill our hearts with wonder that in a world full of sin where there's going to be evil done one to another that where sin abounds where sin abounds grace does superabound and overflow have you ever wondered why didn't God hurry up with the process of sanctification and take us straight from justification right to at least something pretty close to glorification why in the world does he let us stumble and fumble around down here the way he does well do you see one of the reasons God wants to make the imperfect community of the saints a marvelous proving ground for the kind of grace that overcomes evil with good so that people know well look being what they are they're not perfect they know it we can see it and at times they step on each other's toes they rub each other the wrong way but look what it does it just gives an opportunity for that brother to over evil with good and so the grace of God is displayed in the midst of the people of God in a way it could not be in that way in that area if we were all perfectly sanctified you see it so don't get discouraged when within the boundaries of the church evil is done I'll tell you when you get discouraged when people start rendering evil for evil
and professing allegiance to the word of the gospel don't demonstrate the spirit of the gospel see because it won't be long before you'll be on the other end you haven't arrived yet and there'll be something you'll do deliberately or not deliberately that will make you will be evil to your brother as you would that others do unto you even so do unto them and as the apostle hints in Romans chapter 12 what's the best judgment you can pour upon the head of your brother I think I lean toward that interpretation where it says heap fires of coal coals of fire upon his head fire, coals of fire seems in scripture pretty much to be synonymous with judgment now he says what kind of judgment are you to give your brother when he does wrong he says just heap good upon him that'll break him all to pieces that'll break him all to pieces you fight him evil with evil and all it'll do is feed the fires of his own evil heart and of his own evil nature says you want to heap real judgment on him that'll break him when he's evil to you be kind to him that heaps coals of fire upon his head that'll break him down subdue him oh may God grant us the experience of judgment as a church I think we know it in some little measure but you know Paul wrote this that they might what
abound more and more you say but what about that old crowd they got to work with am I to do a saying to them yep you mean that nasty old foreman yep you mean the guy that bypasses me and I'm that yep that's the guy take him some vegetables out of your garden and one of his kids are sick send him a little sympathy card that's the one the one that does you evil deliberately maliciously what does God say see that none render evil for evil but follow after that which is good both one toward another and toward all men if you don't feel your need of being full of the Holy Spirit you just start to try to implement that that'll put you on your face crying Lord fill me with the Spirit that isn't of myself and to the glory of your name make me that kind of a person let us pray
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Passages Expounded
This verse is the central text, providing the direct command to not render evil for evil but to pursue good.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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