Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:19-21
Actions will be unkind. Words will be unpleasant. Treatment will be unfair. Neglect will be unnoticed. Results will be unjust. People will be unloving. There will be things said and left unsaid, things done and left undone, which bruise and break our hearts and spirits. People. Will. Sin. Against. Us. It’s never a matter of will it happen, but when it will happen. It’s never a matter of will it hurt, but how much it will hurt. The question is: what will we do about it? The normal response is to burn with vengeance inside. The natural reaction is to bring on vengeance outside. When someone wrongs us, we often desire to make things right by making them pay for their wrongdoing, or at least we wish we could. But Jesus modeled a different way of handling the wrongs of others. The way of love. The way of forgiveness. The way of kindness. The way of good. The way of grace. Jesus knows what it is like to be beat down, mocked, betrayed, abandoned, lied about, crucified. He pressed on during the most difficult times anyone has ever faced, and this was His staggering kindness to sinners like you and me, overcoming our evil with His good on the cross. We. Have. Sinned. Against. God. And Jesus paid our debt. As a result, our role is not to mete out justice; our role is to model His grace. Conquering evil with evil would be to allow evil to conquer us, but we are commanded to release our instinct for revenge to let God judge, punish and make all things right in His timing and in His way. God will repay, either by accepting the payment made by Jesus on the cross should they repent and receive His grace, or by making them pay in hell if they do not. Therefore, let us overcome evil with good and leave it to God to do the work He means to do. We who have received grace should be the quickest to extend it.
