Love, Hate, and Indifference
Scripture
Do not be conformed, but be transformed by renewing of your mind. Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Bless those who persecute you. Never avenge yourselves. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Excerpts from Romans 12:2, 9-21
Reflection
A few years ago, on a hot August morning in Decatur, a young man, only 20 years old, walked into an elementary school with an assault rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. He wanted to kill as many people as possible.
When he went into the school office he was met by Antoinette Tuff. Instead of seeing an evil killer, she saw a scared and hurting young man. She began to calmly talk with him, assuring him there was a way out of his troubles. She told him how she had gotten through tough times of her own life, and reminded him he was not alone. Even his darkest days would pass.
Though that young man had the power to kill her in an instant, she saw a beloved child of God. She offered him hope. Through hope, the evil power of violence and death was overcome. He put his weapon down and averted a tragedy.
As Paul wrote to the Romans, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul knew how human differences challenge us, and great power is a great temptation. His letter to the followers of Jesus in Rome helped them learn how to follow Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, they had to change the way they were thinking. The common ways of their culture were not the ways of Jesus. Paul was brief and to the point with very clear instructions.
Love one another, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, contribute to the needs of saints, bless those who persecute you, do not repay evil for evil, live peaceably with all.
With strong language and in no uncertain terms, Paul wrote, “Hate what is evil.” Because, evil is not just in the world around us, evil is within each of us.
To hold fast to what is good, you cannot be indifferent. You must hate what is evil. A social psychologist named Philip Zimbardo writes, “good people can be induced, seduced, and initiated into behaving in evil ways, especially when they submit to an authority that sanctions violence.”
In his book, Strength to Love, Dr. Martin Luther King says, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate . . . Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The Nobel Prize winning author, Elie Wiesel, knew very clearly what evil looked like. He was imprisoned by the Nazis, first in Auschwitz, then in Buchenwald. Forty years later, he said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.”
The power to overcome evil is in the hands of every ordinary Christian who walks in the way of Jesus. Your power is in your actions of love. The love we see in the ministry of Jesus has power to change evil into good.
Exercise
To live by these words is not easy. It requires that we choose what is good each day. What choices do you need to make?
Think of a time in which you offered kindness to someone who was unkind to you. Or, when you blessed someone who treated you badly. In what way did you overcome evil?
Remember a situation in which someone who was different from you made an effort to relate to you through love rather than evil. How was evil overcome?
Can you recall a time when you were hurt by something said about you and chose not to return hurt or seek revenge? Did your response overcome evil?
As Paul wrote to the Romans, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Greg Smith, Director of Legacy Ministry, First Baptist Church of Decatur