Romans 12:17

Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men.

Evil for evil ... The child of God may not set himself to "get even" with another, nor retaliate in kind against any who might slight or wrong him. The one who receives the Lord upon the inner throne of his life and yields to the Divine Will will return good for evil, bless them that curse, and do good to them that despitefully use him. Such reaction to evil is the grand strategy of God who will overcome evil with good; and the announcement of that strategy, to be made at the end of the chapter, had been in Paul's mind throughout the enumeration of the admonitions listed here.

This has no reference at all to the duty of a magistrate commissioned under the law to render the required penalty against an evil doer as the just recompense of a crime. Murray stated that

Misunderstanding of these admonitions arises from a failure to see that they are concerned with our private, individual, personal relations lo one another and not with magisterial and judicial administration. It is noteworthy that the apostle proceeds immediately after these admonitions to deal with the prerogatives and functions of the magistrate and therefore with the judicial, and penal institution. To the magistrate is given the power of the sword to avenge the evil-doer (Romans 13:4). If he avenges wrongdoing he inflicts the evil of penalty.[16]

Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men ... is a restriction of Christian conduct to exclude anything held to be disreputable, dishonorable, reprehensible, or detestable by human opinion in society as a whole, or as officially expressed through the regulations imposed by government. All illegal activity is forbidden, being here condemned and proscribed, whether or not the law may be based upon absolute truth, the mere fact of a thing's being illegal under the laws of the state being sufficient disqualification to deny it as permissible for a Christian. Gambling, for example, will never be permissible for any Christian, as long as it is illegal in fifty states. It is not honorable in the sight of all the police establishments in North America. Further, churches which stoop to finance their activities by gambling, even if legally permitted, fall under the judgment of this apostolic ban, because, despite the legal exemption sometimes grafted churches, vast numbers of enlightened people still consider it evil. Things that are tainted in the popular view of society as a whole are not for Christians, regardless of the specious logic which would deny this.

Murray is correct in underscoring this verse as an additional principle of Christian behavior, thus:

For the first time in this chapter, this type of consideration appears, namely, the need for maintaining a deportment that approves itself to men. The close parallel, "We take thought for things honorable not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men" (2 Corinthians 8:21), points up this consideration.[17]

Such a decent respect to the opinions of mankind was frequently noted by Paul, who commended himself to "every conscience of men" (2 Corinthians 4:2), and who required that a Christian elder "must have a good report of those who are without" (1 Timothy 3:7).

[16] John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), Vol. II, p. 137.

[17] Ibid., p. 138.