"See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men."
1 Thessalonians 5:15
This is something that I think is hard for all of us sometimes. We want to regress to the "eye for eye" level (Leviticus 24:20), but Christ asked us to move beyond the old law and to embrace the new one (Matthew 5:38-39). And that is super hard for us, because we want justice (at least when someone else is at fault), and it is hard to leave it up to the Lord. If someone slights us, we want to slight them back, and unfortunately we often get so emotionally involved in our thoughts of resentment and bitterness or plans for revenge that we poison our own peace.
I think the key to this one is seeing it from the other side... thinking back to times when *we* have been in the wrong, making horrible mistakes, saying and doing the wrong things, and just totally screwing up. And no matter what our excuse... youth, ignorance, stress, etc. we still have done things that were unjust or wrong to others. And maybe they wanted, or still want, justice... and isn't it *amazingly* good that God stands between all of us to accept the price of justice, and to then be able to be merciful to all of us, because we don't owe each other these debts anymore. We only owe God. He pays the price that we couldn't pay, and gives us a chance to change that we would never have if we were stuck with the consequences of all of our actions. (This doesn't of course mean that we get a free pass to treat each other like crap. Instead it means that if we treat people like crap it is exactly as though we treated Christ that way (Matthew 25:40, 45).
Today, let's work on not reacting to other people's bad behavior with our own, or justifying ours because of theirs. Let's choose a better way, and make sure we are clearly doing and being good, no matter what other people are choosing. Let's remember what God has done for us, and remember that our debts are to him, and so are the debts that others have incurred towards us. We all answer to God for all of it. Let's practice reacting to evil with good, because that is the way to build a better world, and a better self. :)
1 Thessalonians 5:15
This is something that I think is hard for all of us sometimes. We want to regress to the "eye for eye" level (Leviticus 24:20), but Christ asked us to move beyond the old law and to embrace the new one (Matthew 5:38-39). And that is super hard for us, because we want justice (at least when someone else is at fault), and it is hard to leave it up to the Lord. If someone slights us, we want to slight them back, and unfortunately we often get so emotionally involved in our thoughts of resentment and bitterness or plans for revenge that we poison our own peace.
I think the key to this one is seeing it from the other side... thinking back to times when *we* have been in the wrong, making horrible mistakes, saying and doing the wrong things, and just totally screwing up. And no matter what our excuse... youth, ignorance, stress, etc. we still have done things that were unjust or wrong to others. And maybe they wanted, or still want, justice... and isn't it *amazingly* good that God stands between all of us to accept the price of justice, and to then be able to be merciful to all of us, because we don't owe each other these debts anymore. We only owe God. He pays the price that we couldn't pay, and gives us a chance to change that we would never have if we were stuck with the consequences of all of our actions. (This doesn't of course mean that we get a free pass to treat each other like crap. Instead it means that if we treat people like crap it is exactly as though we treated Christ that way (Matthew 25:40, 45).
Today, let's work on not reacting to other people's bad behavior with our own, or justifying ours because of theirs. Let's choose a better way, and make sure we are clearly doing and being good, no matter what other people are choosing. Let's remember what God has done for us, and remember that our debts are to him, and so are the debts that others have incurred towards us. We all answer to God for all of it. Let's practice reacting to evil with good, because that is the way to build a better world, and a better self. :)
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