Romans 12:20-21(MSG) Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Feeding the poor and hungry takes a new slant when applied to “my enemy”. Personally, I can’t think of anyone I’d call my enemy. There are obviously unnamed enemies looking to do harm generally, but they’re not people I know. I think this is more than about feeding and providing drink for my enemy. This is about perspective on a person who is against me, and it correlates directly to the concluding sentence of our scripture.

The last sentence of Romans chapter 12 concludes all the challenges I’ve talked about in my writings on living the Christian life. “Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.” Unfortunately, the way I respond to evil is often with evil. When I respond to evil with evil, I obviously indulge evil. I often wind up doing greater evil than the evil that was done to me. When it is all over, I am often horrified by what I’ve done. Evil has gotten the best of me.

When I look over my past sins, I can see where doing something different would have been the better choice, yet in that moment my response was to lash out. As with all my attempts to live the Christian life, the reality is that I can’t do it without Jesus. I constantly need Jesus to guide me. Only with Jesus’ help can I get the best of evil by doing good.