Faith Food Devotional: Saturday, 25^th May 2013

Meeting Physical Force With Soul Force

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. (Romans 12:21 N.I.V)

Freedom usually comes at a great price. There has to be a great force to overcome the exploiting force. Many independence struggles have involved violence. However there is a better way as proven for example by some leaders of the Civil rights Movement in the United States like Martin Luther King who abhorred violence. Martin Luther was a Christian and believed that the foundation of justice should a peaceful struggle. He said, “In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

While violence may appear to solve the issue, the problem is that, “Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself (Lao Tzu). No matter how much violence appears to do good, the good is temporary, and the evil it does is permanent (Mahatma Gandhi). War is very expensive in terms of deaths, life long injuries, destruction of property, and social disruption. It causes a lot of human suffering and we should avoid it as much as we can. And in avoiding it, we must go to the root cause of violence; hatred, jealousy, discord, selfish ambition, intolerance, and the like and must refuse to be drawn into them. Instead even as we seek justice, we should show love to those who hate us, while struggling peacefully against their hateful actions. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. Romans 12:21.

And as Martin Luther said, “Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

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“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him”. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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