Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.’ On the contrary: ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21
Born in London before the Second World War, I remember, as a small child, staring down into the crater made by a bomb that fell 300 yards from my home. Then, in the early 1980s, I remember standing with hundreds of others outside Charing Cross Station while it was searched for explosives, after a bomb had gone off at Victoria. At home last Thursday, I waited to find out whether my husband had arrived safely at Senate House, just off Russell Square. As an elderly man said on his way to a Second World War reunion, ‘We’ve been here before’.
That is the blueprint for Christians who live in troubled and anxious times, however dire the circumstances, whatever the depths of evil, in the 1st or 21st century.
Of course, there is a place for righteous anger at the random destruction of life, and, of course, it is important that wrongdoers are brought to justice, by the proper authorities through due process of law, on the basis of adequate and attested evidence. But we are all challenged to live by a radical principle of love that forbids the use of evil to overcome evil and that will sometimes demand from us the highest levels of integrity, self-knowledge and sacrifice.
‘Overcome evil with good’ is a strong, proactive command. Looking back over 60 years we need to assess just how the struggles against different forms of evil have been fought and to recognise where we have compromised too much the law of love.
Margaret Killingray
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