Thursday 10 January 2008

How do you fight fire?

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12v21

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was a scene in an old American television. The Andy Griffith Show has made in appearance in these pages. In this episode the bumbling deputy sheriff, Barney, is trying to convince the sheriff to take some kind of drastic action in response to a situation. Andy, the sheriff, was much more laid back and tried to convince Barney not to act. Barney asked Andy, “How do you fight fire?” Andy replied, “With a hose?” A frustrated Barney said, “No, with fire.”

There is a sense where a backfire is a way to fight a fire, but normally you fight a fire with something that is going to put out the fire. It seems to be human nature, at least for most of, that the best way to fight a fire is with fire. We someone treats us with evil we think the best thing to do is fight back with more evil. We all know the end result of that, fire feeds fire and a conflagration results.

God of course has the answer. The best way to stop evil is to confront it with good. Proverbs tells us, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” We are not to try to overcome evil with evil, but good.

“How do you fight fire?” I think Andy had it right, “With a hose.”

1 comment:

Scott Bandy said...

I think the Lord has been teaching me this principle the last couple of days. Had to comment. Thanks mate.