"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." -Romans 12:19
How many Hollywood movies can you think of that promote revenge as anacceptable behavior? From the verse above, once again, we can see that the world is at odds with the Word of God, i.e. God's will for the believer.
How about in our own lives . . . do we often seek revenge for an insult, an offense, or someone else's bad behavior? I know in my own life for example, when my neighbors constantly flood my house with their pollution, or are excessively noisy, I seriously want to take action against them. Of course I am allowed to speak to them and share my concerns but what happens when they do not listen? The Word of God teaches me not to take vengeance, but rather let God deal with these people because according to the Word of God, "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (James 1:20).
My comfort is that there will come a day when God will sort all of these things out. The book of Revelation assures us of this. Those people in Hollywood who promote revenge as an acceptable social behavior through their movies; those people who are rude to us; those people who treat us "unfairly" will all stand before God and give an account for their behavior. This is much more terrible than we could possibly imagine, and frankly it should move us to more compassion to tolerate, understand, and warn these people.
There is nothing wrong with getting angry about evil people and evil deeds mind you. The Lord tells us, "Be ye angry, and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26); but when all peaceful options have failed, my part is to wait on the Lord to deal with these people. Of course I can address the issues to the person directly, but acts of vengeance are forbidden in God's plan. David gave us an excellent example in the Psalms. Read through the Psalms and you will see how David did not avenge himself on those who treated him harshly, but committed his prayers unto God. He presented his case before merciful God and pleaded with Him to deal with those that treated him coarsely.
May the Lord grant us the grace to NOT repay evil for evil when we suffer for others' ill-behavior: "See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men" (1Thessalonians 5:15); especially our brethren in the Lord: "especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:10).
Meditations from Scripture, JFS
No comments:
Post a Comment