Good for Evil

In this post, I wrote that God never wants us to repay evil for evil. That's Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5:22: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

This passage is talking about returning evil for evil. It's about responding to another person in anger for what they have done without ensuring that our own motives are pure. It's about calling someone a name in return for something that they did to you. As I said in my previous post, we are all responsible for our actions regardless of the other person and regardless of the circumstances. Jesus is saying that we are accountable.

Still, checking our own motives and not repaying evil of evil is only the first part of the equation. Once we're sure that we have dealt with our own hearts, there's still the problem that evil was done to us. So how can we respond in a Godly way? Here are a few ideas of my own, but feel free to add more suggestions.

1) Return good for evil. This, I think, is God's primary response. He gave us Jesus in return for our sin. Romans 12:17-21 instructs us to not repay evil for evil. It then continues with a quote from Proverbs and says that we should feed our enemy if they are hungry or give them a drink if they are thirsty.

2) Deal with issue by speaking to the person directly as soon as possible. Matthew 5:21-24 tells us not to respond in anger. It then continues and instructs us to reconcile with the other person quickly, even if it means stopping what it is that we're currently doing.

3) That passage from Romans also tells us to "leave room" for God's judgement. God is the final judge. That means that we should not take matters into our own hands and seek revenge or our own brand of justice.

I've written for long enough, so maybe a few other people can add some other ideas and related comments. There are several more Godly ways to deal with someone that hurt us but I think I like the good for evil one best - it's so fun to do. I'll just add one final note: After all of this, the other person may not have done evil to you in the first place. If we seek too eagerly for justice, we may find that we are only ones standing in the mud in the end.