Defeating Evil

“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” - 1 John 5:4-5 
 
Over the last couple of days, we have discussed choosing obedience over sin. In simple terms, we’ve been talking about good over evil. A decision to obey God or disobey God really comes down to choosing good or evil.  

As human beings, we are all sinners. Romans 3:23 says, “Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God’s glory.” By nature, we are sinners. That is why, even though we have accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we still mess up and sin regularly.
 
So, if we have a sinful heart, and we are sinful by nature, how do we overcome sin? How do we defeat evil? 1 John 5:4-5 gives us the blueprint.  

In it, John says, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”  

Did you catch that? “For every child of God defeats this evil world.” As children of God, we have all we need to overcome sin and defeat this evil world. But HOW? The verse continues, “and we achieve this victory through our FAITH.”
 
It is through FAITH that we defeat evil. When we are sinning, we are not practicing faith because we are not choosing to trust that God’s ways are better than our ways. We are not believing that God has better in store for us. And we are not trusting that the consequences are far worse than the sin is good.

FAITH is the key to defeating evil. Do you want to overcome sin? Let your faith be stronger than your feelings. Trust that God’s Word is true, and He will honor your obedience. When you have faith, you can overcome the evilness of this world!