PART 2: WHAT WOULD GOD HAVE ME DO IN RESPONSE?

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. – Romans 12:19 (NIV)

“I’ll take ‘God’s Responses’ for 500, Alex!” I chimed. “With respect to revenge, this popular passage of the Bible gets quoted when retaliation is a reactive response of man but not an option of God’s,” the suave game-show host expounds. DING! “What is ‘Romans 12:19’?” When it comes to revenge, the blunt of our pain is not a game. Our hurts are genuine; our wounds run deep. But when we choose to take matters into our own hands when wronged, we are in jeopardy of sinning. We need to ask ourselves a tough question. What would God have us do in response to an insult or offense? You may be quite surprised by His answer.

When God’s Son came on the redemptive scene, His approach was quite radical even for the religious leaders of the day. Jewish laws seemed to run counter to Jesus’ teachings. Where it was prohibited to perform any meaningful function on the Sabbath, for example, Jesus’ disciples partook of grain from a field and a man’s hand was healed. From the religious leaders’ standpoint, such actions were considered a direct violation of what they held dear and deemed punishable.

This evidence is most crucial in laying the responsive foundation for the offenses done to us. When Jesus delivered His teachings in Matthew 5, His topics of discussion helped followers to better understand the laws of the day in a new way. Often such laws were misapplied and in danger of becoming a laundry list of rules and regulations devoid of true mercy, justice and redemption. In essence, “vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay” could be misconstrued as God’s wrath solely annihilating our offenders, but leaving no room for repentance. And like Jonah, we can become embittered over our offenders being left unpunished for his or her grievous offense. Our response is not “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” but rather harbor anger and bitterness. In doing so, we believe our actions justified because of how cavernous our offense. And by allowing the transgression to pervade our thoughts and actions, we have given our resentments a private cell in which to dwell.

“But wait a minute! I’m the one wronged here.” That may be true, but if our response is to take matters into our own hands, where does that leave God? He implores us to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us” (Ephesians 4:31, 32). Yes, vengeance is God’s, but our response should be to place the matter solely in God’s hands, to pray for our enemies and to forgive as God forgave us in Christ. These steps are never easy, but they are necessary if we want to live a life of freedom.

If forgiveness is a foreign concept, join me next week as we tackle this often painful issue.

Next week – Part 3: How Do I Forgive?