“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay says the Lord. 20. Therefore if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Of course, the answer to the title question is never. All of our human instincts are not bad, of course, but there are some instincts that we should not encourage. One of the main ones of these is the desire to take vengeance on people who mistreat or insult us in some way. Before you accuse me of self-righteousness, allow me to go ahead and confess that I have to battle this instinct just like you do. There is something about our competitive natures that makes it difficult for us to accept that we have been defeated in some way. “I’ll get you for that” is almost an automatic reflex, but one that the Bible forbids. Let’s take a look at the text from Romans 12:19-21 and see what it says to us about avenging ourselves. Paul wrote that rather than avenging ourselves, we should “give place to wrath.” The NIV translates this: “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.” Why would the Lord want to take vengeance? For one thing, He knows who is really right and who is really wrong in human relationships. We are not likely to be objective in our desire to take vengeance, and God might think that we are wrong. At this point, it might be a good idea when we feel vengeance coming on to count to 10. That’s not very spiritual advice, but it works for me. It is also true that God’s vengeance will be redemptive for that person, i.e., God will mean well for him or her and use that moment to teach them something. Whereas, we will just be “getting back” at them, which is really a waste of time, for they will probably want to get back at us, setting an endless cycle of vengeance. Paul actually gave better advice than mine about counting to ten. What he wrote was: “Therefore if your enemy hunger feed him; if he thirsts give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” That seems to be telling us that if we are nice to our enemies, it will really get back at them and we can feel vindicated. That’s not the way I see it. I think that when we return good to those who would consider themselves our enemies, they will be convicted of their mistreatment of us, and want to make it up to us. A word that is not used here, but understood, is “forgive.” When we forgive people and do nice things for them, we are doing what Jesus did when He went to the cross. Jesus could have called “12 legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53) to avenge His rough treatment by sinful humanity, but instead, Jesus forgave and subsequently died on the cross that all of those who crucified Him, and all others who trust in Him might be saved. Now, we come to what I consider the main point of this text. What we are supposed to do instead of taking vengeance is to “overcome evil with good.” In our human nature, we are likely to be “overcome with evil,” and Paul wrote: “Be not overcome of evil.” When we are angry and in a vengeful mood we are likely to be overcome with evil if we give in to our negative feelings. The devil will certainly pounce on a chance to get us to sin. When we have a real desire to get back at someone, it is not God who is encouraging us; it is the devil. That’s why we are told to feed a hungry enemy and give drink to a thirsty enemy. Also, Jesus told us how to handle this desire to get back at our enemies: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, and do good to them which hate you. Bless them which curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” This is how we overcome evil with good: Instead of surrendering to our baser instincts, we surrender to the Spirit of God, who will enable us to do good instead of evil. There might be someone at this time that you really want to get back at. Don’t entertain the idea. Think of something good that you can do for them and do it. You’ll feel better and you’ll be a better person for doing it. Really!!!!!! Bro. Joe FYI: Mary and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 1 at FBC Camilla, in the fellowship hall from 2:00-4:00 p.m.
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