This is a verse for victims of abuse to ponder on. If you’re like me, I bet you never thought about this verse as applying to you while you were (or still are) living with your abuser.
I’m guessing the second injunction in that verse captured your attention — overcome evil with good — and you turned yourself into a pretzel trying to overcome your abuser’s evil by showing him love, affection, kindness, long-suffering, patience, generosity, forgiveness 70 X 7….oh, and let’s not forget how you probably covered for him with his employer and with your friends and family, so they didn’t realise how ungodly his conduct was. And how you put yourself in the firing line to shield the children from his worst attacks…. Need I go on? You know this stuff.
But did you ever think about the injunction Do not be overcome by evil? (Other than in putting yourself on a guilt trip for having “let yourself” be upset by him so you sometimes acted out in frustration and anger yourself….)
Well I want to suggest that one of the best ways for a victim to obey the injunction “do not be overcome by evil” is to stand up and expose the abuse, speak out against it, and walk away from the abuser. Leave. Or get the abusive person removed from the home (with the help of your justice system, if it allows that). Escape. Put your safety, a peaceable home, and your mental, physical and spiritual health (and that of your kids) as first priority. Because abusers are determined to abuse. You can’t overcome their evil with your good modelling and your compassionate nature. They choose to do evil. Staying with an abuser means they are always going to be trying to overcome your goodness with their evil.
Now, I’m not necessarily telling you to “leave right now”. Every victim should make their own choices in their own time; the victim knows their own situation better than anyone else. I’m only suggesting that if you’re still subject to an abuser, or to an abusive church hierarchy, ponder how you can best follow the injunction “do not be overcome by evil”.
If people condemn you for lacking a submissive spirit, you can be inwardly confident because you can hold on to this Scripture verse.
[March 29, 2023: Editors’ notes:
—For some comments made prior to March 29, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to March 29, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to March 29, 2023 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (March 29, 2023), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]
A Cry For Justice 
Reblogged this on Speakingtruthinlove's Blog [Internet Archive link] and commented:
This is excellent. For too long we have taken a lazy view of Scripture when it comes to the issue of abuse. It is high time to start doing some serious study of what the Bible truly has to say about abuse and how we must respond to it.
What a wealth of information has accumulated on the ACFJ blog since this post was originally published!
Sometimes the route to overcoming evil is not overt, but comes from resisting the evil in (almost) imperceptible ways. Victims resist abuse in prudent, determined and creative ways