ACC ~ Romans 12 v21

HOW EVIL GROWS. ORIGEN: It is the nature of evil to increase and grow by similar acts, rather like adding fire to fire. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

OVERCOMING EVIL WITH GOOD. AMBROSIASTER: It will do us much good if we refrain from evil. The person who appears to be overcome by evil for a time in fact may be overcoming evil, just as the Savior overcame evil by not resisting it. Evil works against itself, and when it is overcome it thinks that it has won! Our enemy acts in such a way as to divert us from our purpose, looking for an opportunity to make us sin. Therefore if we are provoked by him and do not reply in kind, we overcome him with good. Therefore we do not resist, in order to serve the good by ignoring the demands of justice for retribution. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

DO NOT BE OVERCOME BY EVIL. CHRYSOSTOM: After giving the wronged person what he wants, Paul goes on to give him advice of a higher tone, telling him not to be overcome with evil. For he knew that even if the enemy was a brute he would not go on being an enemy once he was fed. … To overcome evil with good is true victory. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 22.

INTERIOR FREEDOM. AUGUSTINE: The evil man who is overcome by good is set free, not from an exterior, foreign evil but from an interior, personal one, by which he is more grievously and ruinously laid waste than he would be by the inhumanity of any enemy from without. LETTER 138.

THEODORET OF CYR: Revenge is mean-spirited. True victory is returning good for evil. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.