Overcoming Evil With Good: How do we fight for others without harming a soul? ~ Romans 12:9-21

 

There are moments in the life of faith when the question is no longer, “Do we care?” But, “How do we care without becoming cruel?”

There are moments when the question is not, “Should we stand up for the vulnerable?” But, “How do we stand up without tearing others down?”

And in this moment—
when immigrants and refugees are talked about more than they are listened to,
feared more than they are known, harmed more than they are helped— the church faces a hard and holy question:

How do we fight for others without harming a soul?

Because Paul knows an uncomfortable truth.

It’s possible to oppose injustice and still lose our way.

It’s possible to speak for the oppressed and curse others –dehumanize.

It’s possible to be right— and still be unfaithful.

That’s why Paul’s words in Romans 12:9–21 are so urgent for the church right now. Paul is writing to a small, fragile Christian community living under the shadow of empire. They have no political power. No armies. No leverage.

What they do have is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul is determined that they not trade that gospel for the weapons of the age— not trade love of enemy for methods of meanness.

So he doesn’t offer theological prescriptions, but practices of a faithful life:

Let love be genuine.
Hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Bless those who persecute you.
Do not repay evil for evil.
Do not avenge yourselves.
If your enemy is hungry, feed them.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is not weak language. It’s not naïve language. It is Jesus-shaped resistance.

So what does that kind of resistance look like?

Naming Evil Without Becoming Evil

Paul does not deny that evil exists. In fact, he tells the church to hate it.

The way of Jesus is not moral confusion. And love is not indifference. Justice matters. Truth matters. Patience matters. Genuine love matters. And the kind Jesus reveals—is not polite nor private. It is often provocative and public.

Last week we saw Jesus, with love and hope, engineer exactly that kind of public provocation in his first sermon, enraging his listeners by saying plainly and unequivocally: God loves foreigners. Jesus was always willing to name harmful behavior and provoke unjust systems, even when it cost him his safety. Even when it meant his listeners might try to shove him off a cliff.

He was willing to suffer violence for telling the truth. But notice what he does not do. He does not respond by trying to karate-kick them off the cliff in return. He shows us that it is possible to speak truth boldly and lovingly without becoming what we resist. He challenged them yet walked away without harming a soul (no kicks, no stones, no curses).

Paul names this temptation clearly: “Do not be overcome by evil.”

Because evil is not only something out there— in unjust systems, harmful rhetoric, or broken policies. Evil also tries to move inside us. Into our instincts. Our imaginations. Our speech. Our strategies. Evil wants to shape us. It wants to convince us that the ends justify the means. Or as my friend likes to say, “The ends justify the mean.” That being right is somehow the “get-out-of-jail fee card” for bad behavior.

And this is where justice movements—especially faithful ones—are most at risk.

Injustice can wound us. Fear can harden us. And anger—even righteous anger—can quietly train us to mirror the very contempt we oppose.

When immigrants are described as criminals or threats, the temptation is to respond with equal contempt: to caricature, to mock, to write people off as beyond redemption, to employ those methods for all the right reasons.

But Paul insists that if evil gets to decide how we speak, how we see, and how we engage— then even when we are right, evil has already won.

This is why Martin Luther King Jr. insisted that nonviolence was not a tactic, but a way of life. “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Not because hate is ineffective— but because it is contagious and hurts everyone. And hate is an acid which harms as much the soul in which it is stored as much as the soul on which it is poured.

Leaving Room for the Wrath of God

Paul then says something that sounds strange to modern ears, but is actually deeply freeing:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God.”

This is not a call to apathy. It does not mean injustice does not matter. And it certainly can’t mean God is eager to destroy our enemies so we don’t have to care. God never repays evil with evil. In Jesus Christ, we see who God truly is – One who loves enemies and forgives them.

So what is Paul saying? To leave room for God’s wrath is to say two truths at once.

First: Justice demands action—but not weaponization.

We must act decisively but deliberately place our vengeance fantasies into God’s hands. We must stand up but refuse to become judge, jury, and executioner. And when we do, we pray and hopefully see how God enacts justice. And friends, God’s justice always looks like Jesus crucified and risen.

Second: Injustice has real consequences.

While God is not the direct cause of violent harm, Scripture does acknowledge the reality of consequence—natural and even spiritual. In Romans, Paul describes God’s wrath as consent—a giving over. God allows us the freedom to experience the reality of our painful choices that cause real harm.

It is “God’s” in this sense: harming others is always defiance against God, and God will use even the bad consequences of our actions to prick our consciences and transform our lives. In this sense, “God’s wrath” is the pig-pen of Jesus’ Prodigal son story.

This matters deeply in conversations about immigration.

It allows us to say—at the same time— that some policies are unjust and dangerous – harming even those who seem to benefit, and that every person involved—immigrant, citizen, official, neighbor— is still made in the image of God and remains an object of God’s love.

Leaving room for God’s wrath frees us from the exhausting work of hatred. It allows us to fight for immigrants and refugees without fighting against the humanity of others. It allows us to fight and leave some things with God.

Feeding Enemies With Spicy Love (the show Hot Ones - The format involves celebrity guests eating ten chicken wings, each prepared with a progressively hotter hot sauce, while answering questions which become disrupted by the increasing heat. The show's tagline at the beginning of each episode: “The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings.”)

Paul writes, “If your enemy is hungry, feed them. . . And so heap burning coals upon their heads.” This is not passivity. This is courageous, creative resistance. It is a refusal to cooperate with dehumanization— even when it feels justified. It’s spicy love. And we have seen this kind of resistance bear real fruit or bring the heat.

Megan Phelps-Roper was once one of the most visible faces of hate in America as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church. She picketed funerals. She spread cruelty in God’s name. She held signs which gleefully damned others. She brawled with others online curating the church’s social media presence. But ultimately she left the church’s religious-inspired hatred.

What changed her was not being shouted down. Not public humiliation. It was being fed and cared for by people who disagreed with her fiercely and yet treated her with dignity— curiosity, patience, even civility. It was the very people damned on her signs who refused to return her hate with their own damnation.

Over time, that kindness haunted her. It disrupted her certainty. It burned at her hatred.  It enflamed her with hot questions. It opened space for doubt, reflection, repentance— and eventually, transformation.

She did not leave a life of harm because arguments defeated her. She left because patient, genuine love outlasted her defenses. That is what it looks like to overcome evil with good. It is fighting not to win an argument, or to defeat an opponent, but to win a friend.

What This Looks Like on the Ground

So what does Romans 12:9–21 look like when the church advocates for immigrants and refugees? It looks like this:

It means letting love be genuinely spicy, provocative, and public rather than sentimental, easy, or private. Love that’s real, messy, and not necessarily nice. Love that names injustice and does not shy away from calling evil what it is. When naming evil, I often like to use first names. But God rarely if ever calls evil names like Stephen or Megan or Jon. God names evil as greed, hatred, contempt, abuse.

It means refusing to spread false or exaggerated stories— even when they benefit “our side.”

It means speaking about immigrants as neighbors, workers, parents, and children—
not as problems to be solved but family to be empowered. And it means speaking about those who might wish them harm as brothers and sisters. Everyone is family! The “kin” of kindness is for everyone.

It means challenging unjust policies clearly and truthfully, while praying not only for those harmed by the system, but also for those who uphold it.

And finally, it means choosing language and behavior that opens doors rather than seals them shut— that feeds rather than starves, that helps rather than hurts.

As Paul says, “So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Peace does not mean silence. It means our struggle is guided by love rather than contempt that is held available for all.

The Promise at the End

Paul ends with both a warning and a promise: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

The warning is real. Even in our zeal, the church can engage the world in ways that harm our witness. Fear can define us. Violence can disciple us. But the promise is just as real. Good can prevail. Love can win. The way of Jesus is not only faithful— it is hopeful.

It trusts that people can change. That hearts can soften. That systems can be transformed.

And that the church can be a living sign of another kingdom.

This is why King could march with joy. Why Jesus could speak truth without hatred. Why former enemies can become witnesses to grace.

Closing Invitation

Church, we are called to welcome the stranger— and we are called to guard every heart.

May we be a people who speak boldly, love fiercely, resist faithfully, and fight in the way of Jesus.

Not repaying evil for evil. Not surrendering to fear. But overcoming evil with good and without harming a soul. Amen.