To Overcome or to be Overcome

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

I want to explore a number of links from this verse to other places in this passage that it will shed light on, particularly in chapter 13. I still believe this is the pivotal verse in this whole section and everything must be seen in the light of this.

To be in subjection to the governing authorities (v. 1) is how to overcome evil with good.

To resist authority (v. 2) is to be overcome by evil.

To oppose the ordinance of God (v. 2) is to be overcome by evil and receive condemnation.

Rulers are a cause of fear for evil behavior (v. 3) – for those who are overcome by evil.

Do what is good and you will have no fear of authority (v. 3) and will overcome evil with good.

Authority is a minister of God to you for good, the overcomer of evil with good (v. 4).

Authority is a minister of God as an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil, the one overcome by evil (v. 4).

To overcome evil with good involves subjection to authority for conscience' sake (v. 5).

Overcoming evil with good involves paying taxes that financially support the authorities who devote themselves to be ministers of God to you for good and as an avengers to those who practice evil (v. 6, 4).

Overcoming evil with good will involve rendering to all what is due them (v. 7).

Being in debt is one way of being overcome by evil (v. 8).

Staying free of debt is one way of overcoming evil with good (v. 8).

Overcoming evil with good is fulfilling the law by loving one another (v. 8).

I find it interesting that the law referred to in this passage is the Ten Commandment Law of God. I would think that it should be a safe assumption that the authorities just referred to are considered, or at least include, law-enforcers. But other than a reference to taxes the only law mentioned here is the Law of God and the phrase, if there is any other commandment. Where does that place the millions of laws, regulations, statutes, codes, edicts, ordinances, rules, decrees, enactments, etc. ad nauseam? Are all of them to be considered in the same position and due the same obligation for obedience as the perfect law of our Creator? And if not, then what is our proper relationship to them?

Again, I am not looking for the platitude answers I have been fed all of my life about this issue. I know them pretty well but they have not satisfied my desire to know the real truth here. Just because some person or group of people decides to dream up yet another new requirement – no matter how petty, self-serving or conflicting it may be – to impose on others does not seem to me to necessarily legitimize their claim to be a God-ordained authority for my life. My real question still lingers, “How do I know what is a legitimate authority that this passage would require me to be in subjection to and what is an illegitimate authority? And I don't think the answer is as easy as most people would like to assume.

But beyond that I also realize that whether or not any given authority trying to assert control over my life is legitimate or not, the most important message of this chapter is the condition of the spirit in my own heart irregardless of what is going on externally. That is the real message that I need to absorb from my study of this passage and is one reason I am spending so much time meditating on it.

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Authority and Love

In talking about this chapter with my sister yesterday it occurred to me that much of this passage could be viewed as applying primarily to authority within the body of Christ that has been described in previous verses maybe far more than authorities outside that body. In fact, there is nothing in the passage that explicitly denotes that Paul is talking about worldly authorities until verse six where he begins to talk about taxes at which point he could be making the transition. Since I am quite certain that the Christian church never employed the use of taxes on its members this is clearly a shift to applying these principles to our relationship with earthly authorities.

Because of the wide diversity of gifts and personalities within the body, it will be necessary, at least until the final perfection of all things, to have some sort of organization that is based on authority in some way. The issue of authority was one of the main problems that Lucifer had in heaven and became the main reason he could no longer live there. But he has poisoned humanity with very negative and skewed feelings and beliefs about authority that has infected us with the same bitterness that he has toward God. The gospel and the process of salvation is the healing truth that is to bring us into proper alignment and relationship with true authority so that harmony, peace and joy can once again flourish in a universe free from all rebellion and sin.

But the way many Christians have gone about trying to address this problem has exacerbated it instead of improving it. Because they have utilized the methods of Satan to enforce authority they have misrepresented God and perpetuated the lies of Satan about His character. By resorting to use of force, fear and intimidation to induce respect for authority they have actually promoted the spread of rebellion instead of quelling it as they thought they could do. Only the pure methods based totally on the uncompromising love and unchangeableness of the compassion and goodness of God will effectively rid the universe of all rebellion and fear. All the steps toward that end need to be reflective of that spirit.

If it is true that Paul is referring primarily to authority within the body more than that outside the body in the first five verses of chapter thirteen, it would give a different nuance to why he describes authority in such idealistic terms. For any authority exercised within the body of believers should be reflective of the kindness and goodness of God. Yes it will include justice and even sometimes involve perceptions of wrath. But that must be understood from God's perspective of what the word wrath means or we will inevitably misinterpret this passage as we do so many other passages that talk about that issue. (For more discussion of the Bible's version of wrath refer to another website at surpriseending.blogspot.com devoted to this subject.)

Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:7-8)

I find this to be a very delicate issue to properly understand given all the abuse and misapplications that it has been used for over many years, even centuries. This whole chapter is one that is best appreciated if we can lay aside as much as possible our preconceived beliefs and ideas of what it means and listen to what God wants to teach us in the context of the book of Romans. Lifting it out of context to enforce someone's agenda is one of the worst ways to apply scriptures of any kind. But unfortunately that is often the case. I want to have enough humility and openness to hear whatever the Spirit has to say to mentor my heart into perfect unity with the body of Christ.

The key words that I see here are due and owe. Behind the use of these words are a lot of assumptions that need to be challenged or else we may find ourselves racing down the wrong track to wrong-headed conclusions like so many have before us. Implicit within these words themselves is the truth that some are not owed or due these things from us. Just because someone makes a demand on us does not necessarily mean that we owe them what they ask for or it is their legitimate due. This issue is the crux of many of the problems that confuse people when applying this passage to various situations.

But more important than figuring out who is owed and who is not is the condition of my spirit in while doing this. While I believe it is not wrong to check the validity of someone's demands on me for any of these things listed here – taxes, custom, fear, honor – it is even more important, extremely important, that I not allow my own spirit to become poisoned during the process of analyzing or seeking to know about that validity. If I become infected with a spirit of dissension and strife and resentment while legitimately seeking to know the validity of someone's claims on me, I will suffer from the baleful effects of the poison of bitterness in my soul and I will soon have the fruit of hatred springing up from those roots growing my heart.

This passage all the way from chapter twelve through chapter thirteen contrasts the polar opposite conditions of the condition that my spirit will be in depending on the choices I make concerning the issues raised in this passage. It also hinges in the central verse of this passage, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21) It is starting to look a lot different than the typical ways this chapter has been taught, but then when I first arrived at this chapter I was pretty sure there was a lot more to this than what I have seen in the past.

What is most crucial, I believe, is to be insistent on keeping the whole passage tightly interconnected while trying to understand how to relate properly to authority along with the other instructions in here. One of the biggest problems has been the dissection of this passage into sound-bites to accommodate a particular agenda instead of seeking to discover the truth about God consistent with the rest of His revelations in the Word.

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8) Is loving your neighbor the fulfillment of all human laws? Are all the human laws enforced by human authorities encompassed in the instructions in this chapter? How do I relate to the friction caused by the obvious inconsistencies of unjust human demands incorporated into abusive human regulations with the perfect law of heaven encapsulated in the expression of perfect love? I believe the answers are here if I can properly perceive them with the right spirit and enlightened by the Spirit of the One who inspired this to be written down.

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Good and Evil

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9)

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. (Romans 12:17)

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.... (Romans 12:19)

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.... If you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. (Romans 13:3-4)

It looks to me like I need to draw out of this passage its own definitions of what is viewed as good and what is truly evil. Part of the problem with properly understanding the Bible is our nasty little habit of assuming that we already know the definitions to the terms used when really those definitions are seriously skewed by our culture and upbringing and often are not close at all to heaven's view of things. Defining good and evil is maybe one of the most distorted areas of definition in life and most people tend to approach these words from the external arena far more than in relation to the condition of the spirit within us.

So while I write I am looking over the contextual passage here to find clues of what it teaches within itself about what is meant by good and evil. The list could very quickly get enormously long just from chapter 12 so I am not sure how to put it down in a condensed form. But I do believe that it hinges on the difference laid out in 12:2 between conformity and transformation. Conformity generally focuses on external behavior and performance but transformation requires a radical new way of life emerging from a heart transplant and lived in the spirit.

Chapter 12 seems to focus more on what the transformed life will look like within the body of believers while chapter 13 moves on to describe what it will look like outside of that body. It reminds us that it is not only within the company of others learning to become like Christ that we should strive to imitate His example ourselves, but we are also to display the spirit and actions of Jesus in the presence of authorities that quite often are deeply contaminated with evil. Romans 13:5 gives the means for being able to do this – co-perception. That is what the meaning of the Greek word for conscience means. It is only through the eyes of heaven, through co-perceiving reality by accessing heaven's better perspective joined with our own that we will ever be able to live out the radical Christianity described in this passage.

So let me attempt to compile a few of the clues that I see so far as to the meaning of these two words as I look over these two chapters.

Evil is conformity to this world, thinking more highly myself than I ought to think, trying to appear to be loving without a transformed heart (hypocrisy), cursing those who persecute me, having a haughty mind, being wise in my own estimation, reflecting the evil of others back onto them. Evil is taking, or even desiring to take, revenge – taking things into my own hands instead of leaving it all up to God. Along with all these things from chapter 12 evil would also include failing to do all the good things described there that I will include in the next list.

Evil is failing to be properly subject to authority from heaven's perspective; it is resistance to authority which brings into my soul a sense of condemnation. Evil includes fear which is both a cause and a result of being out of line in my relationship to God-ordained authority. Evil brings wrath and a perception of wrath which distorts our concept of God as well. Initially God may use that perception of wrath to move us toward a right relationship with Him and with authority, but He wants to grow us far past that stage to live life in co-perception with His Spirit.

So, what about good? This may be a much longer list but that is good itself. Too often we dwell on evil so much that we are left thinking that good is simply the absence of doing bad things. I know that is the assumption I was lead to feel many times in my life. But goodness is really only a reflection of the only One who is really good if we believe the words of Jesus. And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19) We are creatures designed in the image of God so it only makes sense that good is to be like the original that we were modeled after.

Good is presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is an act of worship. Good is being transformed by the renewing of our mind and proving the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect. It is thinking with sound judgment using the measure of faith given to us by God.

Good is learning to utilize the gifts we have received from God within the body of Christ to develop and help each other mature and bond with each other. It is doing this according to the grace we have been given, according to our proportion of faith. Good is selflessly loving without faking it, being devoted to one another in family-like love preferring others with honor. Good includes being fervent in spirit while serving our Lord, the head of our body.

Good is rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoting ourselves to prayer, contributing to the needs of other believers and practicing hospitality. Beyond that, it is blessing those who persecute us. It is rejoicing with those who rejoice as well as weeping with those who weep with the emphasis on with. Good is have a balanced mind with others in the body, having synchronization with them. Good causes us to not feel ashamed to associate with those others view as lowly.

Good will raise us above paying back evil to those who do evil to us. Good respects what is right in the sight of all men and strives as much as possible to live at peace with everyone. Good releases our rights for justice into God's hands when we are abused or hurt by others and instead, receiving the Spirit of Jesus so that we can treat our enemies with the revenge of kindness.

Good looks past the corruption of earthly authorities to see the bigger picture of where all authority originates. From that co-perspective it can give us rest with inner peace and without resistance in the face of unreasonable force and even abuse from authorities contaminated by evil. Good will allow us to become free of inner condemnation and fear. Good will lift our hearts above the fear that makes us think we are seeing wrath everywhere to instead, seeing God's passionate, relentless love for us behind the scenes. Only thus can we avoid being overcome by evil but will overcome evil with good.

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Revenge or Recovery

As I look at Romans 13 today I am seeing more and more connections to the context from chapter 12. I think these instructions on how to relate to authority are an expansion of what it looks like to overcome evil with good. They are also unpacking what it means to never take your own revenge or pay back evil for evil, for it is often likely that most causes inducing a desire for revenge will come from those in authority.

And now that I think of it the same has been quite true in my own life. Most, if not all, of my rebellious attitude came from abuse of authority when I was growing up. My inability to defend myself created an intense sense of injustice inside my heart and a desire to settle accounts or get even with those bigger and stronger than me. I can remember incidents where brute force was used to suppress me and attempt to subdue my anger but it tended to only increase my anger. But because I was powerless to act out my increasing desire for revenge I learned to internalize and hide it to avoid further abuse and pain.

As a consequence my heart was trained to hide my emotions, for emotions displayed almost always got me into trouble with authorities such as parents and teachers. I early learned to become an image manager although I never mastered the technique of projecting effectively a different emotion than what I was feeling inside. I only learned to mask them enough to keep them from becoming very obvious to most people. I also learned that rationalization and creating misleading manipulations of facts were effective tools to keep people from knowing what I was really feeling inside. But all of this was primarily because my heart did not know how to deal with the pain inflicted on it by those in authority over me.

What I am starting to see more clearly now is that most of my life could easily be described as being afraid of authorities. Along with that has been cultivated deep-rooted desires for revenge and because revenge conflicted with being a “good Christian” it transformed into roots of bitterness. The suggestions that I should treat my enemies with kindness, respect and unselfish love in this context has always sounded very repulsive to me, at least at the emotional level especially since these notions often came from the same authorities that were using abusive methods to try to control my life and suppress my emotions.

It is now easier for me to understand why I have had such an aversion to Romans 13. Besides it being used to justify unquestioned abuse by authorities I always reacted strongly to the idea that I had to submit to that abuse willingly. I suppose that was because to do so would be to give up the desires for revenge that naturally ensued from many of the actions of those authorities.

Revenge is the secret hope that many people carry inside somehow believing that revenge would alleviate the pain in their heart caused by abuse. We believe the lie that if we could just make others suffer at least to the same degree that they have caused us to suffer that justice would be “served” and we could then be free to return to what we felt like before the abuse or maybe even better. But that is another illusion of Satan's philosophy designed to destroy the image of God in our soul. A desire for revenge does not represent justice like we think it does but is actually a surrender to the spirit of hatred and bitterness that motivates those who have abused us. Abusers generate the same spirit in their victims as they have in their own heart which in turn was received from a previous abuser themselves.

So what I am beginning to see here is a sharp contrast between the natural reaction that the human heart will have toward abusive authority by desiring revenge and wishing evil on my abusers, and the way to freedom outlined by God which looks very different than my natural way of reacting to these things. For everything that I read here conflicts sharply with what my natural flesh wants to do to protect my heart. And to complicate things some of the abusers themselves have used these passages to try to control and manipulate me into compliance with their selfish desires. So I have to disconnect these passages from the spirit of my abusers that use this to justify themselves and try to see them in the light of the Spirit of heaven.

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Co-perception

Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. (Romans 13:5)

I know that I am jumping around in these verses a little bit, but I find that to be very helpful to perceive and grasp more of the important connections that make up the context for these instructions. It is only in properly understanding the context and carefully examining the fabric and its composition that I can come to a correct view of what this passage is really teaching. Of course it is also important to keep my spirit open to the impressions from God who is the one that inspired this to be written in the first place.

I just looked up the Greek for this word conscience and got a real surprise. I found this word quite different than what I had expected and actually very exciting. It literally means co-perception with lots of subtle nuances underlying that. The implications of this are stunning and enlightening.

First of all I discovered this means that conscience is a part of me that accesses another perception not of my own to join with mine to make it more complete. In fact, as I went deeper into the roots of this word I found that it is a combination of two things. First is coming to understand something with the assistance of the other consciousness that makes up the co part. Conscience is the uniting of my perception with God's perception. Then the word includes the idea of receiving clandestine information or to be privy to important missing information that makes my perceptions much more complete.

This act of uniting is also an important aspect of the meaning of this word. The union is a very close union that denotes companionship, resemblance, possession, becoming an instrumentality and all of this to create completeness. This apparently is primarily for the purpose of having a more perfect understanding or perception that would be impossible of myself.

This is a rather different view of conscience than what I am used to hearing. And in this verse Paul is saying that we need to be motivated by much more than just fear which is often one of the first emotions to get us to act or be motivated to change something in our life. It seems evident that fear is certainly one of the primary motivations used by earthly authorities to induce compliance, but that is not really the relationship that God desires to have with us. Just as we crave a much deeper relationship of love and companionship with our children that goes far beyond outward conformance to our rules out of fear of punishment, so God intensely desires us to move past the simplistic, cowering motivations of fear that is sometimes needed to get our attention initially, and move far beyond that into a relationship of co-perception with Him.

This is rather interesting when placed together with the declaration in verse 1, there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. What Paul is really describing in these verses is our proper relationship to God, not just to the poor demonstrations of authority that we see here on earth. When we perceive, or better yet co-perceive, that any and all true authority is in some essence an demonstration of God, albeit very confusing or distorted at times, then we will be able to enter into the position of having no fear of authority. (v. 3) Given this thought, maybe fear is an indicator or symptom of how much I do not yet have heaven's perspective merged with my perspective.

This ability to be free of fear is not dependent on the inferior authorities we have to deal with being proper demonstrations of God's authority. They may be very corrupt and abusive and unjust; the authorities in Jesus day certainly fit that description. But Jesus was never afraid of authorities and that is because He demonstrated this principle of co-perception with His Father just as we are invited to do. Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of how to be in subjection to authorities while not surrendering His integrity or rupturing His relationship with His Father in the slightest degree. He was continuously perceiving everything through the vantage point of Heaven's perspective using the co-perception of the Holy Spirit so that He would even say about those abusive authorities, Father, forgive them for they don't really know what they are doing.

It is very often the case that authorities do not really know what they are doing. We are all living with the severe mental handicap of sin and separation from God's perspective. But anyone alive has the option of listening to the inner voice of a greater Mind who can see what we can never see with our own perceptive abilities. And if we will choose to submit our perceptions to be corrected and enhanced supernaturally by the mind of the Holy Spirit, especially in our dealings with authority according to this passage, then we will finally be able to become free of fear and will be able to move far beyond that into a much deeper relationship of intimacy and co-perception with the perfect Source behind all authority. And when we do this we can then be empowered to experience the very presence of God in new dimensions never before imagined.

God, this is very fascinating and intriguing to me, but I want it to go much deeper than that and become a reality in my heart. I don't want to just know about this wonderful insight but far more importantly I want it to be a description of my own experience. I ask You to mentor me in how to have co-perception with Your mind and heart. Help me to listen more carefully and accurately and willingly to the perceptions that Your Spirit is offering me all through the day and not lean on my own understanding. Dwell in my heart today and bring me into right relationship and attitudes toward authorities so that my life can be completely free of all fear of them. Do this for Your glory and for Your reputation.

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