Key Points
- Romans 12:21 calls Christians not merely to resist wrongdoing but to respond to it with active goodness.
- Hurt can shape our future responses if disappointment turns into bitterness, revenge, or mistrust.
- Practical goodness often costs something, whether that means giving money, possessions, time, encouragement, or presence.
- God’s mercy frees Christians from needing to repay every wrong and allows us to use what is in our hands to bless others.
- Generosity can spread beyond the original situation, turning one person’s loss into an opportunity to encourage many others.
The year was 1990. I was 9 years old. Bo Jackson was on top of the sports world. And I had to have every Bo Jackson’s baseball and football card known to man. The crown jewel for me was his 1986 Topps Tiffany rookie card. The best I had was a 1987 Topps. The one that looked like a rookie card, but we all knew it wasn’t the real thing.
In preparation I did some work for grandma. I think killing flies for a nickel a piece. If you add the quarters I found in the couch, I’d racked up about $10 to take to the card show. That’s not Bo Jackson rookie card money. I traded a few cards and got my self up to $20.
And that’s when I found it. Pristine condition. Glossier than I’d ever seen one. It was my crown jewel. The Bo Jackson card. And what was absolutely insane, the guy only wanted $15 for it. My heart racing, I emptied my pockets. I couldn’t believe I’d scored this card.
When I showed it to my uncle, he was amazed that I got it for $15. Then we looked over the card more closely. In fine print on the bottom were printed these dastardly words—REPRINT. This wasn’t a legit card. I just had a card that looked like the card I wanted. And $15 less.
Something similar happened to young man a couple weeks ago.
What Happened at PokémonXP?
Eric Bahn and his son were at Pokémon XP in San Francisco when, according to Bahn, his son made a trade with an adult that went terribly wrong. He gave up his most valuable card, a PSA 9 Rayquaza VMAX #218 from the Evolving Skies set.
For some of you, I probably just spoke in tongues. I don’t know much about Pokémon either but I understand the pain of being on the bad end of a deal. Just know that this is a pretty valuable card that this kid traded for a card that turned out to not be quite what he thought he was getting.
Bahn posted about the experience on social media, frustrated that an adult had, in his view, taken advantage of his son. And that’s when the collecting community showed up big time.
Other Pokémon collectors offered graded cards, packs, and a few even went digging in their own collection to see if they had the Rayquaza his son had lost. They were giving up something of their own to help make things better for this kid.
There’s another wrinkle to the story too. The adult involved in the disputed trade, said the cards he traded weren’t cheap knockoffs. They were legit Indonesian Pokémon cards, he’d explained what they were, and the boy willingly negotiated the deal. But he also offered to reverse the trade. The two met again, the trade was undone, and the boy came back home with his original card.
Happy ending. But there was something beautiful happening here with the Pokémon community. It taught his son a valuable lesson that there are good people out there. Bahn decided that whatever gifts they’d received would be valued and matched with an equivalent donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Something bad happened. People stepped in. Things were made right. Then the generosity went forward to other kids that need some help and encouragement. It’s beautiful. And it reminds me of so much in Scripture.
What Does It Mean to Overcome Evil with Good?
Paul says in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” You might read that at first as if it’s just telling us not to let evil win. Don’t let bad stuff that happens to you turn you into a bad dude. That’s part of it, but there is so much more happening in this passage. There are tons of little imperatives about what it means to live with a renewed mind. It involves things like refusing revenge, seeking to live at peace, and helping the vulnerable.
That’s one of the things I like about this Pokémon story. The easiest response would have been outrage (and we saw plenty of that). The father had a fair amount of it too. But there were some collectors that started digging through their cards. That is, I think, what Paul has in mind with not becoming overcome by evil.
Evil has a way of wanting to write each chapter of our life. It likes to grab the pen and write the story of bad things happening to us. And then it likes to grab the pen out of our hand and write the story of our response. Somebody takes advantage of your generosity and then you decide generosity is for suckers. You get humiliated and then decide to return the favor. The original wrong, then, keeps spreading.
Evil doesn’t just hurt us. It can also start to shape us. But Paul is giving another option—we don’t have to hand the pen over and let evil write our response.
Why Does Real Goodness Usually Cost Us Something?
There’s another part of this story that I think we ought to focus on for a moment. These collectors didn’t just feel bad for the kid and offer him well wishes. They actually offered to do something tangible to make it right.
It’s easy to see stories online, shake your head, feel a bit better about yourself, leave an angry comment, and then just move on. We can feel like we’ve done something. But the reality is that restoration usually costs more than well wishes.
These collectors were willing to take personal loss. It might have been as minimal as a pack of cards. Or it might be something more substantial. The point is the same—they incurred loss to bless another.
That’ll preach!
The point here isn’t that we should go around restoring every loss. We really can’t do that. There are some valuable things that can’t be replaced. And there are some deep pains that will not be healed this side of glory. But when somebody is wronged, maybe we ought to look at our own “blessings” and see if they’ve been given to us to pass on to another.
Has God given you things to help absorb the loss of people around you? It might not even be financial. Maybe God has given you a profound sense of joy and peace. Can you pass that forward to someone who feels hopeless? Can you encourage someone who is woefully discouraged? Maybe you’ve been gifted with time and you can simply sit next to a person that has been mistreated.
Most of what we do to mitigate loss and push back darkness, isn’t going to be glamorous. It’s not going to make headlines. Local woman gives up afternoon to sit with fellow church member at hospital, isn’t going to get many articles written. But this is the stuff of the kingdom. We’re following Christ when we refuse to simply observe somebody else’s loss when we have the ability to move toward them.
How Can Generosity Keep Good Spreading?
The generosity didn’t just stop with this boy. His family is going to pass that forward to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. What an odd little chain of events that ends in something pretty cool. A bad trade happens. Others step in to bless instead of making loss the end of the story. The original card actually comes back. There is no an overflow of blessing that gets passed on to children who had absolutely nothing to do with this story in the first place. And who knows where that blessing will end up.
In this story something bad spread for just a moment. But then the good started spreading too. Isn’t that how God so often works?
How Does God’s Mercy Change What We Do with What We Have?
Romans 12 begins with Paul talking about the mercy we’ve received. That is the foundation for what he says about overcoming evil with good.
A few implications of that. First, Jesus didn’t overcome evil by pretending it wasn’t there. He entered into it. That means we don’t minimize how awful it is to rip off a kid for financial gain. (Though it seems less and less like that didn’t happen. We may also speak about the evil of publicly blasting someone and then not apologizing when you’ve harmed them, but that might be a different article). But we see that Jesus did not return evil for evil. Rather He gave Himself up for sinners like you and I. The mercy we receive in Christ is what loosens our grip on the right to get even.
Romans 12 certainly leaves room for justice—Paul says vengeance belongs to God. But there is freedom in knowing that I don’t have to make sure every ounce of pain gets returned to the person who caused it. I can do something else with my hands—I can bless.
What Can We Do When Someone Else Has Been Hurt?
This story is about more than replacing Pokémon cards. Most of us won’t be able to dig into our collection (you probably don’t have one) and replace a rare card. But we are going to encounter people all the time who have lost things. Sometimes it might be because of their own foolishness. And sometimes they’ve been taken advantage of.
We can feel bad for them and get angry about what happens. But perhaps we should go further. We can look around and see if there is something we can do. Can we help to minimize the loss? Can we give them hope?
That kid could have walked away from this whole experience learning one lesson: hold on to stuff for dear life and don’t trust people. Instead, a bunch of strangers gave him another lesson: help people when they’ve had loss.
That might be a good lesson for us too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Romans 12:21 mean by overcoming evil with good?
Romans 12:21 teaches Christians not to respond to wrongdoing with more wrongdoing. Instead, believers are called to resist revenge and respond with love, generosity, mercy, and actions that reflect Christ.
Does overcoming evil with good mean ignoring wrongdoing?
No. Romans 12 does not require Christians to pretend that harm is acceptable. It calls believers to pursue what is good without allowing vengeance or bitterness to control their response.
Why does Christian generosity sometimes require sacrifice?
Generosity often means giving something we could have kept for ourselves, including money, possessions, time, encouragement, or attention.
How can Christians help someone who has experienced loss?
Christians can look at what God has placed in their hands and consider whether they can offer practical help, encouragement, presence, resources, or hope.
How does God’s mercy affect the way Christians respond to being wronged?
Remembering the mercy Christians have received through Christ can loosen the desire for revenge and free believers to respond with grace and goodness instead.
For Further Reading
Photo Credit: CANVA/StockPlanets from Getty Images Signature
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is https://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.
Originally published October 14, 2026.
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