Lesson for June 21, 2023
Principles for Christian Living
Lesson 7
Revenge vs. Forgiveness
Romans 12:17-21
Romans 12:17
“Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people.”
The Greek word for repay is “apodidomi,” which means to give back, to restore or to refund. Here it means to pay back in the sense of revenge. By paying back evil for evil you lower yourself to the standards of the other person and you abandon the Royal Family Honor Code. Revenge and retaliation are major violations of the Royal Family Honor Code. First, it causes positive or spiritually mature believers to abandon their own standards by violating the privacy of another believer’s priesthood. Secondly, it results in spiritually mature believers lowering their own standards to that of the other person.
To lower oneself to someone else’s standards by taking revenge is failure to trust the justice of God to do the job. This becomes a distraction to learning Bible doctrine, which hinders the possibility of believers advancing to spiritual maturity and keeps them from progressing in their spiritual lives. Furthermore, it brings down divine discipline on a believer who tries to seek revenge or to retaliate. But above all, retaliation and revenge are arrogance. It is a way of saying you can do a better job of righting wrongs than God can.
The Greek word for respect is “pronoeo,” which means respect for God’s authority and is part of the Royal Family Honor Code. The Greek word for right is “kalos,” which means honorable. What is right is to respect the authority of God and the honor code of the royal family.
Romans 12:18
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”
If possible, means that for your part, do everything you can to live in harmony with others. Living in harmony means that you have to be thoughtful of others, which takes using the doctrine you have learned. This means to live in harmony based on the principle of “live and let live.” And harmony means that you recognize the privacy of other people.
Romans 12:19
“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
When believers take personal retaliation, they are attempting to take the matter out of God’s hands. By leaving the matter in the Lord’s hands, perfect justice will be administered. The justice of God possesses all the facts and never makes an error in judgment. All wrongdoing demands the action of the justice of God rather than revenge or retaliation by imperfect human beings. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Romans 12:20
“But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”
Why are we told to feed our enemies? It doesn’t necessarily mean to feed them by giving them food or by supplying the means to get food. It’s a metaphor for having an attitude of grace and kindness toward your enemies, which causes them shame and humiliation for treating you badly.
Never reduce yourself to the level of what you dislike in others. Revenge and retaliation lower your norms and standards to the level of evil, pettiness, implacability, vindictiveness, etc. Grace demands that you leave all matters of hostility in the hands of God. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
If your enemy is thirsty, it would be easy to dismiss your responsibility to the honor code by simply turning around and walking away and pretending that you never heard the cry for help. However, this attitude is not in keeping with the Royal Family of God Honor Code. The justice of God will deal properly with hostility against you. By honoring God’s code of conduct of grace and kindness, yourenemies’ conscience may be stung, and they may be filled with shame and perhaps become more friendly.
Romans 12:21
“Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”
This verse emphasizes the fact that a believer who is positive toward doctrine and stays in fellowship with God will be able to conquer evil (Satan’s policies) and stay out of the devil’s trap (human viewpoint thinking). But a believer who is negative toward doctrine will be conquered by evil and will live their life based on the thinking of the devil’s world system. Human viewpoint thinking is completely and totally destructive to a believer’s spiritual life. Good is referring to divine good. Only a believer in fellowship with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and utilizing the accurate Bible doctrine in their soul can produce divine good and overcome the sin of being revengeful.
Forgiveness means that if someone wrongs us, then from the integrity and Bible doctrine in our souls, we are to forgive them, forgetting whatever was done against us, and not penalizing the person for it.In other words, we should forgive as God forgives.
Colossians 3:12-13, “So, as God’s own chosen people, who are holy [set apart, sanctified for His purpose] and well-beloved [by God Himself], put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience [which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper]; bearing graciously with one another, and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive.”