When human beings are faced with evil the natural tendency is to employ greater evil in an attempt to destroy the perpetrator. This is futile for evil can never eradicate evil. It does have the power to punish but it lacks the power to heal and the eradication of evil requires healing.

Compassion is what drives us to reach out to others in an effort to heal and compassion is born of Divine Love. Love is the ultimate power for God is Love. God Who is Love is also Spirit, the invisible force that creates, moves, and maintains all things visible and invisible. Those of us who are in Christ Jesus have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and endowed with the Power able to overcome evil, not by physical punishment but through spiritual healing.

Jesus admonished us to not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. Only God is good and it is only in resting in His Power that we are equipped to overcome the evil that faces us daily. Our anger and our might may over-power or in the extreme sense, eradicate one who sets themselves against us as an enemy but the evil lives on and even multiplies as with evil we too have taken up alliance. Verbal viciousness never turns away wrath but only the soft answer that only the Holy Spirit can give us during times of threat has that Power. Jesus, along with His admonishment, left us the perfect example to follow, that of turning the other cheek. Jesus resisted the employment of evil in self-defense even to the shedding of His own blood and even unto death. This the most courageous and manly response to the enemy; the act of enduring the personal perpetration of evil against Him that evil might be overcome and even destroyed.

We are to live our lives as Jesus lived out His life on earth. We too are to resist the employment of evil in self-defense. We are to overcome evil with good. We can't do this on our own power but can only find success when we avail ourselves of the Power of God when we are filled with His Love by the Power of His Spirit. This filling comes only through our complete surrender to Him and to His Will. If we are to have victory over evil, we must first surrender and as all good soldiers, be willing to give our lives in the battle. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, those who perpetrate evil against us, but against spiritual powers. The battle ground against evil is primarily within ourselves against our own sin, our own propensity to employ evil in self-defense. We cannot have any affect on the evil that grips another unless we have first won the battle against evil that rages inside all of us. We only find victory in Jesus, in the giving over of ourselves to Him.

Evil threatens our lives on a daily, hourly, and minute by minute basis. At times, it threatens to consume the entire human race. The threat is real and palpable and not merely abstract. To conquer the enemy, we must acknowledge him. There is no human being alive that is not in daily battle with this common enemy. There are many who out of pain and fear have given themselves over to identifying with the aggressor in hopes of survival. They have lost the battle already for they have taken the enemy within themselves. For Christians this ought not to be so.

Christians! Man up! Put on the Perfect Man, Jesus Christ. Be overcomers of evil through the Power that indwells you. Love your enemies and pray for them. Be courageous, as Jesus is courageous, and turn the other cheek. Do not revile those who set themselves against you, who desire to hurt you, and also harm others. Instead, wait for the soft answer that has the Power to turn away their wrath. Be filled with the Spirit rather than the filling of your own vain anger. Be filled with Love that has the power to face the perpetrator of evil with compassion; not counting their sin against them, just as the Father no longer counts our sins against Him.

Heavenly Father, by the Power of your Holy Spirit, fill us each with the Love that empowers us to endure the enemy, to endure evil that evil be overcome. In those moments when we are weak and afraid, keep us from resorting to our natural devices and give us instead supernatural Power from Heaven. I lift to you my enemies, Father and ask that you make known to them Your forgiveness. That same forgiveness that you have poured out on me in your great compassion. May the forgiveness that has healed me also heal all my enemies. All this according to Your Will and Purpose and in your Time; with my hope and trust and endurance in that Will, Purpose, and Time. In Jesus' Name, Amen.