Evil for Evil
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil." Romans 12:17
Call someone a name because of something they did. Refuse to do a person a favour because of something they did. Gossip about a person. Grumble against a person. Enlicit sympathy from someone because of something someone else did. Refuse to do your chores because the other person didn't do theirs. Refuse to complete your part of a school assignment because the other person didn't do theirs. Take away something you gave to a person because of something they did. Break someone's trust in you because they broke your trust in them.
Don't do it. No matter what the reason, God will not allow you to return evil for evil. I've been there, done that. It's not easy to break a lifetime of habit. Yet no matter what the cause, if you return evil for an injustice of some kind than that is your sin.
People do hurt other people and that does need to be dealt with, but it has to be dealt with in a Godly way. None of the above examples are Godly ways. My next question will be, how do we deal with injustice in a Godly way? That is only the second of the two issues. You first have to deal with your own actions and then you can look at how to deal with the other person. If you have not examined and received God's help in cleansing your own heart, then anything you do or seek after that may not be in love - and everything should be done in love.
2 comments:
I liked the sentence "Take away something you gave to a person because of something they did". Often we judge people and choose to treat them a certain way (or not to treat them a certain way) because of their blatant evil. However, we're all evil, it just doesn't show in the same ways.
This sort of reminds me of something that I learned while taking a lifeguarding course. The lifesaving motto was:
Whosoever is in distress recognise in him a fellow man.
I have taken this motto and used it while thinking about patients I've cared for. We are all human no matter who we are and what we may have done.
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