Don’t Fight Fire WITH Fire… Why rage against bad people? “Because they’re bad,” you say. You add yourself to their number by raging against them. Let me give you some advice: Are you being bothered by a bad person? Don’t make there be two of you. By condemning the person, you join them. You increase the number under judgment. You want to defeat bad with bad and conquer evil with evil?… Have you not heard the Lord’s advice: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good?”   —St. Augustine, Sermon 302, Trans. S. Watts.

Forest fires are harrowing. They move at high speed, consuming everything in their paths. One minute they are miles away. The next, they are at your doorstep. Sometimes, when conditions are severe enough, two enormous fires can join together in a single conflagration, as happened in Arizona’s Rodeo-Chediski fire which burned over a half-million acres. But rather than burn themselves out, they only grow in ferocity. One can only pray for rain!

Right now, as I write this for next week’s Hump Day Wednesday devotion, we have a 25,000+ acre fire in Riodoso, NM. Evacuations are difficult because of so many ranchers and their livestock. Thankfully a Nazarene family camp is taking them all in—what a beautiful outreach in love!

In our society today, however it seems we love to talk about ‘fighting fire with fire’ as if it makes us stronger. Sadly, most of the time, such as in those great furnaces that burn through bush and forest and homes, this just amounts to a bigger fire in our lives and often, the person we want to burn goes unscathed and we are the ones who burn instead.

I love the way St. Augustine talks about anger and condemnation! Responding to evil with evil only magnifies what was already a terrible situation. It only causes more devastation. He it makes clear: we are not to fight fire with fire! — or fight evil with evil.

Read what the Apostle Paul teaches using the Message Bible in Romans 12: 17-19: Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

Paul goes on in this letter to remind us that only good can conquer evil: 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.

Jesus died for His enemies — He did not kill them. This may be a frustrating message when we feel wounded and hurt! Let’s face it, when we encounter injustice our first reaction is to lash out. After all, we want to make it right for us someone we know who is being hurt. But Paul says an emphatic NO. We must, instead, trust the way of our Savior—ooops!! 

Words and actions wound all of us, not just the one who has hurt us. In the end, we live with the words and deeds have done, even though we know we are forgiven. God forgives and forgets, but our conscience remembers, which I’ve often thought may be the Holy Spirit’s way of keeping us off the path of vengeance and retribution! I think of arguments I’ve had—and my way-too-often-ugly-retorts. That wound is with me—a good reminder to not do that again.

Anytime we fight fire with fire instead of seeking reconciliation the result will be a firefighter’s worse nightmare: scorched earth. You see, when the fires we addressed at the beginning of this devotion happen, the earth is so scorched a lot of it never comes back again, or if it does, it can take centuries. That is how deadly these fires are. Put that into the perspective of your words and actions of “fighting fire with fire” – and then ask God to redeem it all because that IS God’s most incredible job of grace, mercy and forgiveness that “puts out the fire” and redeems the ground for new growth and reconciliation.

Another idea that I want to do better at but alas—I forget, and that is to ask God to prepare my heart for the disagreements that are bound to come. Yes, prepare me for future stuff! The more I practice this the better my Irish temper stays at bay!

Friends and family—may you be the ones who heal as Jesus heals, not ones who wound. And may our loving Savior and Redeemer give you His patience and His grace—always, AMEN!