Love Without Retaliation

We could think of our current affairs of the nation to see that this scripture is for today. How difficult is it to not speak out when something or someone comes against you.

 

Exodus 21:23; is there Matthew 5:38 is referring to. The law was Exodus however what Jesus was telling us that this is not true. This law was meant to place a limit, if a person had been wronged in one matter then that matter they would be punished with. One can’t take a tooth for an eye, etc. It was merely limits and instructions for how to punish a person under the law or court. The people took it completely out of context and felt that it gave them the right to act out these rules in retaliation. God has never been a god of retaliation. God is the only one that can cast vengeance.

 

In this scripture it doesn’t give a person to just lay down and take it. So if a person comes into your house to cause harm, one must protect the persons within. What the scripture is talking about is a direct attack not necessarily by physical force but by verbal. It takes a bigger man to love an enemy than to attack their enemy.

 

As children of God, we have the responsibility to stand against sin. So how do you fight against it? First one must stand, Ephesians 6:10. One must understand that the enemy likes to use Gods children to attack other children of God. The snare has been set and we must understand what the enemy wants to do and that’s to destroy the work of God and anything related to Him. So we must stand, what does this mean, 1 Thessalonians 5:15, Ephesians 4:27, James 4:7; If God has told us to stand against these things what does this mean? When we are done wrong we are not allowed to be vengeful or to retaliate. This doesn’t seem fair does it? Think about Christ, was it fair that He was sacrificed? No! We should have been the ones that were put to death not the innocent One. They mocked Him. They beat Him. 

 

Romans 12:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:15; the first temptation is for us to open our mouths and give it right back. This is the human nature and it is wrong. We lie if we say we have no problem with this one issue. We are not the judge and therefore should not be acting like it. How many have attacked someone back because they first attacked you? Was your excuse in acting this way, “they deserved it” or “they did it to me”? 

 

In this world we will be attacked. It’s because the lost in this world doesn’t understand what being a Christian means. They call the Christian narrow minded. When one responds like the lost then what’s the difference? If you act like the lost, what’s the difference? The Christian is NOT going to Heaven because they deserve it or they figured it out. 

 

2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Just because we walk in the flesh doesn’t mean we war in the flesh. The battle not a worldly, fleshly battle but a spiritual one. If one acts out with a fleshly attack then all that they are doing is pushing them further away. Christ defeated death by yielding to it and once He was there is defeated it. So what weapons do we have? Ephesians 6:12-13, once again we are not battling against flesh and blood. Our battle is with principalities, powers, rules of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness. 

 

Romans 12:21, one must fight the spiritual evil with good.